Reign’s road woes continue with 4-0 loss at Portland

PORTLAND — History was made Saturday. It just wasn’t in the Seattle Reign’s favor.

For the first time in the Cascadia derby, a teenager netted a goal. The shot kicked off a bundle of scores that resulted in the Portland Thorns FC defeating Seattle 4-0 at Providence Park.

The Reign are winless in six road games, a low to open a season. With the win, the Thorns (5-3-1) are a riding a club-best five-game winning streak.

There’s no debate where the Reign lost the match. It was in the 75th minute when referee Abdou Ndiaye stopped play to review a handball caught by VAR.

According to the Reign, the incident in the box shouldn’t have been flagged because the ball was deflected off defender Sofia Huerta’s leg and then her forearm. After five minutes analyzing replays, Ndiaye showed Huerta a yellow card and awarded the penalty to Portland.

Thorns striker Sophia Smith easily buried the shot in the 80^th minute for her NWSL-leading eighth goal of the season.

“The game got stripped away from us,” Reign coach Laura Harvey said. The group entered the match aiming to notch her 100th NWSL regular-season win.

Seattle was visibly shaken from the decision. Huerta and Jess Fishlock also had long talks with Ndiaye well after the decision was made. The fourth official signaled 13 minutes of stoppage time, which made the match worse.

“I for sure want to know what the penalty rule is,” Fishlock said afterward. “Up until that moment, we were super comfortable with what we were doing … but stopped doing the game plan and all hell broke loose. We have to look at ourselves as players and figure out why that was and why did that happen.”

It was actually Smith that broke loose on counterattacks. She orchestrated two beautiful sequences where she batted the ball from deep in the box to Hina Sugita (93^rd minute) and Payton Linnehan (98^th) for finishes that got a majority of the 20,229 in attendance rocking.

Ndiaye’s final whistle was the only thing that stopped Smith.

“We had time,” Harvey said of her words to regroup her players. “We tried to make changes that really didn’t help us. Often when we make changes off the bench it impacts us in positive ways.”

Aside from 80-degree temperature and a lingering sunset, the 39th derby started as expected. The rivals were physical and had solid looks at goal.

A long goal kick from Portland keeper Shelby Hogan set up the opening score. The ball deflected off Reign players in a crowded midfield, eventually finding its way to forward Smith’s feet. The U.S. international dribbled deep into the box and cut a pass back to a trailing Olivia Moultrie for the goal in the 42^nd minute — what proved to be foreshadowing for Smith’s assists in the second half.

Moultrie, 18, is the first teenager to score in the derby’s history.

“That was really disappointing,” Harvey said. “It was just a long ball in the air that we didn’t defend well enough … but goals change games.”

The Reign immediately pushed for the equalizer. And it was a stunning save by Hogan that denied the chance.

Seattle midfielder Ji So-yun sent service into the box off a free kick, Fishlock aiming a header at goal. Hogan used a towering left-handed save to tip the shot away from the net but directly to Reign forward Bethany Balcer’s head.

Thorns defender Kelli Hubly had the block on the line in the 48^th minute to keep the Reign off the board.

Harvey gathered her team for their normal postgame huddle on the field. Saturday’s was a little more animated and lasted a little longer.

The Reign (2-6-1) are off to their worst start in club history. The NWSL schedule is unrelenting. The Thorns match was the last in a three-game week and up next is Orlando on May 19 at Lumen Field. The Pride (6-0-3) are atop the table for the 14-team league.

“We have to stay bought in,” Reign defender Lu Barnes said. “We talked about it after the game and have been talking about it. It’s been a rough start to the season in general. We need to stick to the game plan and keep believing in each other and keep moving forward. … This league is wild. You can turn it around just as fast as you can go down. We need to make sure we keep that in the back of our minds.”