Debinha's Second-Half Hat Trick Sends Kansas City Current Past Bay FC 5-1

For roughly 45 minutes, Bay FC had a plan, a lead for a while and a goalkeeper standing on her head. Then Debinha came out of the locker room and turned the second half at CPKC Stadium into a solo show.

Debinha scored three times in a 30-minute span after the break, Haley Hopkins had a goal and an assist, and Temwa Chawinga added a late breakaway as the Kansas City Current beat Bay FC 5-1 on Saturday evening. Karlie Lema's fourth-minute opener gave the visitors a lead and a club record, but Kansas City outscored them 4-0 after halftime.

Bay Lands the First Punch

The visitors started like they had read the scouting report. In the fourth minute, Racheal Kundananji sprang Lema on a fast break, and Lema finished from outside the box into the bottom right corner. According to Bay FC, it was her eighth goal of the year, a new club record for goals in a single regular season.

Kansas City answered with a corner kick avalanche. The hosts earned three corners in the next three minutes, and Jordan Silkowitz had to save a Hopkins shot in the seventh. The pressure finally cracked the door in the 24th minute. Off another corner, Silkowitz saved Hopkins' header, but the ball stayed alive in a crowded six-yard box and Hopkins poked it home from point-blank range. Bay FC's recap noted that a short video review confirmed the goal.

The rest of the half was a shooting gallery with no prizes. Silkowitz stopped Michelle Cooper in the 27th, Lorena saved from Kundananji in the 33rd, and the 40th minute alone featured blocked shots from Hopkins and Cooper plus a Silkowitz save on Debinha. Bay had its moments too. Alex Pfeiffer fired just over twice, including once in stoppage time, and Lorena kept out a Lema shot during six minutes of first-half stoppage time. It was 1-1 at the break, and honestly, Bay would have signed for that.

The Half That Belonged to One Player

The turning point took less than a minute to arrive. Kansas City brought on Laney Rouse for Elizabeth Ball at halftime, and almost immediately Hopkins split the Bay defense with a pass to Debinha, who finished from the center of the box. Kansas City's recap said the shot curled in off the inside of the post.

Seven minutes later, Cooper released Rouse down the right, Rouse crossed first time, and Debinha headed it into the bottom right corner for a 3-1 lead. Bay coach Emma Coates sent on Keira Barry and Kennedy Fuller in the 58th minute, and the visitors had brief looks through Claire Hutton and a Kundananji header, but the Current kept coming. Hopkins missed twice, and substitute Amelia White had three efforts in three minutes either miss or get blocked.

White kept swinging until she connected. In the 75th minute, her cross found Debinha in close, and the header completed the hat trick. Debinha came off five minutes later with her work very much done. Chawinga finished the night in the 89th minute, running onto Rocky Rodríguez's long ball, rounding Silkowitz and rolling it into an empty net, per the club.

The Record Book Gets a Workout

Debinha put four of her five shots on target and scored three. Per Kansas City, she became the first player in club history to record a hat trick entirely in one half, and her first goal moved her past Alex Morgan into sole possession of fourth on the NWSL's all-time regular season scoring list. She now has 63 career regular season goals, three behind Christine Sinclair, and the club calls her the league's all-time leading scorer across all competitions.

Haley Hopkins took seven shots, put four on target, scored once and set up the go-ahead goal. She had a hat trick of her own the previous week against Denver, which, per the club, made Kansas City the first team in NWSL history with hat tricks in back-to-back weeks.

Temwa Chawinga scored her 12th goal of the regular season. Kansas City says she has now scored in each of her first five matches against Bay FC, equaling a record Morgan set against the Washington Spirit.

For Bay, Jordan Silkowitz made four saves and kept the first half respectable, and Lema gave the visitors a real lead to defend.

Kansas City coach Chris Armas framed the night as a step forward in identity. "We've worked hard for nine months now to be a team that's dangerous when we don't have the ball, you can see that we are," he said. "And we're becoming that team that can be dangerous when we do have the ball."

Stats That Matter

• Shots: Kansas City outshot Bay 24 to 12 and put 10 on target to Bay's four.
• Corners: The Current won 12 corners to Bay's two, and that pressure produced the equalizer.
• Crosses: Kansas City attempted 33 crosses. Two of the nine that connected became Debinha headers.
• Clearances: Bay made 40 clearances, a sign of how long it spent defending its own box.
• Possession: Nearly even at 51.1 percent for Kansas City. This was not about the ball. It was about the box.

What It Means

Kansas City improved to 13-5-9 with 44 points, followed a 4-1 win over Denver with this 5-1 rout, and climbed to fifth place, according to the club. The Current also extended their league-record home unbeaten streak at CPKC Stadium to 31 matches and matched the league record of three hat tricks in a single season. They had already beaten Bay 2-1 on the road on Sept. 4, so Kansas City won both regular season meetings. Next up after the international break was a trip to the Utah Royals on Oct. 17.

Bay FC fell to 7-5-15 with 26 points and has lost two straight. The club had already been eliminated from playoff contention, and Coates was clear about what came next. "I thought we did a good job to go 1-0 up," she said. "I'm really disappointed in the manner of the goals we conceded." Bay's next match was at home against the Portland Thorns on Oct. 18.

Closing Take

Every great second act needs a lead who refuses to share the spotlight, and Debinha delivered a full one-woman show in half an hour. Bay FC did a lot right for 45 minutes. It just could not account for a forward who treats halftime like a costume change.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes as reported by the Kansas City Current and Bay FC.