Troy Amspacher has scored a lot of goals over the last 10 months — 31 in league play alone — but none were bigger than the one he scored in the 119th minute of the Region 1 final of the National Amateur Cup on Saturday night.
The Lock Haven grad from Leola got on the end of a long pass from captain Mike Gonzalez and beat the keeper to break open a scoreless game against Boston UPSL club Safira FC, setting off a dog pile celebration.
“It felt familiar,” Amspacher said of the goal that was similar to one he scored on the same field last fall against the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals. “It was important to get a goal there.”
The goal was a long time coming for a West Chester team that managed a bulk of the chances even after losing defender Peter Nolan to a straight red card nine minutes into the match.
“Even though we were down a man it didn’t feel like it with the amount of talent we put out on that field,” Amspacher said.
Matt Greer, a Philadelphia Union Academy grad who is also playing for Reading United this summer, added an insurance goal three minutes later.
“We kind of just stuck to the game plan,” said midfielder Kyle Martyn. “We started to go after them a little bit more because we could just sense that they were getting tired.”
Head coach Blaise Santangelo put out a lineup with a blend of veterans from the NPSL and United Soccer League of Pennsylvania teams like Gonzalez, Martyn, Chas Wilson and James Graf with younger players like Greer, recent Villanova graduate Andreas Bartosinski, Amspacher and current Nova player Luca Mellor. He brought in fresh legs late in the match like Notre Dame duo Aiden McFadden and Senan Farrelly.
“The guys just showed a lot of character,” Santangelo said. “They knew they could win the game.”
While they didn’t play from behind, pulling out a win playing with 10 men for 111 minutes was still no small feat. On the road to the regional final, the reigning USLPA champions twice came from behind to beat Christos FC and FC Motown.
“Whatever adversity we’ve faced, we’ve just stuck together,” Martyn said. “It’s what we wanted and what we’ve worked so hard for.”
West Chester United last made it this far in a national cup in 2015 when they won the Werner Fricker Open Cup.
The United States Adult Soccer Association Amateur Cup has been in existence since 1924. It’s been won five times by teams from the Philadelphia region, twice by the Philadelphia German-Americans in 1933-34, the Philadelphia United German-Hungarians in 1965 and twice by Philadelphia Inter in 1973-74.
“This is the kind of list we want to be part of,” Santangelo said of the competition. “It’s time for our club to be on the list.”
The four regional champions will meet for the semifinals in early August. West Chester United has submitted a bid to host both the semifinal and the final.
West Chester United also captured the Region 1 Over-40 Cup on Saturday with a 5-4 win over Christos FC in extra time.