Three Goals in 15 Minutes: Dallas Trinity Breaks Fort Lauderdale 3-0 at the Cotton Bowl for Its First League Win Since September
For 70 minutes on Youth Sports Night, Dallas Trinity could not find a way through. Then Fort Lauderdale went down to 10, and the game broke open — Castain at 71, Moore at 75, Eichenberger at 86, the last of them set up by a 15-year-old making her professional debut.
Dallas Trinity FC spent most of Sunday evening looking for a way through Fort Lauderdale United, and found three of them in a quarter of an hour. The 3-0 win at the Cotton Bowl — Dallas's first league match at Fair Park since Sept. 13, and its first league victory since Sept. 18 — turned on a sending-off: after Fort Lauderdale's Taylor Smith collected a second yellow card, Dallas scored three times in 15 minutes against 10 players to close out the final meeting between the clubs in the 2026 Gainbridge Super League campaign.
The goals came in a rush. Seven Castain poked in the opener in the 71st minute — her fourth goal of the fall, level for the team lead — after Fort Lauderdale's goalkeeper could not corral a free kick. LJ Moore doubled the lead four minutes later. And in the 86th minute, Kalea Eichenberger added the third, set up by Kaiya Brewer — a 15-year-old making her professional debut, and now the youngest player ever to appear for Dallas. Before the game broke open, Dallas had needed its own goalkeeper: Neeku Purcell dove to her right in the first half to save Sh'nia Gordon's low shot from just outside the six-yard box, the visitors' best chance of the afternoon.
The result moves Dallas Trinity to 4-4-2 with 14 points; Fort Lauderdale falls to 2-8-1 with 7 points and heads home to face Tampa Bay on Friday. For Dallas, the number that matters is the date: Sept. 18, the last time this team won a league match, was also a win over Fort Lauderdale. A crowd of 2,116 came out for Youth Sports Night on an overcast evening in the upper 70s, and the youngest player on the field gave them the night's last assist. Some droughts end quietly. This one ended with three goals and a debut.
