Canadian Leon leads Wave to victory over Courage
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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Adriana Leon scored two goals, Kristen McNabb added her first goal of the season and the San Diego Wave beat the North Carolina Courage 5-2 on Sunday night.
San Diego (6-2-2) is unbeaten with five wins in its last six games.
McNabb tapped in from point-blank range off a crossing header played by Trinity Armstrong to give San Diego the lead for good in the 54th minute.
North Carolina's four-game unbeaten streak, which included three wins, was snapped.
Feli Rauch opened the scoring for North Carolina (3-4-3) in the 12th minute. Manaka Matsukubo played an arcing cross to the back post where Rauch bounced a header off the front post and into the net to give the Courage a 1-0 lead.
Perle Morroni, on the counterattack, put away a one-touch finish from the center of the area off a cross played by Delphine Cascarino that slipped through three defenders to get to Morroni. Leon gave the Wave a 2-1 lead in the 40th minute. Gia Corley took the ball from North Carolina's Kaleigh Kurtz before Leon rolled in a first-touch shot from near the penalty spot.
Manaka blasted a shot that deflected off teammate Jaedyn Shaw but she tracked down her own miss and slammed home a one-touch finish to make it 2-2 in the 51st. The 20-year-old has three goals and an assist in the last two games.
Leon scored in the 60th minute with a one-touch finish from the top of the penalty arc off a feed played by Hanna Lundkvist from well beyond midfield. María Sánchez capped the scoring in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
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