SANDY — Utah’s newest pro women’s franchise is still searching for its first win of the season.

But the Utah Royals took a road draw Saturday afternoon from the top team in the league — and found the offense they've been lacking.

Brittany Ratcliffe scored her second career NWSL goal in the 66th minute to go ahead of league-leading North Carolina, and Utah Royals FC took a point on the road from the league-leading North Carolina Courage, 2-2 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

“It’s great coming here against a North Carolina team that is awesome,” Ratcliffe told Lifetime television after the match. “They are No. 1 in the league for a reason. We played hard against them, and we were up.

“It’s great to go up. But next week, we’ve got to get the W.”

North Carolina (4-0-1) opened the scoring less than six minutes into the match, when Merritt Mathias ripped a right-footed shot from nearly 40 yards out and scorched the back of the net to give the Courage a 1-0 advantage.

The Courage out-shot the visiting Royals 5-0 through the first half hour, and Utah didn’t progress deep into the attacking third until Kelley O’Hara’s attempt was saved in the 35th minute.

But Katelyn Rowland made the save in goal for North Carolina’s stingy defense, which gave up just 19 shots on goal before Saturday.

“I think when we went in at halftime we just needed to keep the ball,” Ratcliffe said. “It was great to score. But next time we want the W.”

Things changed in the second half, though.

Katie Stengel’s opportunistic header inside the six-yard box brought the visitors level, 1-1 on the Royals' second goal of the young season a week after being shut out by Chicago at home.

Ratcliffe scored the go-ahead goal on another opportunistic play in the 66th minute. The third-year professional scored her second career NWSL goal from the outside of the box to give the Royals (0-3-1) a 2-1 lead.

But the Courage, which out-shot Utah 11-4 through 90 minutes, didn’t stay down for long.

Lynn Williams forced Utah goalkeeper Abby Smith to give away a ball around the edge of the box, and Crystal Dunn sliced inside of the defense and lobbed an empty-goal shot into the back of the net for the equalizer with 10 minutes remaining.

“I think we dropped off them a bit,” Dunn said of the Royals’ late comeback. “There were spurts in the second half where we weren’t winning our goals, and let them back in and gave them momentum.”

It was the first time a Laura Harvey-coached side has scored even a draw at North Carolina. The two-time NWSL coach of the year from Seattle was winless in each of her trips to Cary with the Reign.

"It’s a difficult place to play," Harvey said. "We played them at a good time with all of the games they had this week, and we train at altitude, so coming to the east coast is actually good for us. I just said to the girls that if we keep that work rate, and work ethic up, but better the quality, we will be a difficult team to play against."

Local connection:

Former Riverton High standout Darian Jenkins came off the bench for North Carolina. Jenkins, who played collegiately at UCLA, replaced goal-scoring standout Jessica McDonald in the 52nd minute.

Next up:

Utah returns home April 28 to host Portland Thorns FC (2-1-1) at 7 p.m. MT at Rio Tinto Stadium. The game will be streamed on KSL.com and the KSL TV app.

North Carolina hosts the Houston Dash (0-1-2) at 1:30 p.m. MT Saturday, April 28.

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