Thrill of victory as Bay FC wins their home opener against Racing Louisville at Pay Pal Park in San Jose on Sat Mar 22, 2025 (Bay FC X photo)

By William Espy

SAN JOSE–Bay FC hosted their home opener against Racing Louisville on Saturday night in front of a packed crowd at PayPal Park. The Bay Area’s newest soccer team was looking to build on their performance from their inaugural season, when they were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round following an own goal in extra time. Bay impressed big in their home opener match against the Racing with a 2-0 shutout.

Bay FC Starting XI: Silkowitz, Malonson, Dahlkemper, Anderson, Dydasco, Huff, Pickett, Bailey, Kundananji, Conti, Lema

Louisville Starting XI: Lund, Millet, Wright, Hase, Petersen, DeMelo, Borges, Sonis, Flint, Fischer, Sears

Kiki Pickett was shown a yellow card in just the second minute of the match. On the ensuing attack, Louisville had a solid scoring chance but it went just over the crossbar and landed on top of the net. Rachael Kundananji was taken down in a collision at midfield, but after a momentary delay got up and remained in the game.

Moments later, Bay FC got the first corner opportunity of the night, which Taylor Huff took. While nothing came of that chance, that wouldn’t be the case in the 12th minute when Huff stood over the ball for a free kick, the ball found its way to newly converted center back Joelle Anderson, who put the ball past Katie Lund into the back of the netting for a 1-0 Bay lead.

Kayla Fischer had Louisville’s strongest scoring chance to that point of the night in the 26th minute, but once again the shot went too high. In the 34th minute, Dorian Bailey tried to pick a corner on an ambitious shot that nearly went in but was just too high.

There was a long delay a few moments later, as Savannah DeMelo went down and had to be stretchered off the field. She was responsive and shook her teammates’ hands as she exited the field.

Bailey was shown a yellow card in the 45th minute. Late in stoppage time, Karlie Lema and Kundananji found themselves with only a single defender between them and the goal. Despite the easy play of getting the ball up to Kundananji, Lema showed outstanding levels of confidence for a rookie, firing off a rocket of a shot and extending Bay FC’s lead to 2-0. Not long later, Huff and Ary Borges collided, resulting in Huff being shown a yellow card.

At half-time, Bay led 2-0. Head coach Albertin Montoya opted not to make any changes heading into the second half, despite his team having three yellow cards already. Louisville waited until the 61st minute to make any changes, taking off Borges and Janine Sonis for Katie O’Kane and Sarah Weber. In the 63rd minute, Huff and Taylor Flint’s heads collided. Huff was fine, however Flint did get looked at by the trainer before remaining in the game.

Hannah Bebar came in during the 74th minute, making her NWSL debut, alongside Penelope Hocking, taking the place of Caroline Conti and Bailey. In the 90th minute, Huff nearly scored her first career goal as well, hitting the post.

Ultimately time would expire, and Bay FC would walk away with their first win of the season, 2-0.