Detroit City FC crushed by Flint, 5-0, in W League showdown

Hamtramck — In its first meeting with Flint City AFC, Detroit City FC fought to a 0-0 draw in its season opener at Keyworth Stadium.

No such luck in the second go-around in Hamtramck. As has been the case time and time again for City’s W League side this season, a chance to right the ship was ultimately a serious setback.

First-place Flint crushed Detroit’s spirit on Saturday night with two goals in the opening eight minutes and four goals in the first half, cruising to a 5-0 win at Keyworth. Olivia Thomas and Isabella Gaetino each scored twice to hand Le Rouge (fifth in the Great Lakes Division on 12 points) its third loss in four games.

"It's pretty devastating and demoralizing when you come into a game like this, you're excited, you're amped up and you're hoping things will go your way, and then it doesn't — you can lose confidence quickly," DCFC head coach David Dwaihy said.

"The way it played out was, in many ways, a result of us losing that confidence in ourselves and sagging when we needed to step up defensively."

On the opening goal, Flint crossed the ball in but could only watch as the ball missed every Bucks attacker. The clearing attempt by Lexy Smith was misplayed, though, allowing Flint to get a shot off that deflected right to Thomas, who easily tapped the ball past Gabby Schriver for a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute.

Moments later, Flint doubled its lead.

Gaetino received a pass at midfield and dribbled it a handful of times before effortlessly gliding one out of Schriver’s reach from about 30 yards out in the eighth minute.

"It's like, when we don't have a slow start against some of these teams, we don't get punished for it. And then when we start well, it's like, they always get this goal that comes up — they're extremely good and they broke us down with time — but their first goal kind of came off a little lapse in the midst of some really good play," Dwaihy said.

"Right before that goal, I thought we looked significantly better than we had against them in the previous two outings."

Kayla Addison raced for a through ball and got around a pair of defenders, then dodged the challenge from Flint’s keeper, but by the time she regained possession and got a shot off on net, a Flint defender had come all the way over to make a sliding save at the goal line in the 29th minute.

Thomas was played through perfectly and needed just one touch to put it past Schriver in the 41st minute for her second of the evening. During injury time, Gaetino crushed any hope Le Rouge had of a comeback. She put another perfect ball home from outside the penalty area, making it 4-0 at half.

Dwaihy said the goal from here on out is to "show people what we're capable of."

"Cleveland coming here (in the home finale on June 28) is a game we've got to be excited about, cause we've matched up well with them the past two times," Dwaihy said. "And then we go to Ann Arbor to finish it out (on July 1). And that's a team we beat here on our field, so hopefully we go into those two games with a healthy amount of confidence and excitement to turn things around."

Kenna White had a shot to add a goal for Detroit in the 54th minute when she timed a run well and received a pass in the area, but her shot went wide.

Madison Canada added to Flint’s lead in the 68th minute with the game’s only second-half goal.

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @nolanbianchi