Kaleigh Kurtz powers Courage past Royals

Kaleigh Kurtz scored in the 76th minute to break a scoreless tie, lifting the North Carolina Courage to a 1-0 victory over the Utah Royals on Friday night in Cary, N.C.

Utah (1-8-1, four points) made life easy for Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy, who didn't even have to make a save to record the clean sheet. The Royals failed to put a shot on goal while losing for the seventh time in their past eight matches.

Kurtz allowed North Carolina (5-5-0, 15 points) to snap a three-match skid. The Courage had been held without a goal in each of their previous two matches.

Although it never put a shot on target, Utah did threaten in the final minutes of the match, when Hannah Betfort missed a pair of solid chances wide right. She came up empty on a header in the 83rd minute before failing to convert a left-footed shot in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.

--Field Level Media