By Chris Mattingly
With the offseason departure of Louisville City FC’s all-time leading scorer, Cameron Lancaster, eyes quickly turned to Wilson Harris. And the young forward seems to be embracing those expectations.
Harris delivered again for LouCity this past Saturday when the 24-year-old scored deep into first half stoppage time of a 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. It marked Harris’ second goal in as many games to open the 2024 season.
“I’m really happy with where he is at the moment with his work rate up top defensively,” said LouCity’s coach, Danny Cruz. “When forwards score, the confidence starts to build, and I thought he had a lot of good chances in the first half. I was happy that he rewarded himself at the end of the first half.”
Since arriving to the club, Harris led LouCity in scoring in 2022 (15 goals) and 2023 (9 goals) – that despite not playing a full season last year due to injury. Both his campaigns in purple have included four-game scoring streaks, and in the 2024 opener at El Paso Locomotive FC he became the USL Championship’s youngest player to reach 50 regular season goals.
“I’m just trying to focus week-by-week right now,” Harris said. “I want to continue to push myself to be better every week, and I’m feeling very physically fit I feel like I can make runs over and over again and really show my game right now, so I’m just really happy with the work that we have been doing.”
Going back to LouCity’s preseason finale, Harris registered a brace March 9 against USL League One’s Knoxville SC. With four goals in three games overall, he’ll look to improve his scoring record Saturday when City hosts Birmingham Legion FC for a 4 p.m. kickoff at Lynn Family Stadium.
“If you put him in front of the goal he will always create chances, and he is going to be dangerous,” said defender Sean Totsch. “He believes in that and we all believe in – that if we give him enough chances and he is going to bang in a bunch of goals.”
