Jul 12, 2026
Minnesota Aurora Falls in Penalty Shootout to Salmon Bay FC
SEATTLE, Wash. – Minnesota Aurora FC battled to the final whistle, playing to a 1-1 draw in regulation with Salmon Bay FC before falling 3-2 in a penalty kick shootout in the USL W League National Semifinal at Interbay Stadium on Saturday night. Ai Kitagawa scored the lone goal of the match for Aurora.
Aurora finished the season with a 14-1-0 record, capturing their second consecutive Central Conference Championship and fifth straight Heartland Division title. Minnesota scored 42 goals while conceding just three and completed a fifth consecutive undefeated regular season, going 12-0-0 in the division. Kitagawa led the club with a team-high 12 goals, while 14 different players found the back of the net this season at least once. Defensively, goalkeepers Taylor Fox and Isaac Ranson helped anchor an Aurora defense that recorded 13 shutouts.
In the 27th minute, Aurora was awarded a penalty kick after Salmon Bay’s Anna Menti thought they had earned a goal kick and reached down to touch the ball to set up the kick, resulting in a handball. Kitagawa stepped up to the spot and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, converting her penalty kick into the left corner of the goal in the 28th minute to give Aurora a 1-0 lead.
Fox was called into action on two separate occasions in the first half for Aurora. In the 32nd minute, Salmon Bay’s Morgan Manalili sent a diving header from the edge of the six-yard box toward goal, but Fox stood her ground and made the save. Then it was Manalili again, this time in the 38th minute as her header off a long free kick was saved at point-blank range by Fox to preserve Aurora’s lead.
Aurora nearly doubled their lead in the 55th minute after breaking down the left side on the counterattack.. Hadli Barrera delivered a cross to Flavie Dubé, who found herself one-on-one with the Salmon Bay goalkeeper Elena Milam near the edge of the six-yard box. Miliam came off her line to make the save, getting a foot on Dubé’s shot.
Salmon Bay was awarded a penalty kick in the 89th minute, when Fox was called for a foul near the endline as she challenged for the ball with Salmon Bay’s Jourdyn Curran. U’i Kaaihue stepped to the spot and leveled the match at 1-1 with a shot into the top left corner of the goal in the 91st minute.
In the 95th minute, Aurora won a free kick in Salmon Bay’s attacking half of the field. Jelena Zbiljic lofted a ball from 25 yards in behind their backline as several Aurora players made runs into the box. Kalo Iongi connected with the ball, but she sent her shot straight into the arms of the Salmon Bay goalkeeper before the final whistle was blown, sending the match to extra time.
Pushing in the first extra time period, Dubé was whistled for a foul outside Aurora’s box and was shown her second yellow card of the match and sent off in the 103rd minute, forcing Minnesota to play down a player for the remainder of the game. On the ensuing free kick, Kaaihue’s shot from distance was pushed over the bar by Fox.
Neither team was able to find a winning goal in the second extra-time period, sending the game to a penalty-kick shootout to decide who would advance to the USL W League Championship. In the penalty kick shootout, two Aurora penalty takers missed their attempts and one other Minnesota kick was saved before Menti stepped to the spot and converted the final spot kick to send Salmon Bay to the Championship match by a 3-2 edge in the shootout.
