"I finally got it": Kaleigh Kurtz, six goals and a worm in the rain keep Denver Summit FC alive

Photo courtesy: @victorgraphy_20

In first-half stoppage time Saturday night, Janine Sonis whipped in a free kick and Kaleigh Kurtz headed it in. Then Kurtz and Megan Reid hit the soaked Centennial Stadium grass and did the worm.

It was Kurtz's first goal in a Summit shirt and her first anywhere since April 2025. She has started all 29 of Denver's matches this season and played the full 90 in every one. Until Saturday, she had no goals and no assists.

The celebration was planned long before the goal came.

"We talked about it eight months ago when we were still training at Infinity Park. So it has been in the works for a while," Kurtz said. "However, scoring a goal has been in the works for a little while for me. So I finally got it, and then she didn't think that I would remember eight months later, but I did."

Ally Brazier was supposed to be the third worm. "All three of us can do the worm, and so she was going to be a part of it, but I don't think she wanted to get wet from the grass," Kurtz said. "So she was like, you guys do your thing. She's just the ultimate hype woman, always."

That header made it 2-0 at halftime. Denver Summit FC beat Racing Louisville 6-1 on fan appreciation night, the last home game of the club's first season. Louisville took six shots all night and put one on target.

The win keeps Denver's playoff hopes alive going into Decision Day. On Sunday, the Summit need to win at North Carolina and need Orlando to beat Seattle.

"This is the place to play"

At kickoff there were plenty of empty seats. A lot of fans were standing under the bleachers, waiting for the cold rain to pass. When it did, the seats filled, and Centennial sold out.

Tash Flint usually doesn't hear any of it.

"Normally I'm quite switched off when I play football. Well, soccer. I'm normally just in the zone and I don't really focus on anything," Flint said. "I could hear them tonight, and it's probably like that every week, but I think I was a little bit more listening to them. I actually did think in the game, damn, it's cold for me. Like, you all must be freezing, and you're still here sat here supporting us."

The home season opened March 28 at Empower Field at Mile High in front of 63,004 people, an NWSL record. It closed with a sold-out stadium in the rain. Asked to compare the two nights, Nick Cushing said Empower will always be special and that the difference was the 6-1 win on Saturday. He still thinks Denver should have won the opener.

Then he went further.

"In my opinion of going around NWSL, this is the place to play," Cushing said. "If I was a player, I'd be desperate to come play here in front of these fans, because not only is the atmosphere and the energy fantastic, but just the bond between fans and players is really, really special."

At Centennial alone this season, the Summit went 6-2-2. That's 20 of a possible 30 points. Saturday matched the 6-1 win over Chicago in August as the biggest of the year.

It also started at the back. Denver's defense has taken plenty of criticism this season. Against Louisville it gave up 11 touches in its own box, while Denver had 48 in Louisville's. The Summit outshot Racing 9-1 in the first half and completed 415 of 475 passes, 87.4% to Louisville's 82.9%. Abby Smith faced one shot on target all night.

Cushing started two rookies, Natalie Means and Devin Lynch, in one of the biggest games of the year. Their attitude and application are 10 out of 10, he said, and every time players perform like that, it makes his job harder for the next one. Means set up Lindsey Heaps for Denver's fourth goal.

"Oh, here's my opening"

Kurtz's best moment of the night doesn't show up next to her name on the stat sheet.

In the 59th minute she hit a long diagonal ball over Louisville's back line to Yazmeen Ryan. Ryan outran the defenders and squared it for Melissa Kössler, who made it 3-0. Ryan got the assist. The idea was Kurtz's, and she'd checked it with Ryan at halftime.

"I talked to Yas at halftime and just asked her if the long diagonal ball was on. And she was like, oh yeah, especially when you're a little higher up on the pitch," Kurtz said. "I think their defenders start to shift really early to try and get pressure on. So the gap between their outside back and their center back got big, and I was like, oh, here's my opening. And it actually hit my foot well and went in the way I wanted it."

Kurtz spent eight seasons with North Carolina and won two NWSL championships there before coming to Denver. Cushing said she has had "such a desire to score from a set play all year." FotMob rated her 8.07 on Saturday, her best of the season. She completed 70 of her 75 passes.

Sonis had a bigger night still. She had two assists, the first two-assist game of her NWSL career, which gave her 20 goal contributions this season, third in the league. FotMob rated her 9.03, best on the field. Flint scored twice, the first brace of her NWSL career, and now has eight goals, tied with Kössler for second on the team. Kössler has scored in back-to-back games. Heaps scored with her head again.

The six goals give Denver 53 this season, the most in the NWSL. The club says that ties for the third-most in a single season in league history.

There was a test, too. Louisville finally scored in the 79th minute to make it 5-1, and for a team that has spent the season leaking goals right after the opponent scores, that's usually where things go wrong. Two minutes later, Ryan scored Denver's sixth, her first goal since Sept. 6.

Cushing isn't calling the problem fixed. Asked about Denver's history with two-goal leads, he said he'll keep challenging the group on it, then added, "I think I need another season."

Under the press box, the 14ers were chanting "We want tacos." It was a callback to the old Rockies deal, when seven runs at Coors Field meant free Taco Bell for the crowd. The Summit stopped at six.

"All of the pressure is on them"

The top seven seeds are set. One playoff spot is left, and three teams are chasing it, all with 29 games played.

Seattle is eighth with 44 points and a plus-3 goal difference. North Carolina is ninth with 42 and plus-9. Denver is 10th with 41, and Saturday's six goals pushed its goal difference to plus-12, best of the three.

So the math is now simple. Denver has to win at North Carolina, and Seattle has to lose at home to Orlando. A Seattle draw gets the Reign to 45, out of Denver's reach. A Seattle win puts them in regardless. If Denver wins and Seattle loses, both teams finish on 44, and goal difference decides it. Denver would be at plus-13 or better and Seattle at plus-2 or worse.

Orlando has already been eliminated. Kurtz said after the game that the Summit will be rooting for the Pride "more than anything else in the world."

All the Decision Day games kick off at 3 p.m. Mountain on Sunday, and ESPN+ is carrying every one of them.

North Carolina brings the league's top scorer. Ashley Sanchez has 20 goals, tying the NWSL single-season record Temwa Chawinga set in 2024, and she's the first American to reach 20 in a regular season. She tied the record from the penalty spot against Utah on Sept. 27 and hasn't scored in three games since. She has 20 of North Carolina's 51 goals. When she broke the Courage's club scoring record, it was off a long ball from her own keeper, outrunning three Angel City defenders. Denver has been beaten over the top that way more than once this year.

The numbers favor a fast start. Denver has scored 15 goals and allowed four in the first 30 minutes this season. North Carolina has conceded 25 of its 42 goals before halftime. When the Courage score first, they're 12-0-1. When they concede first, they're 1-2-12. The Summit are 10-3-4 when they score first.

There are warning signs, too. Denver has given up 12 goals between the 31st minute and halftime, its worst 15-minute stretch, and North Carolina has scored 25 of its 51 after the hour mark. The Summit have conceded seven penalties this season, and the Courage are 5-for-5 from the spot. A penalty helped decide the teams' August meeting, a 2-0 North Carolina win finished off by a late Ally Schlegel goal. Heaps was a late scratch that night with swelling in her leg. Sunday will be her first game against the Courage in a Summit shirt.

Cushing put the pressure somewhere else.

"You've got North Carolina that were all the way up there and are now out of the line, and you've got Seattle that probably should be there consistently, and then you got Denver Summit that's having a year where we're just attacking everything, right?" he said. "So we're going to go there with a huge desire to win. But I definitely think that all of the pressure is on them. Got another opportunity next week, right? And maybe it's 'cause of the wind, but I've got a good feeling."