Minnesota Aurora FC dominates RKC Third Coast 10-0, improves to 3-0

Minnesota Aurora wallop RKC Third Coast

The Minnesota Aurora are off to a blistering start to the 2023 season, including a start-to-finish one-sided win at home versus RKC Third Coast.

EAGAN (FOX 9) - Nicole Lukic had a message for her team before Minnesota Aurora FC took the pitch against RKC Third Coast Wednesday night at TCO Stadium: Do not underestimate them, do not take them lightly.

RKC entered the night 0-3 and with just one goal on the season. It's safe to say after a 10-0 win, Minnesota Aurora FC players received Lukic's pregame message. The team's goal song is "Tequila" by The Champs, and it got a full-blown workout Wednesday night in front of more than 4,500 fans in Eagan.

Aurora scored six first half goals, led by Maya Hansen's hat trick, and never looked back in its most dominant effort of the season thus far. The lopsided margin at half allowed Lukic to put in seven new players for the second half.

Hat trick for Maya Hansen as Aurora goes up 4-0

Maya Hansen netted a hat trick in the first half of the Minnesota Aurora's game on May 31, putting them up 4-0 against RKC.

"Nice to see our team come out strong and finish strong today. We got a lot of different looks at players, a lot of different players stepping up and it was just nice to see us work on a few things that we’ve been working on in training come out today," Lukic said. "I think today we were really just clinical and sharp in different areas that we haven’t been in the last two games."

Minnesota Aurora scores 6 in first half against RKC

Minnesota Aurora FC had a dominant first half against RKC Third Coast Wednesday night with six first half goals, led by a Maya Hansen hat trick.

Hansen, one of the team's 17 returning players from last season, scored in the third minute to give Minnesota Aurora a 1-0 lead. She added goals in the 19th and 31st minutes for a first half hat trick. Her second goal came on a perfect cross from Makenzie Langdok. Her third came on a pass near midfield, and she did the rest.

"My mentality was if it comes, it comes. But obviously I was striving for that, that’s a cool achievement and wouldn’t be possible without my teammates. They really put them on a platter for me, made my job super easy," Hansen said.

Hansen now has six goals on the season through three games. She became Minnesota Aurora's all-time leading scorer with 10 career goals, passing Morgan Turner's eight last season. She also became the first player since Turner last year to record a hat trick.

"She’s on a great pace, we’re super excited about it. She’s been super clinical with her finishing. She’s just taking advantage of some small things and she’s really grown in her game from last year to this year. It’s been nice to see, we’ll support her staying on that pace if she can," Lukic said.

Minnesota Aurora also got first half goals from Catherine Rapp, Arianna Del Moral and Morgan Stone. After the six scores in the first half, Aurora had 15 in their first five halves of the season.

If you thought they would take the foot off the gas in the second half, the offense was just getting started.

Minnesota Aurora scores 4 2nd half goals in 10-0 win

Minnesota Aurora FC scored four second half goals in a 10-0 win over RKC Third Coast Wednesday night at TCO Stadium.

Minnesota Aurora FC added goals from Sophie French, Tianna Harris, Hannah Adler and Kaitlyn McBean in their most dominant offensive effort of the season so far. Aurora had seven different scorers on the night after coming into the game with nine goals on the season. Five players scored their first goal of the season.

The 10 goals in a single game also marks a franchise record for Minnesota Aurora FC. They also became the third USL-W team to score at least nine goals in a win this season.

"It’s nice to see a variety in goals and goal-scorers. It helps us as we continue through the season to make players feel good, that they can be the person to score on any given night," Lukic said. "Every game we continue to sharpen things up. We’re continuing to find those little tweaks and bring them into our next game."