{"id":404010,"date":"2026-07-19T01:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T01:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404010\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T01:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T01:45:14","slug":"karlie-lema-scores-two-goals-as-bay-fc-thrashes-north-carolina-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404010\/","title":{"rendered":"Karlie Lema scores two goals as Bay FC thrashes North Carolina Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 The World Cup break<\/a> has been good to Bay FC.<\/a><\/p>\n

After taking about a month off for the FIFA men\u2019s tournament played across North America, Bay FC<\/a> has returned to the pitch with back-to-back wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A week after returning to action with a road win over Utah, Bay FC thrashed the North Carolina Courage 3-0 on Saturday at PayPal Park, getting two early goals from Karlie Lema and a second-half score from Racheal Kundananji to seal the deal.<\/p>\n

It was Bay FC\u2019s first home game since a 1-0 loss to the Chicago Stars on May 24.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC’s Karlie Lema (5) congratulates teammate Racheal Kundananji (9) after she scored a goal against the North Carolina Courage during the second half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. Bay FC defeated North Carolina 3-0. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lema\u2019s two-goal effort was Bay FC\u2019s first multi-score game since Kundananji bagged a pair of goals in Bay FC\u2019s win over Houston that concluded its inaugural regular season in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the locker room, we said we have a different type of energy today, and we knew we were going to go out there and kill it,\u201d Lema said. \u201cSo once we got on the field and hit the post and then had different chances, we knew we were going to get a few in the back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goals were ripe for the plucking all afternoon. Lema hit the right post with a shot in the sixth minute and was off to the races from there. The Morgan Hill native got her first score off an extended dribbling sequence and then a rebounded shot in the 15th minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then in the 17th, North Carolina\u2019s back line continued to struggle as Alex Pfeiffer received a through ball with a ton of space on the right side, then hit Lema with a perfect centering pass for a tap-in right in front of the goal mouth.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC\u2019s Alex Pfeiffer (17) is fouled by North Carolina Courage\u2019s Feli Rauch (11) during the first half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kundananji\u2019s goal came in the 54th minute as a poor pass from the North Carolina back line found the way to her feet. And she made no mistake with it, taking a few quick touches and then clinically slotting home the third past Courage goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the field, goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz saved a few close calls to finish off her seventh career shutout, setting a new club record. She finished with five saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into the season, Emma (Coates) and the staff have been so great at setting a foundation,\u201d Silkowitz said. \u201cAnd with change comes a little bit of growing pains, and everyone kind of witnessed that and felt that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s starting to see the picture, starting to come together. We\u2019ve shown glimpses throughout the first half of the year, and as a team, on and off the field, we\u2019ve been working really hard to continue building our relationships. And you\u2019re seeing it unfold on the field, and it\u2019s really exciting. And this is just a start for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC goalie Jordan Silkowitz (29) leaps to block a goal attempt by North Carolina Courage during the first half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

With its second straight victory, Bay FC has risen from 14th to 11th in the NWSL standings. Bay FC is two points back of eighth-place Orlando for the final NWSL playoff spot. The Pride face Utah Royals starting at 5:45 p.m. Saturday, and results from that match were not final when the Bay Area News Group went to print.<\/p>\n

The midday match was attended by 12,081 fans according to Bay FC\u2019s numbers, but there were wide swaths of open seats at PayPal Park. The match coincided with the World Cup third-place game between England and France, which could help explain the sparse turnout.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC’s Racheal Kundananji (9) shoots and scores past North Carolina Courage\u2019s Maycee Bell (25) during the second half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. Bay FC defeated North Carolina 3-0. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0
\nEngland women\u2019s coach makes appearance<\/p>\n

England women\u2019s national team coach Sarina Wiegman attended Bay FC\u2019s Saturday matinee, reuniting with Coates, her former colleague at the Football Association who oversaw England\u2019s U23 national team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coates is in her first season in charge of Bay FC and followed Bay Collective CEO Kay Cossington over from across the pond. Cossington was previously the women\u2019s technical director at the FA.<\/p>\n

Wiegman and Coates briefly reunited and chatted at Bay FC\u2019s offices before the game. Wiegman will also stick around for Bay FC\u2019s recovery day tomorrow and spend some more time around the team.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC\u2019s Alex Pfeiffer (17) crashes into a television camera while chasing down an out of bounds ball while playing the North Carolina Courages during the second half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. Bay FC defeated North Carolina 3-0. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of an international manager\u2019s job to come and connect with the clubs that the players play for,\u201d Coates said. \u201cUltimately, we\u2019ve got a couple of English players that are on their radar. It\u2019s important for us to develop relationships with international managers. There\u2019s already a prior existing relationship there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from Sarina. I\u2019m incredibly thankful for the support that she\u2019s given me in the past. I learned a lot working with her at tournaments and shadowing her and working with her with England. So I\u2019m super thankful for what I\u2019ve learned. It was nice that we were able to put on a good performance for her, and I\u2019m looking forward to connecting with her again tomorrow when we start chatting around some other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BayBay FC’s Karlie Lema (5) scores a goal against the North Carolina Courages during the first half of their match at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, July 17, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Inside Sports newsletter<\/a> for all our sports coverage, including game analysis, scores, and everything you want to know about your Bay Area sports teams, including Bay FC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 The World Cup break has been good to Bay FC. After taking about a month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,10708,7,402,181,88,90,89,198,1083,200,127],"class_list":["post-404010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-fc","tag-california","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-soccer","tag-south-bay","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}