On Saturday evening, Seattle Reign rounded out their three-game homestand with their third straight win, this time earning a 2-0 victory over Bay FC. Sofia Huerta opened the scoring in the 53rd minute, putting her penalty kick into the lower left corner after Nérilia Mondésir was fouled in the box. Substitute Brittany Ratcliffe sealed the victory in the 92nd minute, just three minutes after coming into the match.
The Reign (11-8-4) have a busy week ahead of them, as they head on the road for two matches this week. First up is a midweek match against Angel City (9-8-6), who sit just below them on the league table. That game kicks off Wednesday, September 16, at 7 p.m. PT and will stream on NWSL+.
June Ash Eden
Highlights
Stats
SCORING SUMMARY
51' - Sofia Huerta (Penalty) - SEA
90+2' - Brittany Ratcliffe - SEA
LINEUPS
Our XI kicking things off against Bay 🔥 Lineup Notes 📝 rgnfc.com/4rbmDCQ
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 4:00 PM · Sep 12, 2026
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67' - Madison Curry for Ryanne Brown; Mia Fishel for Sally Menti
79' - Jess Fishlock for Maddie Mercado
89' - Brittany Ratcliffe for Nerilia Mondesir; Holly Ward for Maddie Dahlien
67' - Karlie Lema for Keira Barry
80' - Alex Pfeiffer for Taylor Huff; Caroline Conti for Cristiana Girelli
ATTENDANCE
8,191
POSSESSION
Reign: 51.8%
Bay: 48.2%
EXPECTED GOALS
Reign: 2.11
Bay: 1.04
TOTAL SHOTS
Reign: 15
Bay: 11
SHOTS ON TARGET
Reign: 6
Bay: 4
SHOTS OFF TARGET
Reign: 5
Bay: 5
SHOTS BLOCKED
Reign: 4
Bay: 2
SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Reign: 8
Bay: 4
TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX
Reign: 22
Bay: 13
PASSES
Reign: 363
Bay: 346
PASSING ACCURACY
Reign: 80.2%
Bay: 78.3%
PASSES IN FINAL THIRD
Reign: 133
Bay: 89
PASS ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD
Reign: 72.2%
Bay: 58.4%
CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)
Reign: 23
Bay: 13
CORNERS TAKEN
Reign: 4
Bay: 3
OFFSIDES
Reign: 1
Bay: 2
FOULS
Reign: 11
Bay: 14
YELLOW CARDS
Reign: 1
Bay: 1
RED CARDS
Reign: 0
Bay: 0
g+ GameFlow: NWSL Regular Season Seattle Reign v Bay FC on September 12, 2026. #RGNvBAY ⚽️🤖
— g+ GameFlow (@gameflow.bsky.social) 7:38 PM · Sep 12, 2026
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Seattle Reign FC: 2 (2.11 xG) vs Bay FC: 0 (1.04 xG) #SEAvBAY | #HerefortheCrown | #BayFC | #NWSL | 🤖⚽
— NWSL Analytics (@nwslstat.bsky.social) 7:45 PM · Sep 12, 2026
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Quotes
Laura Harvey
Her overall thoughts on the match:
"I thought they're a good team and they try and play really good football, and in the first half we were a bit reactive. They were putting people in areas where we were finding it hard to solve it, mainly because we weren't quite proactive in making decisions early. But this group is growing and maturing in front of our eyes, and I think you could see that in the second half performance — even though they had two dangerous opportunities, Cassie's great save and the one where it bounced up and hit her arm, I didn't think they were causing us as much of a problem. And then when the subs came on, they all did really well."
On starting Coco and her performance:
"I actually met with Coco this week before I'd even decided to put her in the starting lineup, and we had a conversation about — I thought Coco at the start of the season was one of our most influential attackers, and trying to get her back to that. I thought she did really well today, I thought she did brilliant when she played against Louisville as well. But what she's quite appreciative of is that the people she's competing with are all doing really well too. So I did think it was an opportunity to one, see Maddie [Mercado] and Sally [Menti] together again — we haven't seen that for a while — get Coco a good opportunity to start, it sets Mia [Fishel] up for success potentially throughout the next seven days with two big games coming up. And I thought the ball by Ryanne [Brown] was great. I think that's something earlier in the year we were really reluctant to play, is just a ball in behind and let our forwards go do the work. And that's an example of why you should do that, because they have the ability 1v1 to hurt the opponent — it's either Coco's going to get past Jenna [Nighswonger] or Jenna's going to have to do something about it, and she did, and obviously drew the penalty from it. So that's where it comes from."
On Brit Ratcliffe closing out the game:
"We used to have a role in this club called the closer, and Mariah Nogueira, now Bullock, used to be the queen of it. It's not a role that you want, but I think Brit's a really good closer for us. She presses people, she has energy, she'll work really hard, she's gritty, she's a competitor. And then on top of that, she showed some quality. We were just laughing at the end — she was laughing with me, and I was like, 'Go to the corner. Oh, forget about it, go to goal.' And she was like, in my head as I decided to go to goal, she's like, 'I need to score this or she's never going to put me on this position again' — which probably wouldn't be true, but really happy for her. I think we brought Brit to the club because we knew the type of person that she is. She's a competitor, she's a winner, she drives standards in training, she's a really good leader. We lost a lot of that last year with Lu retiring, Hanna Glas, Ana [Crnogorčević], Ji — there's quite a lot of experience that left the club. And to bring someone in like Brit who — am I going to sit here and say she's happy with her role? No. But she accepts it and she's willing to do whatever it takes for this team to win, and you saw that tonight. So happy for her, because I think that's two really important goals she's got late in games — Orlando, first game of the season, this one, and obviously she got one in the Kansas game early. But I thought all the subs that came on did brilliantly. I thought [Madi] Curry and Jess [Fishlock] — Jess's brain can help everybody around her to just be a bit composed and defensively be solid. And then I thought Holly [Ward] was brilliant when she came on, I thought Mia worked really hard, and then Brit obviously gets the credit she deserves."
On the team's growth and the three straight clean sheets:
"Just take the last three games — I can't remember the last time we won three in a row and they all be clean sheets. ... I'm sure there was periods where we won three games, but to keep a clean sheet in all three, that's huge growth. Cassie coming in, seamless, tweaks on the back line and tweaks in front of them, Ainsley not being here — all that stuff is huge growth. I think I said it in my pre-game presser, we had a meeting like we always do after a game, the first day back, and I tend to sit at the back of the room when we're having those meetings, and there was just discussion happening between the group at a level that we wouldn't have been having six months ago. And it was driven by a lot of the younger players — it wasn't the normal crew, Sofia, Jess, Phoebe. It was more of the younger ones, and it was a collective discussion on how we solve who we want to be. And I don't mind sharing this — Scott leaned in to me and went, 'I'm getting emotional,' and I was like, 'Me too,' because that's growth. You guys see it on the field, we see it every day, and as long as we can continue to grow as a group individually and collectively, I believe this group has a really high ceiling. If that growth and learning stops, then that's when we need to be concerned, and right now they are so hungry to want to keep getting better that as a coach and a coaching staff, that's all you ever want."
On Phoebe and Ryanne's performance against Bay's front line:
"I thought the whole back line were really good. They have a lot of threats — Girelli is so smart. When I saw the team I said to the backline, 'Look, I don't know that they're going to do this, but my guess is she's going to come short, hold it up, or flick it on for the other two to run, so we've got to be really switched on to that.' And we've played Bay I don't know how many times, and we've been caught on those opportunities previously, and they're aware of that and they wanted to be better than that. There was maybe a couple of times where we had to be a bit last ditch defending, but overall I thought they really handled that well. Still areas I think we can get better at, but when we get pressure on the ball it makes their lives way easier, and I thought we did a really good job of that late in the game."
On what's changed in the team's video and film approach since the World Cup break:
"I've personally done a lot of work with our sports psychologists, and as a collective staff we've been looking at ways in which we can be a bit more interactive. I think I'm a bit old school, just been around the game a long time, and I just didn't feel like the way that we operated and had our process previously was really sinking in. So we tweaked the way that we analyze games and made it more interactive with the group, and that wasn't necessarily a me thing, but I took the responsibility of making it happen. There was a lot of people in the room collectively saying, 'Look, I think we can get the players to bring more of themselves' — little things, they bring notebooks to film. It's just been a different way in which we've done things, and it seems to have really helped them. All our job is to help them learn and develop, and if that wasn't sinking in, that's on us, right, that's our accountability piece. So we looked inward first and looked at ways that we could get it to be more interactive, where it wasn't just Jess and Sofia and Phoebe talking and me talking and showing things — it was more everybody has a say. They're not forced to say things, but it's just set up where you sort of have to say your piece and be really interactive with your little group. Instead of it being like 30 people in a room watching a screen and then analyzing, it's been a little bit more in smaller groups and a bit more interactive that way. So that's been a big shift, and the fact that Cassie brings it up makes me feel that way even more. Before, it would just be, let's all watch the film, and it would be, what do you think Sally, what do you think Maddie — so there would be interaction, but we tweaked it now where they lead it way more. It's less about my opinion and me solving it for them — they're solving it for themselves."
On Bay FC playing good football despite sitting near the bottom of the table:
"I agree, I think Emma Coates looks like she has her team out there with a plan, they don't look disorganized. This league's just so unforgiving. Sometimes — and I had to learn this real quick — you have to be really pragmatic, a little bit like, just take Lumen, right, playing on turf, we aren't necessarily as pretty as we like to be at times because we know Lumen sometimes doesn't allow us to be, just the surface. You have to play what's given to you, and I've definitely got it wrong over the years. I think Bay as a club are really invested in trying to be the best they can be, but this league's just so unforgiving. I read a stat the other day that they've lost x amount of games by one goal — I've lived that, 2013, 2024, it's heartbreaking, but if you can stay in it, good things happen. And I think, obviously, the coaching change that they made last year, bringing Emma in, and a lot of actual British English people come in — even behind the scenes, it's a lot of English people too. I'm hopeful, and I hope for her. I've never really spent much time with Emma until she came to the league, I actually know her assistant a little bit, but I hope they stick with it, because you can see the project, right, you can see it. And if clubs can learn anything from our club, stick with it, because I think we've been a club that has tended to do that. I feel like in 2013, Bill Predmore could have quite easily turned his back on me and chose not to, and stuck with me. In 2024, the club could have turned its back on me and stuck with me. So I think that's a really important part of this league — it tends to be those clubs. Look at Gotham, sticking with Juan, scraping in the playoffs a couple of times but then getting over the line — they tend to be the clubs that are successful. So the ones that chop and change all the time don't tend to have that real project that you can see coming to fruition. I don't know a lot about behind the scenes at Bay, but if I could speak to them, I would say stay with it."
On Maddie Mercado's impact on the attack this season:
"We'll single out Maddie, but I think it's a collective across the front four. They work really hard, and that's a little bit of what happened in the summer — the acceptance that when they do that work, we need to find a way that they get rewarded, or they're not going to want to do it. I think that has been a big layer of us in this second half of the season — our front four work really hard to press, and then the responsibility of the back six, and seven if you include the goalkeeper, is to feed them. When we win it, give them an opportunity to go get the reward of that. And I think Maddie's a really good example of that — she works really hard, but she's seen the reward of it by assist, goals, whatever. Mia the same, Sally, all of them, Dahlien, Coco, they've all — even Brit, Brit works her socks off, Holly Ward works her socks off when they come in, Jess works really hard, but Jess is the brain behind it all. And that's the piece that I think for all of them is that they're seeing that reward right now. So when you see the reward as a forward, you tend to be okay committing to it. And we've just always been that team, ever since I've been here, and even in the Vlatko days they were exactly the same — their forwards always worked hard and got the reward of that."
On the importance of these home wins with the upcoming road trip to LA and Denver:
"Massively. Pre the summer, coming back to Lumen was a bit daunting with the results that we'd had, but we don't feel that way now — we're excited to come back home. Look, the LA, Denver games are massive, but what was probably as massive was separating ourselves today, and we did that. I was watching that game [Angel City vs Denver] last night, and I'm like, 'This is insanity.' It was a crazy game to watch. I didn't really know what I really wanted, but I just knew that whatever happened, we had to take care of business today, and if we did that, we can — we've been looking up for quite a while, and we can continue to do that. I think LA is a tough place to go, I'm excited about going there, it's my nephew's birthday tomorrow, he turns 8, and I get to see my family, which is always great. And then tough altitude Denver game where they're creating a good environment and it seems like a good atmosphere there. So we're excited to go on the road and keep these performances and this run going if we can."
Cassie Miller and Sofia Huerta
On the confidence in Cassie stepping in for an injured Claudia Dickey:
Huerta: "It's really hard, I think you guys can imagine, to be someone who isn't playing regularly and then gets called upon and has to perform. That's very, very hard to do, but Cassie makes it look effortless. And as you guys saw today, incredible save — that game changes if that ball goes in the back of the goal, I don't know what the outcome is, but she saves it. She's a big reason why we won today. So as a teammate, I have full confidence in Cassie when she's back there. Never want to see a teammate go down, but everybody really believes in Cassie, so when she was picked to start, we had full faith that she's going to put in a full performance."
Miller: "My mindset is the same no matter what happens. My first thought is with Claudia — that game is for Claudia, we have such a tight goalkeeper union, and I'm just happy she's okay ultimately at the end of the day. So we got to get out there and perform for the team, and such kind words from Sof, but at the end of the day that's my job, that's my role. Been playing this game for forever, and so stepping in is fun, and just being out there with the girls is really fun. So just having to get the clean sheet and get the win."
On Brittany Ratcliffe coming off the bench to seal the win:
Huerta: "We've been on Lumen before where we've been up and you think you're going to win and then someone scores a stoppage time goal. So whenever you can get up two goals, that's ideal. And to speak about Brittany a little bit, she is such a competitor — she came on to this team and fit in seamlessly and brought this different kind of energy that we haven't had at the Reign for a long time. She's like intense New Jersey, just really direct and like a different kind of leader than we've had in past years. So we've really enjoyed having her on the team. And as I mentioned before, not playing is difficult, and getting subbed in the last five minutes is hard, it's not easy for anyone. I think at times you can feel like you're not contributing or affecting the game, but that's obviously not true, and when you come in and you score like that, that just gives you an extra boost of confidence and makes you feel like you're helping the team a lot. She didn't need to score that for any of us to think that, but I'm so happy that she did because I know she's going to be feeling good about that. So really pumped for her."
On the run of clean sheets and closing out games heading into the playoff push:
Miller: "At the end of the day you want to be zoomed in when playoffs hit. The season's really long, you learn a lot through certain games, and there's been some games in the past where we're looking at video, we're looking at clips, and I think we've learned a lot. So to keep a clean sheet and to have people come in and put their head down and just run, and to learn how to end a game is huge for us, and that's going to be huge for playoffs. There's definitely been some games in the past where we couldn't do that, but we're learning, and we continue to learn, and hopefully we're cruising come playoff time."
On the penalty kick that put the game away:
Huerta: "I knew we were going to get a PK today, I don't know why, I just had this feeling. And so when it happened, I just tried to calm myself down. I practice those all the time against Cassie basically every day, so she helped me out a lot there. I've really worked on my routine with that and have confidence when I step up, but anything can happen — a goalkeeper can make a good save, or I might not hit it well. So there's a lot of anxiety going up to that moment, but I just didn't want to let the team down, so I really just hit it with pace. And Jordan guessed the right way, which is also very scary — when it went in, I celebrated a little bit harder than I usually do, because I wasn't quite sure if it was going in the back of the net. So I'm very happy about that. And just to shout out Coco, she came in and had a full performance, and to draw that PK is spectacular for us, it changed the game. So shout out to her."
On what three home wins and three clean sheets mean with two road games coming up:
Miller: "It's huge, it's really big, especially keeping on getting the wins here at home, that's kind of our biggest focus. We have to go game by game, we know what that playoff line looks like, but however, we're shooting higher than that — we're shooting to get a home field advantage game. So our goals are high."
Huerta: "I think what's so crazy about this league is you go back to the beginning of the season, we started off hot, and then we went through a stint where we weren't scoring at all, and it was being talked about how we can't score, and we went several home games where we weren't getting the results — now we're unbeaten in six games at home, and we've scored in 14 in a row. I think it was important for us to get two goals today, because I think in order to beat really good teams you have to score more than one goal in this league. So I'm really proud of the team because we've stuck at it. I think it's hard to get down and feel like you're not growing or that things aren't going your way, or maybe you're not going to have a good season, but you can never have that mentality, you always have to stay positive because things can always change. And that's why I love playing at the Reign so much, because I think with Laura and Jess and just having that experience, we're always reminded of that in the locker room. So even when things get tough, we continue to want to grow and learn and get better. I'm really excited about what we have moving forward. We keep talking about how we're in control of what the next few weeks looks like — we've got ourselves in a position where we're above the playoff line, that if we get points in these games, especially with the teams below us, we can even push for home-field advantage. So we talk about that in the locker room every week, and we're all really behind that goal, that we want to play at Lumen in a playoff game, because we like it here, we keep winning here, so hopefully we can continue to do that."
On whether this was a game to learn from despite the win:
Huerta: "I think the Bay did a good job — I mean, we're a team who wants to be on the front foot and to press and keep teams in their half, and they skipped that press, and I think we struggled a little bit with that. They had really good hold-up play and were getting in behind, and it caused some problems especially in the first half. So that was uncomfortable for us, and I think you're going to be able to look at this game and get a lot out of it in case we see a picture like this again. But it was good because at halftime we all talked about it, we came in, we made some tactical changes, we changed our press a little bit, and I think we can only go up from there. So to your point, when games don't go necessarily our way and we win, it's a good opportunity to be hard on the team because it's good vibes — we won, but it's a good opportunity to grow and get better."
On the turnaround from a scoreless stretch to scoring in 14 straight games:
Miller: "They're scoring a lot on me in practice. I think just honing in on individual — like getting better individually, and then also bringing that collectively together and pushing each other at practice. Like what you said, there's maybe not a switch, but the focus can change, and I think video for us has completely changed after the CBA break, and really honing in on that and diving into what that looks like. Laura's a genius when it comes to tactics like that, so learning from the best, and I think just everyone buying in and everyone pushing each other in the locker room and on the field is the biggest thing. Things are working, things are clicking now, and they're scoring a lot on us goalkeepers at practice, so maybe that's where it's coming from."
On Haz stepping up in place of Ainsley McCammon:
Huerta: "Last game I was very impressed with Haz, because San Diego have incredible midfielders — they're like magicians on the ball, so you can be in the right spot and they can still turn you and go on the dribble, and Haz has shut some of those players down. I feel like last game I forgot to shout her out, and I'm doing that now, and I'm going to do it again, because I think it's hard when you don't get games back to back and you don't feel fit and you don't feel like you're in a rhythm — but Haz has just come in and totally taken that on her shoulder, and has been incredible on the ball, I think, defensively, and she's such a leader out there. She's kind of like a quiet leader, but she's able to lead with what she does on the ball and her defensive work and her decision-making. So I love having her out there, and I'm so proud of her because I think it's difficult, it's hard, it's a competitive roster, and the team has depth, so when you don't get into a squad it can be difficult to stay on it and stay prepared and ready, and she's done that. She hasn't skipped a beat, so we're super proud of her, and I thought she had a great game."
On the halftime adjustments after Bay had momentum late in the first half:
Huerta: "I want to say I feel like something that we've grown and changed a little bit in the past — if we're not getting momentum in the game, we don't know how to win. I feel like in past games we haven't had momentum and then we either settle for a tie or maybe we lose, but I feel like in the last several games, if we don't have momentum, we're still finding ways to get the ball in the back of the goal and score. Not to give too much away, but we were getting kind of played when the midfielder would get wide in that pocket, and they kept playing through and getting players isolated 1v1. So we just changed where we're having players and who was going to stay inside instead of getting our sixes pulled out wide, so they could find that number nine inside pocket — we need to protect centrally, and Laura made that a point especially at halftime. It's really great when you can have those conversations and discussions and make a change, and then you see that have a positive impact in the game. That's what's so good about this team, is that we come into halftime, we listen to what Laura has to say, and we're willing to make those adjustments, and then we have a positive outcome from it with two goals and a clean sheet. So very happy with that."
