Beating Utah in sunny season opener, KC Current wins 1st game under new head coach

The Kansas City Current rarely trailed in a game, let alone a home game, during the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League season.

But an imprecise first half set the stage for a furious second-half comeback against Utah Royals FC in Saturday afternoon’s season opener at CPKC Stadium.

Second-half goals by Croix Bethune and Ally Sentnor gave the Current a 2-1 victory — the Current had trailed Utah 1-0 at halftime — in the debut match for new KC head coach Chris Armas.

“On these days you learn a lot about who you are,” Armas said. “Today I learned — I think we learned — that we still are a really gritty team, we’ve got really good attackers, we have depth. Going down a goal and coming back was a really good sign for this team.”

Tatum Milazzo put the visitors up 1-0 in the 35th minute, getting to the ball before Lorena. Milazzo’s header sailed into the net off a short corner routine.

The Current lost the shot count in the first half 6-3 and looked out of ideas at times. The hosts’ best chance was a low strike by Katie Scott that was easily saved.

Defender Kayla Sharples said the Current, early on, didn’t match the energy the home crowd brought to the stadium.

“We weren’t freaking out or anything,” she said. “We were like, ‘OK, we have the whole next half. Let’s just settle into the game.’”

Halftime served as the perfect remedy. Armas said the team had created 26 transition moments in the first half, and one of the things he told his players at halftime was to calm down and keep the ball.

“Which we’ve been talking about all along — easier said than done from a coach when they’re out there, and they’re trying to go fast in these moments,” Armas said. “But you can see if we were a little bit sharper, maybe it leads to more final actions.”

It did. The Current outshot Utah 15-6 in the second half. Another tweak came in how KC pressed Utah’s passing out of the back line. It allowed the Current to build up its attack set the stage for a comeback.

Bethune got the game level by scoring in her KC debut — and on her birthday, no less. The sequence began when Gabrielle Robinson launched a long pass toward the box after Utah cleared a Current corner kick in the 57th minute.

Kayla Sharples’ deft flick into the path of Bethune set her up one-on-one with Utah goalkeeper Mia Justus. Bethune slotted a good shot inside the left post with her left foot.

Kansas City’s Penelope Hocking nearly scored the winner after replacing Bethune as a substitute. But minutes later, it was Sentnor who found the solution and put the Current on top.

Sentnor took a pass from Debinha in the 69th minute, dribbling inside through six Utah defenders. Then she cut a right-footed shot across the grain and into the net.

It was Sentnor’s first goal since being traded to the Current from Utah last summer. Add that to the two recent goals she’s scored with the U.S. Women’s National Team, and it’s plain to see that her confidence is starting to grow.

“I want to continue to hopefully score goals for this team,” Sentnor said. “And honestly just (continue to) create chances and continue to build as the season goes on, and not just peak right now.”

Up next: The Current hits the road for a few games now. First up in a three-matches-in-one-week stretch as a game at Chicago next Sunday, March 22 (1 p.m. Central Time).

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 5:07 PM.