— Heading into last month’s Women’s ICC tournament, the North Carolina Courage had lost two of its previous four NWSL matches, looking uncharacteristically out-of-sync in the process. The capper was a 2-1 loss at Portland that saw the Courage surrender two second-half own goals to cede away a result.

North Carolina seemed to click into form during the two-match ICC, despite a hard-fought loss to Olympique Lyonnais on Aug. 18. The Courage have been on a roll ever since, save for a ragged first half at Sky Blue on Aug. 24 that earned the team a tongue-lashing from manager Paul Riley. North Carolina came into Tuesday’s home match against the Houston Dash with four wins on the trot, outscoring their opponents 15-2 over that span.

The Dash came to Cary on Tuesday with a game plan to hold the Courage at bay, and it succeeded for the bulk of the match. However, a late, controversial penalty against Houston and an ensuing Sam Mewis goal from the spot gave the Courage a 1-0 victory, clinching North Carolina a NWSL playoff berth.

“It wasn’t one of our great performances,” Riley said. “We were a little fatigued with our fourth game in 10 days. We looked a little bit tired and sluggish, especially in the midfield. The last 25 minutes of the first half we were really good ... In the second half, we pinned them in but we didn’t play great.

“[Houston] had a great game plan. But you can’t say that they deserved to win the game. We deserved to win the game. I don’t know if it was a penalty … but we deserved to win the game. We created enough chances to win, even if we weren’t sharp enough in the final third today.”

Meanwhile, Houston manager James Clarkson felt hard done by.

“What I take away [from Tuesday’s match] is that the standard of refereeing in this league isn’t good enough," Clarkson said. "Numerous times this season that’s cost us points. We get criticized that we haven’t performed at a level, and we come out tonight and put everything into the game.

"We should have had a clear penalty earlier in the second half, and then the referee’s gone and done that [called a late penalty against Houston]. I’ll get a letter in a week saying we got it wrong, but its happened six, seven, eight times this year, and it’s not good enough for the standard of the league and the standard of the players. The refereeing has to improve.”

North Carolina was playing its fourth match in 10 days, including a 6-1 win over the Orlando Pride just three nights ago. Still, the Courage dominated the run of play throughout the opening 45 to the tune of nearly 64 percent possession and a 13-3 (4-0 on-target) shot advantage. However, Houston held their low block, only occasionally venturing into their offensive third when the periodic counterattack appeared to present itself.

In the 28th minute, Lynn Williams drove end line and centered a cross to Debinha in the box, but Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell made one of her four first-half saves. Sam Mewis delivered a long, looped service at the far post in the 33rd minute, but Williams’ unmarked header skimmed over the crossbar. Crystal Dunn got off an angled shot in the 41st minute, but Campbell was again positioned well for the save.

The Courage continued to carry the game to Houston throughout the second half. In the 81st minute, Courage midfielder Crystal Dunn clanged a strong shot off the crossbar. Then, chaos ensued starting in the 86th minute when Houston’s Kristie Mewis was whistled for a penalty for toppling over Dunn in the area.

The Dash howled in protest, including Kristie Mewis, who was booked for dissent. Meanwhile, Sam Mewis, Kristie’s sister, stepped up to the spot and slotted her penalty kick underneath Campbell for the 1-0 game-winner.

Riley and Sam Mewis both said before Tuesday’s match they discussed Mewis taking any penalty kicks that might occur.

“Jane has been so great from the line, and we knew that would be a challenge if it came up,” Sam Mewis said. “Paul had confidence in me to step up and take it. I had been practicing them for the World Cup, and I felt like I was in a good position to take it.”

After the match, center referee Thomas Synder, responding to a pool reporter’s questions, wrote that in his opinion, “[K. Mewis] impeded the progress of her opponent with contact.” Riley and Sam Mewis both said they didn’t see the contact that triggered the Houston penalty, and thus couldn’t judge the call. Clarkson expressed no such equivocation.

“You can’t tell me that was a penalty, not in a million years,” Clarkson said with disgust in his voice. “So I’m really frustrated because our team played really well tonight, and we made it very difficult for them, and we got absolutely nothing out of the game, unfortunately.”

Clarkson also objected to the failure of Synder to whistle a penalty against Jaelene Hinkle for knocking over Sofia Huerta in the 58th minute. Responding to the pool reporter, Synder wrote that “the play involved normal soccer contact.”

“Stonewall,” Clarkson said. “The ball was thrown into her, she went to play it back, and she was fouled in the box and play was waved on.”

Riley said he agreed with the referee’s non-call of the 58th minute incident.

“That’s not a penalty for me," Riley said. "[Huerta] backed into Jae, the ball dropped, and [Huerta] jumped forward. That’s not a penalty for me. I don’t know if the Crystal one was a penalty, but that one certainly wasn’t a penalty. I would have been furious if they gave that.”

However, Riley also felt wronged about another non-penalty call in the first half.

“The foul on Debinha in the first half was a clear penalty for me, a clear penalty," Riley said.

While the Courage used all three of their subs by the 83rd minute, Clarkson only went to his bench once, in the 89th minute.

“I thought we were doing well, and everyone had a clear idea of what their responsibilities were,” Clarkson said. “It was a tough ask of the players, and at the time I felt we were quite comfortable.”

North Carolina (13W-4D-4L, 43 pts) clinches a NWSL playoff berth and inches three points shy of clinching its third consecutive NWSL Shield and a home playoff semifinal match. The Courage take their weary legs to Utah this Saturday for a road match against the Royals, then remain on the road to face the Washington Spirit on Sept. 28.

“The priority isn’t winning the Shield,” Riley said. “The priority was never getting to the playoffs. The priority is keeping everybody healthy and keep the performances high as we go into the remainder of the season. We don’t mention playoffs, we don’t mention championships and Shields.”

“It was a good grind,” Sam Mewis said. “We’ve had a lot of games this week, and I think Houston came out and presented us with some challenges that it was good to overcome. We have a lot more to do this season, so I’m proud of the team of playing for the win.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NC: Labbe, Mathias (O’Reilly, 78’), Erceg, Dahlkemper, Hinkle, O'Sullivan, Mewis, Debinha (Spetsmark, 83’), Dunn, Hamilton (McDonald, 65’), L. Williams

HOU: Campbell, Chapman, Brooks, Prisock, Hanson, Schmidt, Nairn (Kizer, 89’), K. Mewis, Huerta, Ohai, Daly

GOALS

NC: ---

HOU: ---

CAUTIONS

NC: ---

HOU: Daly, 73’; Brooks, 74’; K. Mewis, 86’

EJECTIONS

NC: ---

HOU: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,943