West Chester United riding high into regional final of National Amateur Cup

After knocking off familiar opponents Christos FC and FC Motown, West Chester United will play Boston club Safira FC for the first time on Saturday with the Region 1 championship of the National Amateur Cup on the line.

The game, which will be hosted at Ukrainian American Sports Center in North Wales, kicks off at 7 p.m.

Both teams come into the game playing well. Safira has gone 8-0-0 in their current season in UPSL while West Chester United is coming off a United Soccer League of Pennsylvania title campaign where they finished 19-0-0 and won the majors division by 10 points.

“We played a lot of soccer this spring and we beat some big teams,” head coach Blaise Santangelo said. “Saturday will be a big test.”

West Chester United won a lopsided affair 7-0 over Torch FC on Wednesday night to improve to 5-1-0 in their second season in the National Premier Soccer League.

“We’ve worked hard all season and we’ve prepped for the league and other tournaments,” said midfielder Mike Gonzalez after the Torch FC match. “This is the main tournament in our minds.”

The winner will make it to the national semifinal of the National Adult Soccer Association competition.

Santangelo plans to draw from a core group of players like Gonzalez and recent Villanova grad Andreas Bartosinski to help lead the team in Saturday’s match.

“It’s always fun to play in a final,” Bartosinski said. “I’m expecting our opponent to be very good. It’s going to be a good match. I also feel like our team plays at our highest level when we have good competition.”

West Chester will also have a U23 team competing in the Region 1 tournament on Saturday and Sunday in North Wales, where the regional finals for the Werner Fricker Cup and the Gerhard Mengel Cup (Over 30) will also be played. West Chester also has another team playing Christos FC in the Over 40 Cup final at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

It’s one of three finals the Maryland-based Christos FC will play this weekend. They play Warehouse Gunners in the Over 30 final at 11 a.m. before taking on Jackson Lions FC in the Werner Fricker Cup final at 1 p.m.