With the big amateur leagues back in the swing of things, we’re bringing back our 3+1 series. Each week we’ll recap 3 of the best matches from the previous week, then preview 1 of the upcoming week’s matches. Hence the name, 3+1. The W League is getting rolling and we had a full slate of matches in week 1.

Review

Flint City 0 - 1 Detroit City FC

Big matchup for the opening match of the season for both clubs. Flint City won the Great Lakes Division in 2023 and was looking to repeat this year, but Detroit City has different plans. After a scoreless first half, Emily Pagett would get the opener and the winner on the same shot. In the 59th minute, a beautiful daisy-cutter of a cross came into the box and Pagett one-timed it past the keeper and buried it in the corner of the goal. Detroit City would hold onto that scoreline for the rest of the match and take 3 points on the road in a tightly-contested division. Big win for Le Rouge.

Emily Pagett with the one timer to make it 1-0 for Le Rouge! pic.twitter.com/Zip57dzEXg
— Detroit City FC (@DetroitCityFC) May 12, 2024

Lexington 4 - 0 St. Charles

Couldn’t have asked for a better opener than Lexington Sporting Club had on Friday. The second-year club came out with all cylinders firing and ran visiting St. Charles off the field. It was an impressive showing for the 2023 3rd-place finishing club and has fans wondering if this is the year. Katelyn Fishnick scored the first two goals of the match. The forward also plays for the University of Kentucky and is currently a Junior. Mia Bookhard (also a UK Wildcat) and Autumn Weeks (Louisville Cardinal) also scored in the first half of the match, making this a runaway contest before the halftime whistle was blown. Lexington looks good and will look to repeat this performance at St. Charles in their next match in the back-to-back pairing.

Oakland Soul 7 - 0 Olympic Club

After seeing Soul draw at Stockton Cargo while Olympic Club got a 2-1 win at Academica, we wondered if this season would be a big shakeup from the previous. Was Olympic about to make the jump up the table and challenge the front runners? Was Oakland going to take a step back (or had Stockton made a big jump) and come back to the crowd in the middle of the Nor Cal standings? We may have an answer.

Shae Murison led a large group of Soul players who spent Sunday pumping shots into the net for Oakland, in route to a massive 7-0 statement win over Olympic Club. Murison, who subbed out just after halftime, made good use of her playing time, scoring twice for Oakland, including the opener. Samantha Tran, Arianna Veland, Maneka Hayashi, Jordan Geis, and Sydney Shephard also scored for Soul in a dominant performance in their home opener. The win came in front of a great sold out crowd at Merritt College. Soul have a by week before facing Marin Sirens on the 23rd and then a big-time clash with Cal Storm on the 25th.

Preview

Greenville Liberty SC vs Birmingham Legion FC

Greenville kicked off its season with a big 3-0 win over Asheville City. Three different players scored goal for Liberty. After a midweek match on the road against Southern Soccer Academy, GLSC will return home to face Birmingham Legion who are kicking off their 2023 campaign on the road. BLFC will be looking to steal points on the road. One thing of note, for a team launching a women’s side, Legion have done nothing to promote the team on social media. Little disappointing.

- Dan Vaughn