Former Union Academy teammates facing off in College Cup final

When the college soccer season officially comes to a close tonight, a Philadelphia Union Academy grad will be crowned a champion. The question is whether it will be Morgan Hackworth or Sebastian Elney.

Morgan Hackworth and Sebastian Elney, who were teammates on the Union U18s during the 2014-2015 Development Academy season, will meet tonight in the College Cup final in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Elney, a Boca Raton, Florida native who spent his senior year of high school with the Union U18 team and graduated from YSC Academy, is playing in his first College Cup as a senior forward at Maryland. It was his goal that held up in a 1-0 win over Kentucky that sent the Terps to semifinal, where they were able to get past No. 2 seed Indiana on Friday with a 2-0 win in their third meeting of the season.

Hackworth, who graduated from Strath Haven High School, is in his third College Cup after making it as a freshman at Syracuse and making it last year when it was at Talen Energy Stadium. The son of current Louisville City FC head coach and former Union manager John Hackworth, Morgan nearly opened the scoring on Friday night when he had a free header in the box but hit the crossbar on a play that resulted in the first of the Zips’ five goals in a 5-1 win over Michigan State in the semifinal.

Hackworth played 54 minutes in the match and had an assist. The assist was his fifth of the season to go along with four goals. Michigan State freshman Olu Ogunwale, a Union Academy/YSC Academy grad, did not play in the match.

Today’s game kicks off at 8 p.m. eastern time and will be broadcast live on ESPNU.

Matt Ralph

Matt Ralph