Chilufya's Double Helps Angel City End Winless Streak with 5-2 Victory over Boston Legacy

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Prisca Chilufya scored a pair of goals as Angel City snapped a six-game winless streak with a 5-2 victory over the Boston Legacy on Monday night at Gillette Stadium.

Angel City (8-8-5, 29 points) had gone 0-2-4 in its previous six matches and had not won since July 18. The club sits just outside the eighth and final playoff spot in the 16-team NWSL with nine games left in the regular season.

The match featured four goals in the first 18 minutes. Ally Sentnor opened the scoring for Angel City in the fifth minute with a hard strike from just outside the box. Some three minutes later, Sammy Smith added her own long strike for the Legacy that bounced to the far post out of reach of goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.

Angel City regained the lead with Chilufya's first goal, which got a slight deflection before getting past goalkeeper Laurel Ivory in the 14th minute. Sveindís Jónsdóttir added a goal from a tight angle that went through Ivory's legs in the 18th, marking her team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Chilufya scored off her own rebound in the 58th minute, and Maiara Niehues added a final goal in the 66th for Angel City. Aïssata Traoré scored in the 88th minute for Boston (5-12-5, 20 points), which has lost four straight and sits in 15th place. Boston has allowed 39 goals in 22 matches, and the team is now 11 points out of a playoff spot.

Boston Legacy manager Filipa Patão acknowledged the team's defensive struggles: "Right now our biggest problem is we aren't reacting the moment we fall," she said. "It's not a matter of what we do with the ball next; it's the way you are defending and making the same mistakes over and over again."

Angel City scored its first three goals on its first three shots of the match. The team earned five corners by the end of the first half, while Boston had none. Patão also noted that two of Angel City's goals came from set pieces, saying, "We suffered two goals on set pieces. One goal was because of a second ball. We came to it late. … Small mistakes but in this league you'll have consequences."

Notably, both Sentnor and Smith are from Hanson, Massachusetts. Sentnor attended Thayer Academy, while Smith attended Whitman-Hanson High School, where she also played basketball.

Up Next

Angel City's trip continues with a visit to Racing Louisville on Saturday at 3:30 m. PT.