Louisville City FC on Saturday completed a successful dress rehearsal for the USL Championship Playoffs, defeating Phoenix Rising FC by a 4-1 score at Lynn Family Stadium.
LouCity rallied from an early deficit to make the regular season finale its 24th win, matching the single-season league record originally set in 2022 by San Antonio FC. Wilson Harris registered a first half brace before Ray Serrano and Phillip Goodrum tacked onto the lead.
Other results across the USL Championship also set up City’s playoff opener. The No. 1 overall boys in purple will host eighth-seeded North Carolina FC at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday in an Eastern Conference Quarterfinal.
“I thought it was actually a very good game for us to have to play going into the playoffs,” said coach Danny Cruz. “As I’ve said numerous times this year, I was really proud of the response once we went down a goal. And I thought we were all over them in the first seven minutes before they hit us in transition.
“At the end of the day, again, four goals at home — we stuck to the game plan. We knew they wanted the ball, and that was fine with us because we felt it was going to leave them vulnerable going the other way. I thought it played out that way.”
Seconds after LouCity nearly scored on an early corner kick, Phoenix caught the home side in transition with Jearl Margaritha scoring off a pass from Edgardo Rito. But it was all City from there.
The boys in purple attempted 24 shots — 18 of them in the box — and racked up an expected goals total of 2.78. They finished with 86 goals scored on the season, a club record, while winning a league-record 16 of 17 games at Lynn Family Stadium.
To boot, LouCity improved to 5-1 in games when opponents score first at home. Its 23 points recovered from losing positions lead the USL Championship.
“When we’re at home, I feel really confident in the team that we’re going to get chances,” Harris said. “You see the game open up eventually. We’re very dangerous in transition here, and it takes time to open up. It showed today.”
Harris’ first goal was flashy, as he settled a 24th-minute Kyle Adams cross with one touch, then turned and scored with another. Four minutes later, Harris gave LouCity the lead when heading in service from Adrien Perez.
Adams assisted another goal in the 66th minute when playing a long ball over the top that Ray Serrano chipped over Phoenix’s goalkeeper. A minute into stoppage time, Phillip Goodrum headed home an exclamation point from a Jake Morris corner to the back post.
“Of course, we always want to have answers,” Adams said, “but I don’t think we want to be giving up goals, especially in the playoffs. We’ve preached all season about having clean sheets. At home, with the way the fans are, getting an early goal, especially earlier in the season, we punished teams.
“So I think going into the playoffs, if we can keep it tight early, get that goal early and get the fans involved, that’s the recipe for us.”
LouCity-North Carolina tickets are available now by visiting LouCity.com/playoffs. Next weekend’s game will air locally on WBKI/The CW and ESPN Louisville’s AM 680/FM 105.7 with national streaming coverage on ESPN+.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. Phoenix Rising FC
Date: October 26, 2024
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET
Weather: 60 degrees, clear
Attendance: 10,187
Scoring
Louisville City FC (2, 2, 4)
Phoenix Rising FC (1, 0, 1)
Goals
Louisville City FC:
24’ Wilson Harris (Kyle Adams)
28’ Wilson Harris (Adrien Perez)
66’ Ray Serrano (Kyle Adams)
90’+1 Phillip Goodrum (Jake Morris)
Phoenix Rising FC:
8’ Jearl Margaritha (Edgardo Rito)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 18 – Damian Las, 3 – Jake Morris, 32 – Kyle Adams, 6 – Wes Charpie, 4 – Sean Totsch, 2 – Aiden McFadden (76’ 15 – Manny Perez), 17 – Taylor Davila (86’ 11 – Niall McCabe), 23 – Elijah Wynder, 7 – Ray Serrano (86’ 20 – Sam Gleadle), 14 – Wilson Harris (76’ 9 – Phillip Goodrum), 16 – Adrien Perez (69’ 25 – Jansen Wilson)
Subs not used: 12 – Danny Faundez, 13 – Amadou Dia, 80 – Hayden Stamps
Head coach: Danny Cruz
Phoenix Rising FC: 1 — Rocco Rios Novo, 14 — Emil Cuello, 30 — Alejandro Fuenmayor, 5 — Mohamed Traore, 27 — Laurence Wyke (79’ 17 — JP Scearce), 26 — Renzo Zambrano, 72 — Edgardo Rito, 10 — Federico Varela, 12 — Charlie Dennis (79’ 8 — Jose Hernandez), 71— Jearl Margaritha, 9 — Tomas Angel (46’ 91 — Remi Cabral)
Subs not used: 7 — Damien Barker John, 22 — Patrick Rakovsky, 29 — Dariusz Formella, 38 — Darius Johnson
Head coach: Diego Gomez
Stats Summary: Louisville City FC / Phoenix Rising FC
Shots: 24 / 9
Shots on Goal: 5 / 3
Possession: 32.4% / 67.6%
Fouls: 13 / 7
Offside: 4 / 1
Corner Kicks: 6 / 1
Discipline Summary
Phoenix Rising FC:
82’ Alejandro Fuenmayor (yellow)
Referee: Jeremy Scheer
