Carolyn Ruoff’s goal felt like a rocket no one saw coming, launching the Portland Cherry Bombs into their inaugural season as the ball neatly tucked into the upper corner of Drip FC’s net in the ninth minute.The goals kept coming, three more by full time, giving the Cherry Bombs a first win in their history. It was a hot start befitting the momentum already brewing off the pitch.“With this organization being brand new, there wasn’t a lot of certainty of what to expect,” defender Audrey Dizon, who scored their second goal of the preseason exhibition game this past weekend, tells The Athletic. “To go out and for us to show up and have fun and enjoy being out there playing together, it was such a cool way to open the season.”Fans let off pink smoke bombs when midfielder Ruoff scored that first goal. More than 2,000 smiling supporters — including members of the Portland Opera, who sang in the stands — filled out the Oregon city’s Lents Park on a Sunday night to mark the occasion.“You could see the passion Portland has for supporting their sports teams,” Dizon says. However, the Cherry Bombs broke into the local scene before first kick, thanks to their savvy kit design and partnerships.The Cherry Bombs are the latest team to take the Portland soccer scene by storm (Cherry Bombs)Starting this week, the Cherry Bombs will play in the USL W League, a competition unsanctioned by U.S. Soccer that sits between college and professional soccer in the United States. Their roster features the likes of Dizon, a rising junior at Gonzaga University in neighboring Washington, and Ruoff, who graduated from Cornell University in 2018 and has played for various teams since. The team even has a few high-school players.The club are picking up on the interest surrounding women’s sports right now. More people are investing in the space than ever before, and the Cherry Bombs’ ownership group — Collide Sport — is no different. But with more teams getting involved in women’s sports, standing out can be difficult. From the start, the Cherry Bombs set out to find a way to do that, and “be culturally relevant” in the growing scene.Weeks before that inaugural match, the team launched a loud marketing campaign, creating an identity through social media that is unapologetically Portland, inspired by the city’s music scene. Their team name is a reference to The Runaways’ hit song of the same name, released in 1976.They found their viral moment when they released their inaugural kits, featuring Planned Parenthood as their front-of-kit sponsor. Their campaign included social media posts with U.S. women’s national team icon and broadcaster Shannon Boxx, as well as a Portland-based musician, Ava, in their drag persona. The kit quickly sold out.