JJ Williams, Jojea Kwizera and Nick Scardina Named to USL Championship Week 12 Team of the Week
USL Rhode Island FC

JJ Williams, Jojea Kwizera and Nick Scardina Named to USL Championship Week 12 Team of the Week

Published on May 26, 2026 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Rhode Island FC News Release


PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Rhode Island FC announced today that a club-record three players have been named to the USL Championship Team of the Week for Week 12: Forward JJ Williams, midfielder Jojea Kwizera and defender Nick Scardina. The trio combined for five goal contributions in RIFC's dominant 4-1 win over Brooklyn FC, with Kwizera and Williams both recording braces - marking the second time in club history two players have scored multiple goals in the same game.

Kwizera opened the scoring in the 38th minute to kickstart the attacking barrage. The move began when Williams picked the ball off of a defender in the final third, and ended when Kwizera deposited a low, driven shot past a defender and into the far-side netting to put the Ocean State club ahead. Later in the game in the 72nd minute, Kwizera stole the show with a beautiful curling goal, perfectly picking out the top-right corner with a long-range strike that was named a Week 12 Goal of the Week finalist. The goal marked Kwizera's first career brace for Rhode Island FC, and saw him set a new single-season career high less than halfway through the season with his fifth goal of the 2026 campaign. It was also RIFC's 100th USL Championship regular-season goal as a club.

Williams came alive late in the second half, scoring two goals in just two minutes to put the game to bed. In the 83rd minute, he combined with Scardina for one of the smoothest give-and-go sequences of the season, nodding the ball to Scardina on the goal line before getting the ball back with a quick, one-touch cross. Williams wasted no time meeting the ball, plucking an acrobatic volley out of the air and slamming it inside the near post to give RIFC a two-goal cushion in style. The assist from Scardina was his tied-team-leading third of the season across all competitions, and his second in as many regular-season games.

Williams completed his club-leading seventh career brace for Rhode Island FC less than two minutes later, rising up at the near post to nod home Noah Fuson's corner kick in the 85th minute. Williams leads the club with seven goals and two braces this season, and is RIFC's all-time leading goalscorer with 26 goals.

The honor is the club-leading ninth of both Williams and Kwizera's RIFC career, and the first of Scardina's USL Championship career. Williams, Kwizera and Scardina are the fifth, sixth and seventh players to be named to the USL Championship's Team of the Week in 2026:

WEEK DATE NAME HONOR

2 3/17/26 Frank Nodarse Team of the Week (Bench)

3 3/24/26 Jojea Kwizera Team of the Week (Bench)

5 4/7/26 Frank Nodarse Team of the Week

8/9 5/5/26 JJ Williams Team of the Week (Bench)

12 5/26/26 JJ Williams Team of the Week

12 5/26/26 Jojea Kwizera Team of the Week

12 5/26/26 Nick Scardina Team of the Week

Up next, Rhode Island FC will hit the road for an Eastern Conference battle with Indy Eleven on Saturday, May 30 at 7 p.m. Then, the Ocean State club will return home for Kids Night on Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m. when it welcomes USL League One side Westchester SC to Centreville Bank Stadium in the Prinx Tires USL Cup. Tickets for the next home game are available now at rhodeislandfc.com/tickets.

For Rhode Island FC news and updates, visit rhodeislandfc.com, subscribe to RIFC's monthly newsletter, follow the club on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, X and LinkedIn, and download the official team app.

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from May 26, 2026


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