Nine days after losing away to North Carolina FC, a heavily rotated Louisville City FC returned the favor in round three of the 2025 USL Jägermeister Cup, topping North Carolina by a 1-0 score Sunday night at Lynn Family Stadium.
One Jansen Wilson goal inside the opening 10 minutes was all LouCity needed to keep its hopes of advancing past the group stages of this cup competition alive. The result saw Louisville leap up into second place in Group Five, two points behind Loudoun United FC, with one group stage contest left against Lexington SC on July 26.
City needs to top the group or be one of two teams with the most points among those that did not win their group in order to advance to the knockout stage.
LouCity’s defensive solidity was critical in a match that was previously scheduled to be played Saturday night but postponed due to North Carolina’s travel issues. The boys in purple picked up their first clean sheet across all competitions since May 24, while the result also marked NCFC’s first shutout in 78 days.
“The last four to five weeks have been very difficult from a scheduling perspective,” said head coach Danny Cruz, whose side played its third game Sunday in 10 days. “… (It’s) not easy to do what this group did tonight, especially with a lot of different variables. I am really, really happy with the performance tonight — another clean sheet, which we talked about getting back to. We had a lot of rotation from the Loudoun game, complete team performance, so really happy about that.”
Wilson slotted home the game’s lone goal after some brilliant wing play from Manny Perez in the 10th minute. Perez glided past a North Carolina defender and set up Wilson perfectly for a right-footed finish. It was the Kentucky native’s second goal in as many games.
From there, the hosts’ defense held it down. Goalkeeper Damian Las, the club’s Man of the Match, recorded two giant saves, while rookie Josh Jones continued to shine in the absence of Arturo Ordoñez. The University of Louisville product finished tied for the team lead in clearances (4) and won six out of his seven attempted duels.
Jones’ most important contribution may have come in the 12th minute, when he cleared an NCFC shot off the line to keep the home side ahead.
The grind that was June for the boys in purple has now come to an end. The month saw Louisville win five of six games over a 22-day stretch — a feat Wilson credited to the team’s togetherness.
“It’s just a family. Our culture here is unbelievable,” Wilson said. “I couldn’t ask for better teammates in the locker room, and we know that when times get hard, no matter what we do, our teammates will have our back. I know my brothers are going to have my back every match.”
Adding to the celebration, academy standout Brandon Dayes, one of Cruz’s six starting lineup changes from Wednesday’s game, became the second-youngest LouCity player to appear in a USL match at 16 years, 6 months and 12 days old. The only player to debut earlier for City was Josh Wynder, who went on to set the USL Championship’s record transfer fee in a high-profile move to Europe.
“It was just great to get that moment out on the field,” Dayes said. “Thought I did pretty well, thankful for the coaching staff for giving me that opportunity and putting their trust in me.
“… Obviously, a little bit of nerves, but a lot of excitement going into it. I thought I prepared myself pretty well, thought it was a good showing, but overall it was a great experience.”
With a busy June complete, LouCity moves back into league play for a Fourth of July matchup Friday night at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, capping off three consecutive regular season away games against the reigning USL Championship title winners.
That’ll be Louisville’s final contest before the club’s first-ever international friendly against Spanish opposition, CD Leganés, on July 12. Visit LouCity.com/leganes for tickets and more information.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. North Carolina FC
Date: June 29, 2025
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium
Kickoff: 6 p.m. ET
Weather: 85 degrees, partly cloudy
Attendance: 7,002
Scoring
Louisville City FC (1, 0, 1)
North Carolina FC (0, 0, 0)
Goals
Louisville City FC:
10’ Ray Serrano (Manny Perez)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 1 – Damian Las; 3 – Jake Morris (55’ 13 – Amadou Dia), 32 – Kyle Adams (c), 24 – Josh Jones, 83 – Brandon Dayes (55’ 4 – Sean Totsch), 15 – Manny Perez (77’ 2 – Aiden McFadden), 17 – Taylor Davila (87’ 27 – Evan Davila), 31 – Kevon Lambert, 7 – Ray Serrano, 25 – Jansen Wilson, 53 – Cameron Lancaster (56’ 9 – Phillip Goodrum)
Subs not used: 30 – Ryan Troutman; 8 – Carlos Moguel Jr., 23 – Sam Gleadle
Head coach: Danny Cruz
North Carolina FC: 24 – Trevor Mulqueen; 5 – Paco Craig (c), 20 – Conor Donovan, 55 – Triston Hodge (69’ 4 – Justin Malou), 10 – Jaden Servania, 17 – Collin Martin (46’ 15 – Mikey Maldonado), 44 – Raheem Somersall (75’ 8 – Pedro Dolabella), 11 – Patrick Burner (61’ 14 – Rafa Mentzingen), 7 – Evan Conway (46’ 19 – Ahmad Al-Qaq), 16 – Rodrigo da Costa, 9 – Oalex Anderson
Subs not used: 1 – Jake McGuire; 27 – Bryce Washington
Head coach: John Bradford
Stats Summary: Louisville City FC / North Carolina FC
Shots: 11 / 8
Shots on Goal: 4 / 3
Expected goals: 0.98 / 1.00
Possession: 47.5% / 52.5%
Fouls: 10 / 7
Offside: 4 / 0
Corner Kicks: 4 / 0
Discipline Summary
Louisville City FC:
38’ Ray Serrano (yellow)
90’+2 Phillip Goodrum (yellow)
North Carolina FC:
40’ Patrick Burner (yellow)
Referee: Carlos Rodriguez
