Huntsville City Football Club Ends Historic Week with a Win in Inaugural Home Opener

Last week was truly one for the history books when it comes to Huntsville sports. 

After starting off with a ribbon cutting to unveil the newly renovated Joe Davis Stadium, Huntsville City Football Club (HCFC) capped off the week by picking up a win during the first ever home match at Wicks Family Field. 

The club notched their first win of the season, a 2-1 affair against MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference leaders Crown Legacy FC. The win snapped Crown Legacy’s unbeaten run that had been going ever since their first match of the season, also against HCFC, ended in a draw and losing the shootout. 

Jony Bolaños made club history by scoring the first home goal for HCFC. Azaad Liadi  scored his team-leading third goal of the season in the second half, which would be the game winner. 

A sellout crowd of 5,605 fans packed the stands to witness the historic match. Before the match, Huntsville City FC welcomed fans to Wicks Family Field as thousands arrived early to visit the Yellowhammer Brewing Craft Beer Garden, hear the national anthem from Huntsville artist Dawn Osborne, and watch the Wicks Family do the honorary coin flip. 

When the match got underway, Crown Legacy got on the board in the opening minutes courtesy of Jacob Williams. In the last five minutes of the first half, Huntsville City FC finally got a breakthrough after a series of key passes from  Randall Leal, making his HCFC debut from Nashville SC, that served it up for Jony Bolaños, who finished it off to equalize. 

Huntsville was able to grab the lead in the 70th minute on the counterattack, as Ollie Wright found a long ball to Liadi, who put it past the Crown Legacy keeper. HCFC was able to hold off the Eastern Conference leaders to secure its first win of their inaugural campaign and put an exclamation mark on a history-making week.

Head Coach Jack Collison spoke to the press after the game. 

“It was just a moment just to savor, first-ever home game in front of this wonderful crowd at the Joe, first win for Huntsville City in regulation time, and just a real good performance, a real team performance and within it some real bright individual spots as well,” Collison said. “Towards the end today, you see that they were playing with even more energy, and I think a big part of that was the 12th man, the crowd. They were out there, they were phenomenal throughout. What a way to win a game. To come back, to play like that and to really, really put in a good performance against a top team.”

Jony Bolaños and Azaad Liadi were also available at the post game presser. When asked about the beginnings of a rivalry being formed with Crown Legacy, who has won every match this season aside from the two matches against HCFC, Bolaños stated that though he could see why people might think that, he and the rest of the players approach every game with the same mindset and are only focused on getting the win and improving as players. 

HCFC is back in action on Friday, May 26 at Joe Davis Stadium.