Lower90

Lower90 Weekly Newsletter - June 15th

FootballNews365 / June 15, 2026

Its World Cup time, but minor league soccer in the US is having a moment too! Read more about this week's best action

It was a week for the scoreboard operators to earn their keep across USL’s divisions, with double-digit scorelines popping up from the NPSL all the way through the USL W League and Championship. Detroit City FC’s six-goal demolition of Sporting JAX headlined a USL Championship slate full of stoppage-time drama — Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Tampa Bay all saw results flip in the final minutes — while the women’s game delivered some of the most lopsided results of the entire season, with Real Colorado and Colorado Storm combining for 19 goals across just two matches. If your preferred brand of soccer is low-scoring, tactical chess, this was not your week.

Match of the Week: USL Championship — Sporting JAX vs Detroit City FC

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Editor’s pick: Darren Smith scoring five goals in a single road game — including a first-half hat trick completed in stoppage time — is the kind of individual performance you bookmark and revisit for years. In a week absolutely stuffed with goals, this one still stood alone.

Detroit City FC demolished Sporting JAX 6-2 on the road Saturday night, powered by a five-goal masterclass from Darren Smith. Kobe Hernández-Foster added a late sixth, while Emil Jääskeläinen and Kieran Sadlier scored in a losing effort for the hosts.

Sporting JAX actually struck first. Jääskeläinen finished from a Rafferty Pedder delivery in the ninth minute to give the home side an early lead. It lasted four minutes. Smith equalized in the 13th, then put Detroit ahead in the 26th after a pass from Ben Morris. He completed his first-half hat trick deep into stoppage time before the break, sending Detroit into halftime with a 3-1 cushion.

The second half brought no relief for JAX. Smith grabbed his fourth in the 57th minute, converting after work from Preston Tabort Etaka, and the game was effectively over. Sadlier pulled one back for the hosts in the 69th minute, set up by Jääskeläinen, but it was little more than a consolation. Smith wasn’t done — he netted his fifth in the 81st minute, fed by Hernández-Foster, before Hernández-Foster got on the scoresheet himself in the 92nd minute to cap the rout.

The match grew increasingly fractious as the deficit widened, with six yellow cards handed out across both sides — three to each team — though the referee’s notebook stayed free of any reds.

Smith’s five-goal haul marks one of the standout individual performances of the USL Championship season so far, and the emphatic away win will give Detroit City FC serious momentum heading into the summer stretch of fixtures.

This Week’s Highlights

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NPSL — West Chester United SC vs Hershey FC

Thirteen goals. A four-goal haul from R. Robinson — who had a hat trick wrapped up by the 38th minute. A hat trick from C. Undorf. Hershey FC’s 10-3 demolition of West Chester United on the road is the kind of scoreline you squint at twice before accepting it’s real. Robinson got things started in the 3rd minute and never really stopped, while Undorf added three more in a devastating second-half spell that included goals in the 53rd and 56th minutes back-to-back. J. Jarden chipped in at the stroke of halftime to make it 6-3 at the break, and from there it was damage limitation for West Chester — damage they could not limit.

USL Championship — Charleston Battery vs FC Tulsa

Charleston Battery didn’t just beat FC Tulsa on Saturday — they buried them in a four-minute first-half hurricane. Rémi Cabral opened in the 15th, Colton Swan leveled almost immediately in the 16th for Tulsa, and then the Battery responded with Maalique Foster’s 18th-minute strike to make it 2-1 — three goals in four minutes that left FC Tulsa shell-shocked before the 20th minute had even arrived. Emilio Ycaza added a fourth at the death of the first half, and though Wilmer Cabrera pulled one back in the 80th, the outcome had long since been decided. Charleston’s 5-1 win is a statement result in the Championship.

USL League One — Charlotte Independence vs FC Naples

Seven goals, a last-gasp fightback, and Luis Alvarez at the center of everything — Charlotte Independence’s 4-3 win over FC Naples was a League One thriller that had absolutely no right to be as tense as it was. Alvarez struck early in the 6th minute and William Arevalo doubled the lead in the 21st, but Naples refused to fold — Souaibou Marou pulled one back in the 59th, Luca Mastrantonio leveled in the 68th, and suddenly it was genuinely anyone’s game. Alvarez, already on a yellow, steadied the ship with his second in the 82nd, but Viggo Ortiz (86th) and Raul Miglietti (89th) made it a stomach-churning finish. Charlotte held on. Just.

NPSL — WC Predators vs New Jersey United AC

Grassroots soccer at its most gloriously unhinged. Four goals in three minutes in the first half — D. Navas scoring in the 31st, A. Fedor in the 30th, O. Steinicke in the 33rd — set the tone for a match that refused to settle down. New Jersey United looked like they’d let it slip when the Predators led 4-2 heading into the final stretch, but J. Thomas (83rd) and R. Naftali (86th) dragged them level, before a 90th-minute goal from Z. DeVeaux completed the comeback and earned a 4-4 draw that neither side will forget in a hurry.

Results Roundup

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USL League Two — FC Olympia vs Tacoma Stars — Tacoma Stars 5-4. Nine goals, multiple lead changes, and the Stars somehow escaping with a wild road victory in the kind of match that makes you forget there’s a defensive third of the pitch.

USL Championship — Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Charleston Battery — 2-2. Mattheus rose to head home a 91st-minute equalizer to snatch a stunning draw and break Charleston Battery hearts in the most dramatic of stoppage-time fashions.

USL Championship — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC vs Indy Eleven — Pittsburgh 1-0. Kelp Lasse smashed home in the 92nd minute to steal all three points for the Riverhounds in a gut-punch finish Indy Eleven won’t soon forget.

USL League One — Portland Hearts of Pine vs Chattanooga Red Wolves SC — Chattanooga 2-1. Pedro Hernandez broke Portland hearts with a 90th-minute winner — just moments after the hosts had clawed level, the Red Wolves stole it right back.

USL Championship — Louisville City FC vs Brooklyn FC — 2-2. Brooklyn FC thought they had stolen a precious road win, but Ray Serrano’s 89th-minute equalizer shattered their dreams and rescued a point for Louisville City FC.

USL League One — One Knoxville SC vs Chattanooga Red Wolves SC — 1-1. Matthew Bentley’s stoppage-time equalizer in a fiery Tennessee derby snatched a share of the spoils for Chattanooga and sent the away end into delirium — a significant point for the Red Wolves, who also picked up a win elsewhere this week.

NPSL — Players Development Academy vs Jackson Lions FC — Jackson Lions 7-1. J. Troiano’s hat trick headlined a brutal road demolition with five different scorers joining the party in one of the NPSL’s most lopsided results of the season.

USL W League — Flatirons FC vs Real Colorado — Real Colorado 10-0. A historic, zero-mercy 10-goal demolition that ranks as one of the most jaw-dropping scorelines the women’s game has produced this year.

USL W League — Manhattan SC vs Paisley Athletic FC — Paisley Athletic 8-1. Paisley’s attackers ran absolutely riot in one of the most dominant away performances the USL W League has seen this season.

USL League One — Forward Madison FC vs Athletic Club Boise — Forward Madison 5-1. Tied at one apiece at the break, the Flamingos exploded for four second-half goals in a stunning blitz that left Athletic Club Boise shell-shocked.

NPSL — Statesville FC vs Charlottetowne Hops FC — Statesville 3-0. In one of the most bizarre performances in NPSL history, D. Carroll single-handedly gifted Statesville a 3-0 win by scoring a hat trick of own goals in the 47th, 80th, and 90th minutes.

USL W League — Utah United vs ALBION SC Colorado — Utah United 8-2. A stunning attacking masterclass from Utah United, who poured in eight goals in a dominant dismantling of ALBION SC Colorado.

NPSL — Oakland Stompers vs Sun City FC — Oakland Stompers 1-0. Sun City FC completely imploded after conceding an own goal — two red cards in six minutes left them with just nine men and no chance of a comeback in a chaotic defeat.

USL W League — Colorado International Soccer Academy vs Colorado Storm — Colorado Storm 9-0. Colorado Storm showed absolutely no mercy in a 9-0 hammering that ranks among the most dominant single results of the entire women’s season.

NPSL — Minnesota Blizzard FC vs Dakota Fusion FC — 2-2. Dakota Fusion looked dead and buried trailing 2-0, but N. Mortenson’s 90th-minute equalizer completed a stunning comeback to snatch a share of the spoils in dramatic fashion.

Until next week — keep watching the beautiful game

Originally published by Lower90 on Substack.