This Friday night Minnesota Aurora plays host to Chicago side Edgewater Castle FC for the first ever meeting between Aurora and the Rooks. ECFC came into the W League for the 2026 season following an unbeaten 2025 campaign that saw Edgewater hoist the National Championship of United Women's Soccer. The Rooks have done well adapting to their new league with a 4-1-1 (13 points) record after six matches. That has out Edgewater Castle in third place and towards the edge of the playoff hunt.
Minnesota Aurora however, has dominated the Heartland Division winning all seven matches played and all of them ending in clean sheets. Aurora has scored an astounding 22 goals this season, led by midfielder/forward Ai Kitagawa, who has tallied nearly a third of those goals. Defensively the team has been lead by defenders Olivia Albert and Kyra Karfonta, and goalkeeper Taylor Fox. This combination have led Aurora to go seven matches without having given up a single goal. Ultimately adding up to Aurora's best season through seven matches.
But the Rooks do pose a challenge for Minnesota Aurora. Edgewater Castle's offence has scored 9 goals in 6 matches to average 1.5 goals per match. While not a ton of goals in comparison to the 22 goals that Aurora has scored it is still a significant amount of scoring. Elyse Deschryver leads the Rooks with three goals followed by Jocelyn Leigh who's scored twice for ECFC. The Rooks have not scored more than two goals in a single match this season, but have put two goals in three of the six matches on the campaign.
Edgewater's defence has been the crux holding the Rooks near the top of the Heartland. ECFC has allowed just four goals in six matches and only once allowing two goals. That came in a loss to Rochester FC and has resulted in the Rooks defence giving up just 0.67 goals per match on average. Goalkeeper Molly Vapensky has allowed all four of those goals, but she has earned three clean sheets (of the Rooks four) this season as the bedrock of Edgewater's defensive effort.
News & Notes
Friday night's match is Disability Awareness Night. This match is also the only meeting of the season between Aurora and Edgewater Castle.
Edgewater Castle's Mali Seran graduated from MSU-Mankato following playing the 2021 & 2022 seasons with the Mavericks.
Ai Kitagawa leads Minnesota Aurora's scoring with seven goals in seven matches.
Taylor Fox clinched her fourth clean sheet of the season against Sioux Falls. Isaac Ranson has one clean sheet and the other two were combined efforts.
Minnesota Aurora has two more home matches after Friday night. Those coming on the 17th and 20th of June.
USL W League Playoffs are set to begin on 3 July with the Conference Semi-Finals.
