Fort Wayne Football Club Remains Unbeaten at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium with 1-0 Victory; Now 2-0-1 at Home
USL1 Fort Wayne FC

Fort Wayne Football Club Remains Unbeaten at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium with 1-0 Victory; Now 2-0-1 at Home

Published on May 9, 2026 under United Soccer League One (USL1)
Fort Wayne FC News Release


Fort Wayne Football Club opened its new home, Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, with three matches in the span of eight days. And the results were terrific.

Taig Healy continued to display his offensive prowess, and goalkeeper Bernd Schipmann had another clean sheet, as Fort Wayne FC defeated Westchester SC 1-0 on Saturday night in front of 2,872 fans. Fort Wayne FC improved to 2-0-1 at 6411 Bass Road.

Healy has scored in four straight USL League One matches, including the first goal ever scored at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium on May 2, when the club played the Charlotte Independence to a 2-2 draw. Healy also had a highlight reel-caliber goal in Wednesday's 3-0 victory over Portland Hearts of Pine.

Schipmann assisted on that goal, becoming only the fourth goalkeeper in league history to get an assist, and he had four saves for the clean sheet. On Saturday, Schipmann had another four-save performance for his third clean sheet of the season, and it included a key stop on a Koen Blommestijn shot from point-blank range in the 29th minute.

Healy scored in the 35th minute, after Michael Rempel fed him a centering pass from deep in the lefthand corner. Also pivotal on the play was Lilian Ricol, who made it look as if he was going to take possession of the ball, drawing the attention of the Westchester defense, then allowed it to roll to Healy for a shot from 12 yards out.

"I'm going into every game with confidence, and I think the team is gaining confidence, and that helps you individually obviously," said Healy, a first-year pro for Fort Wayne FC, which improved to 3-2-2 this season. "We didn't have a great start, but I think we've shown in the last month how we've grown as a team. I think a couple months ago, we would have folded in a game like that. But we stuck together and it was a nervous second half, but we grounded it out. Two clean sheets in a row, Bernd has been unbelievable. It feels good to be scoring goals, but it's really whatever I have to do to help the team."

It was the 30th shutout of Schipmann's USL League One career and he's now one shy of Akira Fitzgerald for third on the all-time league list. Rashid Nuhu has 47 and Lalo Delgado has 34.

Westchester SC's goalkeeper Saturday, Luca Marinelli, stopped 4 of 5 shots on target. His team dropped to 2-5-1 and is on a three-match losing streak.

"What a great week. I mean, you get seven points on the week. And three games in eight days is a challenge," Fort Wayne FC head coach Mike Avery said. "I don't think our energy matched what it was in the last game out, but sometimes you've got to gut these things out. I'm really proud of the guys."

Next up for Fort Wayne FC is a Prinx Tires USL Cup match against Indy Eleven, which plays in the higher-level USL Championship division. In Fort Wayne FC's only previous USL Cup match, it lost 3-1 to Louisville City FC, but the Autumn Gold & Black did hold an early lead on a Ricol goal.

The Victory & Liberty Derby against Indy Eleven will be Saturday at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium. Buy your tickets. And prepay your parking.

Match photos

Interviews

FORT WAYNE FC 1-0-1

WESTCHESTER SC 0-0-0

May 9, 2026

At Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Attendance: 2,872

RECORDS: FW 3-2-2; WES 2-5-1

GOALS: FW-Taig Healy; WES- None.

ASSISTS: FW-Michael Rempel; WES- None.

SAVES: FW- Bernd Schipmann 4; WES- Luca Marinelli 4.

POSSESSION: FW- 45.4%; WES- 54.6%

YELLOW CARDS: FW- Daniel Oyetunde, Jeremy Garay, Taig Healy; WES- Maximus Jennings, Daniel Bouman.

RED CARDS: FW-None; WES-None.

REFEREE: Stefan Perri.

Check out the Fort Wayne FC Statistics

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United Soccer League One Stories from May 9, 2026


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