Throughout the 2024 USL Championship season, one of Louisville City FC’s defining traits was the way it responded to adversity.

On Saturday night, however, when the side went behind early to Rhode Island FC, the well had run dry.

RIFC’s 3-0 victory against LouCity before a crowd of 9,510 fans at Lynn Family Stadium in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2024 USL Championship Playoffs was a season-defining win for the visitors, making them the first team since El Paso Locomotive FC in 2019 to advance to a conference final in their inaugural season in the USL Championship, and only the fifth first-year club to be among the final four teams standing in the USL Championship era.

One of those clubs was LouCity, which advanced to the Eastern Conference Final in 2015, the start of a nine-season streak of advancing that far in the postseason that came to an end on Saturday night.

• END OF THE LINE: In the end, LouCity’s reliance on its resilience proved its downfall. In five of its past six home outings, the hosts conceded the opening goal. Louisville rallied for victory in the prior four games, including against North Carolina FC in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, but was unable to muster a response this time.

• BRIDGE TOO FAR: As we noted in October, it’s been rare for clubs that succeed in playing from behind in the regular season to maintain that success in the playoffs. No team that has gained 20-or-more points from losing positions has ever won the USL Championship Final, and LouCity had led the league with 23 points gained.

• HE SAID IT: “It certainly wasn’t good enough tonight. We made too many mistakes and didn’t capitalize on our chances. … There’s been a lot of ups and a lot of downs – but this certainly is not the way we wanted to end it.” – LouCity Head Coach Danny Cruz

Thanks to Koke Vegas’ late penalty kick save on Sean Totsch that denied the hosts a late consolation in stoppage time, Rhode Island became the first team to hold Louisville scoreless on its home turf in USL Championship play since Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC on July 12, 2023, breaking a 27-game home scoring streak for the two-time title winners.

After a record-setting campaign on home turf in which the side won 16 of 17 games at Lynn Family Stadium and recorded 58 goals – both single-season league records – while also setting club bests for wins (24), points (76) and goals (86), LouCity is going home at the earliest point of any postseason in club history.

“I think it’s pretty surreal,” said LouCity defender Kyle Adams. “I don’t think any of us thought it would end this way – the season we had, especially here at home. The fans were huge for us all season, and we made this place a fortress. Rhode Island was the only team that was able to come here and take points off us. Credit to them, and hopefully they can go on and win it all.”

At a club where winning it all is the thing that matters most, the final hole it dug for itself proved the one that ended up inescapable.

“I’m incredibly proud of being able to work with this group this season,” said Cruz. “It was a memorable one in two different ways, obviously. We recognize that tonight wasn’t good enough, and this will sting for a long time.”