FULLERTON — The Angel City Football Club had a difficult first half in Saturday’s NWSL Challenge Cup game.

In a five-minute span in the first half, Angel City allowed two goals. In the 31st minute, midfielder Savannah McCaskill was given a red card and sent off due to a reckless challenge on OL Reign’s Veronica Latsko.

By the time the dust settled, despite a much-improved effort in the second half, Angel City FC (0-1-1) suffered its first loss, falling 3-1 to visiting OL Reign at Titan Stadium in front of 4,156.

“One of the big things is us using the Challenge Cup as a process to be able to test our team,” ACFC coach Freya Coombe said. “I think today we were tested. I was really, really pleased with the performance despite being a player down.

“If you look at some of the statistics, we completed more passes than we did last week, we were better in possession than we did last week, we dominated possessions and I think that was a great performance.”

Angel City opened its Challenge Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against San Diego Wave FC last week.

Angel City opened Saturday on the front foot against the Reign, leading toward a couple of near misses from Tyler Lussi and Christen Press.

In the 12th minute, the Reign got on the board on a Latsko goal. Five minutes later, Alana Cook’s header just eluded the grasp of Angel City goalkeeper DiDi Haračić for a 2-0 lead.

In the second half, Simone Charley replaced Jun Endo at one of the forward positions and made an instant impact. Down 3-0 after an Angelina goal in the 50th minute, Charley nearly scored in the 64th minute, but her shot was saved by OL Reign goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

Later, Charley would factor in on Angel City’s goal, with a cross to Tyler Lussi, who arrived on time to beat Tullis-Joyce with a one-touch blast. The play was extended due to Jasmyne Spencer’s work on the wing to get the initial ball to Charley.

“I just wanted to get in and bring some energy,” Charley said after her Angel City FC debut. “I was really proud of the team. Obviously not the result that we wanted, but the effort that we gave and the energy that we kept, I just wanted to come in as try to bring as much energy as I can.”

Coombe credited Charley for changing the tone of the second half.

“She looked absolutely great,” Coombe said. “One thing that we know from recruiting her, she can terrorize defenders and I think she did that today. I think her link up play with Jasmyne (Spencer) was really, really good.

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“I would like to see if we had that extra player, that we obviously took out of our forward line to be able to cope with being a player down, if we have another player in there, I think it is a different game.”

Angel City will continue the Challenge Cup on Wednesday on the road against the Portland Thorns (7 p.m.) and then head to San Diego for a Saturday afternoon game against Wave FC.