Rhode Island FC has hit its stride ahead of its first-ever Star Wars Night. Unbeaten in four-straight games against USL Championship competition, headlined by dominant 4-0 win vs. Charleston Battery on April 22 and a penalty-shootout win at Hartford Athletic in the Prinx Tires USL Cup on April 25, the Ocean State club will return to regular-season action at home with confidence as it gears up to host Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday, May 2. RIFC will look to continue its red-hot run of form on Saturday and pick up three-straight league wins for the first time since its historic 2024 playoff run as it welcomes fans for an action-packed night of Star Wars-themed entertainment and promotions. Ahead of Star Wars Night at Centreville Bank Stadium, here is everything you need to know.
AT A GLANCE
Date | Saturday, May 2
Kickoff | 7:30 p.m. ET
Location | Centreville Bank Stadium – Pawtucket, R.I.
Broadcast | myRITV, ESPN Select
Digital | WPRI 12+ Streaming App
Radio | 790 The Score (WPRV 790 AM)
Social | @rhodeislandfc (X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok)=
Game Hashtag | #RIvBHM
Last Meeting | Aug. 20, 2025: RI 1-0 BHM – USL Cup Quarterfinals – Pawtucket, R.I.
BIRMINGHAM LEGION FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Jassem Koleilat, 12-Trevor McMullen
DEFENDERS (6): 2-Leo Duru, 3-Phanuel Kavita, 4-Ramiz Hamouda, 20-AJ Patterson, 26-Amir Daley, 27-Bryce Washington
MIDFIELDERS (6): 6-Samuel McIllhatton, 8-Kadeem Cole, 11-Dawson McCartney, 16-Peter-Lee Vassell, 18-Seth Antwi, 19-Gevork Diarbian
FORWARDS (8): 9-Ronaldo Damus, 14-Samuel Shashoua, 15-Tyler Pasher, 17-Romario Williams, 21-Sebastian Tregarthen, 23-Sebastian Saucedo, 77-Nico Brown, 81-Serge Ngoma
Heating Up
After getting off to a slow start to the season, Birmingham Legion FC has begun to find its form, and is unbeaten in its last four games across all competitions. It recently collected its first win of the season in resilient fashion, fighting to a 1-0 shutout win at home against defending USL Championship title-winners Pittsburgh RIverhounds SC on April 12. It followed up its first regular-season win with a 2-2 tie vs. Indy Eleven on April 19, before hitting the road in a cross-conference matchup at San Antonio FC to open its 2026 Prinx Tires USL Cup campaign. There, the Legion picked up a valuable point after holding San Antonio to a scoreless tie, but later fell in a penalty shootout that gave San Antonio an extra point in the Group 3 standings. Despite the shootout loss, the Legion will come to Pawtucket riding its best run of form of the season, and will look to make it five-straight results with its first-ever win vs. Rhode Island FC.
Pasher Leads the Attack
Five players for Birmingham Legion have found the back of the net so far in 2025, led by Tyler Pasher. Pasher, who is playing in his fourth season with the Alabama club, has three goals in his last three games for Birmingham, surpassing his 2025 scoring total just six games into the young 2026 season. He also leads the team with 12 chances created through six games. Pasher opened his 2026 account on April 4, fueling the beginning of the club’s four-game unbeaten streak with a brace in the club’s 2-2 tie at Loudoun United FC. In Birmingham’s 2-2 tie vs. Indy Eleven last time out in the regular season, Pasher opened the scoring with his third goal of the season. Samuel McIllhatton, Samuel Shashoua, Sebastian Tregarthen and Romario Williams have also scored a goal apiece for a Birmingham side that has netted multiple goals in three of its last four regular-season games, and fallen victim to just two shutouts in league play this year.
Re-Writing the Recordbooks
Birmingham has enjoyed a heavy stretch of home games at Protective Stadium to open the 2026 USL Championship regular season, playing four of its first six games in Alabama. Its trip to Pawtucket will be just its third road contest of the regular season, where it is winless (0W-1L-1T) in its previous two games. In order to pick up its first road win of the year on Saturday, the Legion will have to do something it has never done before: win in Rhode Island. It is winless in five all-time meetings with the Ocean State club (0W-4L-1T), taking just one point in the all-time series. Last season, the two clubs met twice in Pawtucket, beginning when Birmingham earned its first-ever result vs. RIFC with a 1-1 tie on July 5. Later that season, the Legion returned to Centreville Bank Stadium, falling 1-0 to the Ocean State club in the USL Cup Quarterfinals on Aug. 20.
RHODE ISLAND FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Koke Vegas, 13-Will Meyer, 29-Jacob Castro
DEFENDERS (8): 2-Dani Rovira, 3-Aldair Sanchez, 4-Hugo Bacharach, 5-Grant Stoneman, 15-Frank Nodarse, 22-Nick Scardina, 24-Karifa Yao, 25-CJ Williams, 32-Hamady Diop
MIDFIELDERS (7): 7-Dwayne Atkinson, 10-Agustín “Pity” Rodríguez, 12-Clay Holstad, 17-Jojea Kwizera, 19-Kevin Vang, 21-Zachary Herivaux, 77-Amos Shapiro-Thompson
FORWARDS (5): 8-Leo Afonso, 9-JJ Williams, 11-Noah Fuson, 14-Logan Dorsey, 20-Jamin Gogo Peters
Opening the Floodgates
Rhode Island FC is unbeaten in four games against USL Championship opposition, including an exciting stretch of back-to-back wins in its last two regular-season games where the club has out-scored its opponents 7-1. In its last two games, a 3-1 win at Lexington SC and its second-largest shutout win in club history, a 4-0 win vs. Charleston Battery, on April 22, five different players found the back of the net for the Ocean State club. JJ Williams led the charge with his first brace of the season vs. Charleston, scoring multiple goals in a game for the sixth time in his RIFC career and bringing his team-leading total to four goals in ten games across all competitions. Jojea Kwizera, who scored in both of RIFC’s last two league games, is the club’s regular-season leader with three goals, scoring in back-to-back regular season games for the second time in his RIFC career and matching his career-high goal total for the Ocean State club just six games into the regular season. Elsewhere, Dwyane Atkinson (3), Logan Dorsey (1), Aldair Sanchez (2), Leo Afonso (1), Nick Scardina (1), CJ Williams (1) and Dani Rovira (1) have all contributed to RIFC’s 17-goal attack through 10 games across all competitions.
Defensively Sound
In Rhode Island FC’s last four games against USL Championship competition, it has kept three clean sheets and conceded just one goal. Extending that record across all competitions, RIFC has conceded just two goals in its last six games, one of which came in RIFC’s U.S. Open Cup penalty-shootout loss vs. Major League Soccer club New England Revolution on April 11. Goalkeeper Koke Vegas, who will look for his third-straight shutout against Birmingham, is just 11 minutes away from the 10,000 career regular-season minutes played in the USL Championship. The 2025 Golden Glove runner-up has kept 27 career shutouts across all competitions for Rhode Island FC, and has established himself as one of the Championship’s premier shot-stoppers between the sticks.
For the Recordbooks
Rhode Island FC will look to string together three-straight regular-season wins in the USL Championship on Saturday for the first time since October 2024, when it began a stretch of nine game unbeaten that took it on a historic run all the way to the USL Championship Final. A win on Saturday would mark just the third time in club history that RIFC has won three-straight regular-season games and the first time it has done so since its inaugural season. It would also be the first time it has done so this early in the regular season, adding to what has already been the club’s best-ever start to a season through six games. Prior to the 2026 season, the club had only picked up two regular-season wins in the month of April through two seasons. It has now doubled that total in 2026, with a chance to make history vs. Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday.
