Legacy score late to defeat Denver for first win in team history

FOXBOROUGH — The Denver Summit started its inaugural season with a run, leaving Boston Legacy FC just a few steps behind. On Sunday, Boston caught up.

Aisha Traoré scored just before the start of second-half stoppage time and Bianca St. George scored four minutes later, giving the Legacy its first win of its inaugural season, 3-2, over Denver in front of 12,524 fans at Gillette Stadium.

The Summit took an early lead before Nichelle Prince tied the game at one score before halftime. Natasha Flint restored Denver’s lead in the 77th minute, but Traoré – who came on as a substitute in the 71st – found the equalizer in the final minute of regulation and St. George scored the winner.

Announce as 15th NFL club in 2023Legacy had a runway about two years longer than Summit, which it was officially announced as sixteenth In January 2025, it was launched this year.

The two expansion teams entered Sunday in vastly different positions. Summit (1-3-3, 6 points) came in twelfth place, four places behind Boston (1-5-1, 4 points) at the bottom of the table.

Both teams made headlines with their home opener. The Legacy’s opening game is March 14 It attracted 30,207 fans to Gillette Stadiuma record for an NWSL home opener until Denver more than doubled that number 63,004 at Empower Field at Mile High After two weeks.

The Legacy has been performing promisingly so far, 2-2 draw with North Carolina on Wednesday as they scored twice in the first half before throwing away a late lead.

Boston controlled the pace Saturday for most of the first half, recording five shots on goal to Denver’s one, and was inches away from three early goals — one shot that bounced off the post, one off the crossbar, and one that was blocked by a defender on the goal line.

Despite Boston’s offensive pressure, Denver scored the first goal in the 18th minute. Yazmeen Ryan beat St-Georges one-on-one outside the 18-yard box and slotted a shot into the net. Legacy goalie Casey Murphy got the ball on her fingertips, but shot it just inside the post as Summit took a 1-0 lead.

Prince tied the score just before halftime by heading in a rebound from an Alba Canio corner kick in the 44th minute. The goal was Prince’s first for Legacy, though she assisted on both of Boston’s goals on Wednesday — the first player in NFL history to record two assists in the first 15 minutes of a game.

Denver’s chances in the second half were few and far between, but Flint took advantage of a rare chance inside the box to beat Murphy and take a 2-1 lead in the 77th minute.

Traoré’s second goal of the season tied the game at 2. The Malian forward received a pass in the box and fired a shot around Denver’s Eva Gaiteno in the final minute of regulation.