{"id":2392330,"date":"2026-04-28T02:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2392330"},"modified":"2026-04-28T02:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:59:11","slug":"player-spotlight-cronin-muira-and-lacasse-make-history-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/player-spotlight-cronin-muira-and-lacasse-make-history-in-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Spotlight: Cronin, Muira, and Lacasse Make History in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Sunday, April 26, 2026 &#8211; Lumen Field<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Utah Royals FC returned from a two-week international break in dominant fashion, defeating Seattle Reign FC 3-0 at Lumen Field to extend their unbeaten streak to four matches. Goals from Royals\u2019 captain <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/utahroyals\/players\/paige-Cronin\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paige Cronin<\/a>, Japanese international <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/utahroyals\/players\/narumi-miura\/\" target=\"_blank\">Narumi Miura<\/a>, and forward <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/utahroyals\/players\/cloe-lacasse\/\" target=\"_blank\">Clo\u00e9 Lacasse<\/a>\u2014all in the first half\u2014secured Utah\u2019s first away win against Seattle since 2019 and marked the largest away victory in club history.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Cronin Makes History Early<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Marking her first start this season after recovering from a rib injury, Royals captain Paige Cronin wasted no time making an impact. Just 50 seconds into the match, Cronin received a pass from Mina Tanaka on the right side and fired a shot into the upper-left corner, giving Utah an immediate 1-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>The goal marked Cronin\u2019s first of the 2026 season and the fastest in club history, surpassing Clo\u00e9 Lacasse\u2019s early strike in 2024. It was also the first goal scored by Royals within the opening minute of play, and ranks among the fastest in NWSL history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Narumi Miura Lengthens Lead<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Building on the early momentum from Cronin\u2019s opener, URFC struck again just minutes later to take control of the match. In the 7th minute, a Royals corner created a scramble in the box before defender Kaleigh Reihl collected the ball near the top of the 18\u2019 and slipped a pass to Narumi Miura, who converted the opportunity with a right-footed shot into the net to double Utah\u2019s lead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Making her first start of the season after a preseason injury, the Japanese midfielder made an immediate impact. Her goal marked her first of the 2026 campaign and her first for the club, while also securing a historic moment\u2014the first time the Royals have scored twice within the opening 10 minutes of a match.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>The Japanese midfielder is getting her first start for the Royals after suffering from an injury in the final preseason match in March. The goal marks Miura\u2019s first of the 2026 and her first goal for the Royals. The goal also marks the first time in club history to score two goals in the first 10 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Lacasse Seals First Half<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>With Utah Royals FC already in control, Clo\u00e9 Lacasse put the match firmly out of reach just before halftime. In the 42nd minute, Spanish midfielder Ana Tejada found Lacasse making a well-time run, and the forward calmly slotted a left-footed finish past the keeper to extend Utah\u2019s lead to 3-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Fresh off international duty, where she recorded an assist for Canada, Lacasse continued her strong run of form. After creating a season-high number of chances in a recent match against the Chicago Stars, her goal was a deserved reward and further proof of her growing impact in Utah\u2019s attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>With the result, Utah moves into third place in the NWSL standings while also securing the largest away win in club history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>URFC will look to carry forward that momentum on the road against Angel City FC at BMO Stadium next Saturday, May 2 (6:45 p.m. MT kickoff) before returning home to host the Houston Dash at American First Field on Wednesday, May 6 (8:00 p.m. MT kickoff). Tickets are available to purchase at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/utahroyals\/tickets\/\">https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/utahroyals\/tickets\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsl.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, April 26, 2026 &#8211; Lumen Field Utah Royals FC returned from a two-week international break in dominant fashion, defeating Seattle Reign FC 3-0 at Lumen Field to extend their unbeaten streak to four matches. Goals from Royals\u2019 captain Paige Cronin, Japanese international Narumi Miura, and forward Clo\u00e9 Lacasse\u2014all in the first half\u2014secured Utah\u2019s first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2392331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[348419,466728,365247,240735,326184,348414,188835],"class_list":["post-2392330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-cloe-lacasse","tag-narumi","tag-paige-monaghan","tag-urfc-latest-news","tag-urfc-matchday","tag-urfc-player-news","tag-utah-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Player-Spotlight-Cronin-Muira-and-Lacasse-Make-History-in-Seattle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2392332,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392330\/revisions\/2392332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2392331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}