2026 USL-W Full Season Recap

Our first season in the newly formed Northeast Division didn't end in Newburgh with a trophy, and it didn't end with a playoff berth either, but if you watched this team from May 16th to the final whistle, you already know a line in the standings doesn't tell the whole story.

We finished the 2026 regular season 6-2-2, runner-up in the Northeast Division to a Vermont Green FC side that went all the way to the USL W League National Final on July 18th. One club gets the division's playoff spot in this league, and this year that club wasn't us only by a matter of one goal.

Back to the Beginning

May 16th against AC Connecticut stained the start of our season, a painstaking, game-tying goal in extra time dropped us two points and left us with a draw to open our first Northeast Division campaign. The month of May yielded just four points in four matches, and outside the club, that looked like exactly the story people expected: a talented group still finding its footing against a division loaded with Power 5 names and expansion-club buzz.

Then the 'saders decided losing was so last month. Hudson Valley did not lose a match from May 29th through the back half of June, ripping off a run that included a statement 3-1 win over Hartford Athletic on June 25th, punctuated by Joy Okonye's give-and-go finish in the 38th minute, a Jael-Marie Guy breakaway to double the lead, and a late Emmanuella Frimpomaa strike to put it away. Four days later, on June 20th, this group put up four goals on the road against New England Mutiny in a 4-2 win that saw four different Crusaders — Okonye, Imani Morlock, Marta Carrasco Mesa, and Emmanuella Frimpomaa — all find the net. That is a full team effort in the truest sense.

By the Numbers

You cannot talk about this team's season without talking about Joy Okonye. The Brown University midfielder was a matchup problem for every defense in the Northeast Division from the opening whistle, producing goals and assists in bunches all summer, headlined by a four-goal stretch against New England Mutiny, AC Connecticut, and Hartford Athletic through the middle of June and never letting up from there. She scored again in the June 20th win over New England and was still finding the net into the season's final weeks. Her connection with Right to Dream product Emmanuella Frimpomaa gave this team a one-two punch that had answers for every defense in the division. Frimpomaa's five goals through five matches played in June alone spoke for itself.

And it wasn't just production within our own locker room, this group produced across the entire conference. Joy Okonye finished the year as the Northeast Division's leading scorer with six goals, Emmanuella Frimpomaa was right behind her at five, and Abigail Danso rounded out the conference's top three with four of her own. Three Crusaders inside the top three goal scorers in the entire conference is a number that speaks for itself.

Defensively, this group quietly put together one of the stingiest backlines in the Northeast, conceding well under a goal a game across the middle stretch of the season. Marta Carrasco Mesa, Imani Morlock, Lina Ballmann, Paige Place, and Madi Heitman all rotated through the back four and made life miserable for opposing attacks, while Brianne Macdonald, Kayla Kalbaugh, and Perri Anderson, who made her W League debut this season held things down between the pipes.

June truly was a full-team effort. Sam Guckian and Riley Pettigrew scored their first goals for the club. Head Coach Mitchell Kazanjian coached his 50th match with the organization. New faces made their debuts, records fell, and every single player on this roster had a night where they were the difference.

Award Winning Season

The league took notice, too. Joy Okonye was named a 2026 USL W League Eastern Conference Standout, one of just eight players across the entire Eastern Conference to earn the recognition. She was named alongside players like Kayleigh Goodrich (Long Island Rough Riders), Taylor Jenkins (Hartford Athletic), and Aaliyah Faddoul (Eagle FC), good company for a midfielder who spent her summer torching the best defenses the Northeast had to offer. It's exactly the kind of individual recognition that comes from doing the quiet work all season: showing up in every match, producing points at a two-per-game clip during our hottest stretch, and dragging a young club into relevance in year one of a brand-new division.

Looking Ahead

We came up a game short. We know it, and we're not going to pretend the standings say something they don't. But this club took a roster people wrote off in May as undersized against Power 5 talent and turned it into the second-best team in a Northeast Division that sent its champion to a National Final. We did that by not losing for over a month, by scoring in match after match, by getting first goals and first appearances out of players who will only get better, and by producing a Conference Standout in just our second season in this league.

The future of this program is already taking shape. Lyyli Stern and Arianna Chin were the two most-played high schoolers in the entire conference this season, banking meaningful minutes against grown women years ahead of most players their age. Chin and fellow academy product Riley Pettigrew both came up through our internal academy, proof that the pathway we've built from the youth ranks to the first team is already paying off. And this offseason, Amanda DaSilva and Marta Carrasco Mesa signed professional contracts, taking the next step in careers alongside Jael-Marie Guy who will compete for the Philippines in the 2027 Women's World Cup. The future is bright.

Underdogs don't stay underdogs forever. See you all in 2027.