Alex Morgan ties NWSL record with four goals in San Diego win

San Diego Wave FC beat NJ/NY Gotham FC 4-0 Saturday night in their inaugural regular season home opener, thanks to a history-making performance from Alex Morgan.

Morgan scored four times in the win, tying the record for most goals scored by a single player in an NWSL game. Sam Kerr scored four for Sky Blue in 2017 while Kristen Hamilton had four for North Carolina in 2019.

It's FOUR for @alexmorgan13! 😱

The forward becomes just the fourth player to tally 4️⃣ in an NWSL match!@sandiegowavefc | #WaveFC pic.twitter.com/WmNzJA48nm

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 8, 2022

The Wave midfielder also recorded 14 shots, breaking Lynn Williams’ record, which had stood at 13. Of those 14 shots, 13 came inside the box – another NWSL record.

San Diego totaled 29 shots inside the box, the highest total by any NWSL team.

The game between San Diego and Gotham had the highest number of shots inside the box for one team in the #NWSL history: 29, one more than North Carolina Courage against Chicago Red Stars (May 6, 2018, maybe it's the date).

Kudos to @arielle_dror for the heads up.

— Tony ⚡ (@xGisfornerds) May 8, 2022

The first goal Morgan scored, a penalty kick, was her fifth in eight games and first of the regular season.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better night for ourselves and for our city,” said Morgan, who was celebrating daughter Charlie’s birthday on Saturday. “There’s no doubt about it that I’m home.”

“They looked like they had fun tonight and that was so pleasing for me as a coach to see that they were having so much fun,” said Wave coach Casey Stoney. “Another clean sheet; I think we’ve got the best goalkeeper in the world.”