After shutting out Charleston Battery’s USL Championship-leading attack in an impressive 1-0 win last time out, Rhode Island FC will face an even tougher test when it welcomes league-leaders Louisville City FC to Pawtucket on Saturday. The only team ahead of Charleston in the Eastern Conference standings, Louisville recently became the first team to clinch a spot in the 2025 USL Championship Playoffs with its eighth-straight result. Rhode Island FC has constructed one of the best defenses in the USL Championship over the last month, but a red-hot Louisville side boasting 15 wins and just one loss in 2025 will prove to be one of RIFC’s most difficult opponents of the season so far. Ahead of Kids Night at Centreville Bank Stadium, here is everything you need to know.
AT A GLANCE
Date | Saturday, Sept. 6
Kickoff | 7:00 p.m. ET
Location | Centreville Bank Stadium – Pawtucket, R.I.
Broadcast | NESN+, ESPN+, TUDN
Radio | 790 The Score (790 AM)
Social | @rhodeislandfc (X, Instagram, Facebook)
Game Hashtag | #RIvLOU
Last Meeting | June 11, 2025: LOU 2-1 RI – Louisville, Ky.
LOUISVILLE CITY FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Damian Las, 12-Danny Faundez, 30-Ryan Troutman
DEFENDERS (11): 2-Aiden Mcfadden, 3-Jake Morris, 4-Sean Totsch, 5-Arturo Ordóñez, 13-Amadou Dia, 15-Manny Perez, 24-Josh Jones, 32-Kyle Adams, 70-Issac Cano, 80-Hayden Stamps, 83-Brandon Dayes
MIDFIELDERS (5): 6-Zach Duncan, 11-Nial Mccabe, 17-Taylor Davila, 27-Evan Davila, 31-Kevon Lambert
FORWARDS (7): 7-Ray Serrano, 9-Phillip Goodrum, 10-Brian Ownby, 16-Adrien Perez, 23-Sam Gleadle, 25-Jansen Wilson, 53-Cameron Lancaster
Another Tough Test
Louisville City FC is tied with Charleston Battery with 45 goals this season, making it the second-straight team to visit Pawtucket boasting league-leading attacking numbers. The club has scored three or more goals in six regular-season games in 2025, including four of its last five games, out-scoring its opponents 15-5 in that time. Led by Phillip Goodrum, who is second in the USL Championship Golden Boot race with 12 goals, nine players have scored multiple goals for LouCity in a balanced attack. Taylor Davila leads Louisville with eight assists. Jansen Wilson and Ray Serrano are tied for second on the team in both goals and assists, each tallying six goals and four assists apiece. The Boys in Purple are unbeaten (6W-0L-2T) in their last eight games and have lost just one of its 22 games this season. Louisville will look to add to that red-hot run in its first-ever visit to Centreville Bank Stadium on Saturday.
Impenetrable in the Back
Louisville’s dominant run of form is not solely due to its blistering attack. On the defensive side of the ball, the league leaders have conceded the second-fewest goals in the USL Championship, letting in just 18 goals in 22 games, or 0.81 goals per game. Louisville leads the league with a +27 goal differential. Its defense is tied for third in the USL Championship with seven clean sheets. Goalkeeper Damian Las is responsible for six of them, and his 59 saves are the third-most in the USL Championship this season. In LouCity’s last two games, Daniel Faundez has stepped in between the sticks, keeping one clean sheet and conceding just one goal in the club’s 3-1 win at Indy Eleven last time out that clinched the club’s 11th-straight playoff berth.
Last Time Out
Even when it is not at its best, Louisville finds ways to get the job done. In its 3-1 win at Indy Eleven last time out, the visitors went down 1-0 after conceding a second-minute goal, and had to weather 45 minutes of intense pressure from the homeside before eventually finding an equalizer. Despite losing Goodrum to injury late in the half, Louisville leveled the score when Aidan McFadden found his third goal of the year from well outside the penalty area, unleashing a rocket from distance to tie the game at 1-1 with Louisville’s first shot on target of the game. In the first 11 minutes of the second half, a pair of headers from Kevon Lambert and Sean Totsch put LouCity firmly in front, and it was enough to come away with a playoff-clinching three points.
RHODE ISLAND FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 22-Jackson Lee, 1-Koke Vegas, 13-Will Meyer
DEFENDERS (7): 4-Hugo Bacharach, 6-Aimé Mabika, 14-Rio Hope-Gund, 15-Frank Nodarse, 2-Dani Rovira, 3-Aldair Sanchez, 5-Grant Stoneman, 24-Karifa Yao, 16-Cole Dewhurst
MIDFIELDERS (12): 80-Isaac Angking*, 18-Joe Brito, 20-Zachary Herivaux, 12-Clay Holstad, 17-Jojea Kwizera^, 8-Taimu Okiyoshi*, 21-Maxi Rodriguez, 77-Amos Shapiro-Thompson, 19-Kevin Vang, 23-Marc Ybarra, 36-Matthew Corcoran^, 7-Dwayne Atkinson
FORWARDS (3): 10-Albert Dikwa, 11-Noah Fuson, 9-JJ Williams
*Out on loan
^International duty
JJ Makes His Mark
In the 69th minute of a tense game vs. Charleston, JJ Williams broke the deadlock with a powerful header for RIFC, scoring the game-winner with his first career goal at Centreville Bank Stadium. After going down with an injury ahead of RIFC’s historic home opener on May 3 and eventually making his return to the field on July 12, Williams’ goal was his first since coming back from injury and fourth of 2025 in all competitions. The goal was the 16th of his Rhode Island FC career, tying him with Albert Dikwa “Chico” for the club’s all-time lead. Williams’ goal showcased his physical strength and aerial ability, giving the Ocean State cub one of its biggest wins of the season and lifting it back above the playoff line in the Eastern Conference standings.
Fortress Pawtucket
Similarly to Louisville, Rhode Island FC boast one of the best defenses in the USL Championship, headlined by Week 26 Team of the Week goalkeeper Koke Vegas. RIFC’s 23 goals conceded are the fourth-least in the USL Championship, and it sits ahead of Louisville with eight clean sheets, good for second-most in the league. Ever since returning from an 11-game injury absence on Aug. 6, Vegas has led a near-impenetrable Rhode Island FC back line to some of the best defensive form in club history. In five games since his return, Vegas has made eight saves and kept four shutouts. With Vegas in goal, Rhode Island FC has kept opponents out of the back of the net for a club-record 367 minutes at Centreville Bank Stadium, going more than a month without conceding a goal in front of its home fans. In its 1-0 win over Charleston Battery, RIFC’s defense shut out the league’s highest-scoring attack, holding it to a season-low five shots.
Scouting the Series
The last meeting between the two clubs, a 2-1 Louisville win at Lynn Family Stadium, was LouCity’s first-ever win against Rhode Island FC after it went winless in three meetings vs. the Ocean State club in 2024. Rhode Island FC has shut out Louisville twice in four all-time meetings, and was the lone blip in the radar of an otherwise record-breaking, near-perfect home record for Louisville over the last two seasons. The five goals Rhode Island FC scored in its 5-2 win in the 2024 regular season were the most ever scored by a visiting team in Lynn Family Stadium’s five-year history, and marked just the second time in Louisville City FC history that the club had given up five goals in a single game. It’s 3-0 win in the Eastern Conference Semifinals later that season made even more history, cementing RIFC as the only team to ever win in Louisville twice in one season, and ending a 10-year streak of Louisville advancing the the Eastern Conference Final in every season of its existence. In the first-ever meeting between the two clubs, the clubs battled to a scoreless draw at Beirne Stadium on May 25, 2024.
