After surging to a 6-0 victory over visiting Morris Elite SC Sunday at Mountain View Middle School, the Eagle FC raised the USL W League’s Eastern Conference trophy, dumped a jug of water onto head coach Toan Ngo’s shoulders and broke out in several chants of “Ole … ole, ole ole …” to celebrate the program’s historic moment.
And then, with the bleachers empty and the scoreboard dark and the sun setting behind the visitors’ bench, the players huddled and shouted one final word to punctuate their celebration on the pitch.
The refrain reflected the style of play that spurred Eagle FC (13-1-0) to Sunday’s triumph. Authoring on-point passes and swarming to second chances, the club took a 1-0 lead seconds before halftime and broke the game open with a barrage of offense on the other side of the intermission. On top of an Eastern Conference title, the win sends Eagle FC to the pre-professional league’s national semifinals with a matchup against NC Courage scheduled for Friday at a site and time to be determined.
“We played our game,” Ngo said. “Our biggest focus today was just to be us, know what we want to do, play our speed, set the tone, set the expectation. And they came out, and they played one-two-touch soccer. We played together, and they deserve this.”
Eagle FC, which joined the league ahead of its inaugural 2022 season, features a core of players with roots in central Pennsylvania, including captains Meg Tate (a Carlisle and Dickinson graduate) and Cashlin Copley (Manheim Township), and Justyce Hollenbach (Lower Dauphin), who punctuated the scoring Sunday with a screaming shot into the upper-right corner in the 87th minute.
Nia Christopher also scored twice in the second-half surge to go along with a pair of assists. Melina Descary and Tate accounted for the other second-half goals against Morris Elite SC (11-2-1), which won the Metropolitan Division and allowed five goals in the regular season.
“We just had to figure out how to break them,” Ngo said. “I think by us playing faster and being able to swing the ball a little bit quicker allowed us to transition and leverage our speed on our wings, which has been our bread and butter, and we finished the opportunities we were given.”
La Salle University’s Courtney Butlion, a Bunbury, Australia native and who played for the U18 Australian National Team and led Florida State College to the 2021 NJCAA national championship, opened the scoring for Eagle FC in the waning seconds of the first half. Copley flagged down a Morris clearing attempt and sent a ball toward the goal mouth, where Christopher tapped a centering pass to Butlion for the finish.
“It’s the reason I play, to be honest,” Butlion said. “It’s that feeling that everyone is all together, and it just feels like when you score, you’re doing it with a bunch of sisters. There’s no better feeling in the world.”
The momentum forced the proverbial floodgates open in the early stages of the second half. The first 10 minutes saw Descary – a transfer to South Alabama after stints at Florida State and the Canadian National Team camp – and Tate cash in on second-chance opportunities generated by Christopher, a Towson standout and Bermuda National Team member.
“We were just making sure we followed the shots,” Christopher said, “made sure we got players in the box to be able to finish and took our chances when we got them.”
Christopher scored her first goal in the 63rd minute when Descary set up the chance on a carom from a Butlion corner kick and completed the brace in the 75th minute off a feed from Hollenbach.
Goalkeepers Sydney Davis (Bridgewater) and Hayes Coen Leah (High Point) combined to make five saves for the shutout.
“We’ve seen a lot of teams,” Ngo said, “and they have a lot of individual talent, but this group has it. They have the individual drive, but they’re willing to play unselfish soccer to see the success of the team. This trophy’s great, but we want the national title.”