Watching them lean back in their chairs postgame, it’s evident that a weight has been lifted off the shoulders of Caroline Conti and Penelope Hocking.
The two players arrived at Bay FC last season looking to jumpstart their careers but found consistent playing time hard to come by in a team full of veterans. Within five minutes of each other on Saturday, they both found the back of the net against Angel City FC, helping their side snap a three game winless streak.
“These past few weeks, we’ve just been focused on having fun again and bringing joy back to the game,” Conti, who scored on a penalty, said. “I like to say it funnily as just ‘bonding with your bros.’ Remember, we’re doing what we love and we’re lucky that it’s our job.”
This sort of self-assuredness had been waning as Bay FC struggled out of the gate in its sophomore season in the National Women’s Soccer League. After making an admirable playoff berth last year, the team was poised to build upon that foundation, but instead have been stuck between identities: neither dangerous in attack or tidy in defense.
Coming into the match against their hyped rivals from Los Angeles, Bay FC had the lowest xG in the entire league, per FBRef, and was picked apart 4-1 by the Kansas City Current on the road after head coach Albertin Montoya challenged the team to dig in.
This time, he dropped Alyssa Malonson, Joelle Anderson, Kiki Pickett and Karlie Lema to the bench, and elevated Conti into the midfield, while asking rookie Taylor Huff to push higher up the field in a more creative role. Bay FC conceded more possession in their 4-1-4-1, but defended better as a collective and attacked with purpose.
Hocking opened the scoring beautifully in the 22nd minute by arriving late on the left, squaring up her body, and curling a shot past Angelina Anderson with her inside foot.
Angel City’s offense, which boasted a dangerous frontline of Christen Press, Alyssa Thompson and Riley Tiernan, was held scoreless for the first time in a month and never had a clean look on goal.
“This is the type of football we’ve been asking them to play for so long,” Montoya said. “You have to find ways to get forward and this is something we’ve been lacking in the past. This was something the coaching staff and the group had to tinker around with.”
“The most important thing though was for us to enjoy our football,” he added. “When you’re overthinking things — which we were all doing, coaching staff included — it just complicates it.”
Hocking said she had been struggling with her confidence, feeling as if she wasn’t contributing enough since being acquired in a midseason trade with Chicago.
“The support of the club, coaches, and players around me helped me push through that negativity that I’d been feeling about myself,” Hocking said. “It feels good to get this one and have success with the team.”
Saturday’s match was played a week after Angel City and former Bay FC defender Savy King collapsed in the middle of the match due to a heart irregularity. King is recovering now but the NWSL admitted afterwards that the match should have been abandoned rather than continued as it had.
Players from both Bay FC and Angel City wore SK3 shirts in her honor.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman was also in attendance, confirming that the trip was planned ahead of time and not a reaction to the King incident. When pressed about her role (or non-role) in not calling off the match, she said litigating the past was “not constructive” and said the league admitted its mistake after reviewing its protocols and listening to feedback.
The attendance for Saturday’s game was over 14,000 and came off the heels of Lionel Messi’s game in San Jose and the Golden State Valkyries debut.
About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen is a business and sports journalist based in the Bay Area. Follow him on X/Twitter @KevinNguyen_89 or on Bluesky @kevinvnguyen.bsky.social
