The Portland Thorns FC Academy welcomed one of the club’s alliance teams, California Thorns FC, to the Rose City for matches on Oct. 28 at 53rd Street Community Sports Park. The Thorns U-19 Academy honored their high school seniors, while the U-17s extended their unbeaten run.
The Thorns U-19s (2-2-1, 7pts) were handed just their second loss of the season in a 3-1 defeat to the California Thorns on Senior Day. Trailing by a goal at halftime, Thorns U-19s forward Ellie Busik leveled the score, 1-1, in the 65th minute. The California side scored twice more with less than 20 minutes to play to snap the Thorns U-19s’ run of consecutive wins at two.
On Senior Day, the team recognized its five high school seniors – Carlie Bateman, Phoebe Bunn, Emily Collier, Brooklyn James and Madison Serafini.
With four first half goals, the Thorns U-17 Academy defeated the California Thorns, 4-2, to earn a third straight win and extend the team’s unbeaten streak to four games. Ava Benedetti (pictured above) and Rylee Pierce scored in the 14th and 15th minutes, respectively, to open the scoring. Jacqueline Blakeley tallied her third goal of the season in the 27th minute, and Paige Alexander scored her team-leading sixth goal on the campaign just before halftime.
With a record of 3-1-1 (10pts), the Thorns U-17s sit in third place in the Northwest Division.
The Thorns U-15 and U-14 Academy teams were each handed a 3-0 defeat by their counterparts from California Thorns FC.
