West Chester United captures first state cup double with win over UGH in Frank Giancroce Cup final

West Chester United captured its first ever state cup double with a 3-0 win over United German Hungarians on Sunday afternoon led by a trio of players who have consistently stepped up in big games over the past several years.

Chas Wilson scored the winner, Troy Amspacher assisted on Wilson’s goal and the third goal from Carter Burris while also drawing the foul that set up a PK goal for Mike Gonzalez in the 3-0 win in the Eastern Pennsylvania Soccer Association Frank Giancroce Open Cup final played at The Proving Grounds in Conshohocken.

The win for West Chester United followed a state cup win last month when the Predators got the better of rival Vereinigung Erzgebirge in a 4-0 to capture the EPSA Robert M. O’Neill Amateur Cup. Amspacher had a hat trick in that win.

“The best teams, the best players, they set these little goals for themselves, sometimes they make up little things,” said Wilson, the lone player on the field Sunday who was with the team when they won the same competition en route to capturing the national Werner Fricker Cup in 2015. “This is one of those things on our list that we wanted to do. It’s just good to be able to do it.”

Wilson’s goal shifted the tide in the game that was mostly dominated by UGH for the first 20 minutes.

“They had us packed in and honestly goals change games,” Wilson said. “We were able to get that goal in and the whole attitude changed, we were able to control the ball a little bit more and kind of create more consistent pressure on them.”

That pressure led to a couple of big chances UGH goalkeeper James Brett did well to keep out but a foul on Amspacher near the edge of the box that set up the Gonzalez penalty doubled West Chester’s advantage.

With UGH pressing for a goal and nearly finding the breakthrough on a couple occasions, Amspacher was able to take advantage of a turnover and could’ve taken it off the breakaway to try and add a goal for himself but dished it off to Carter Burris for the easy finish to cap off the match late in the second half.

“He’s done a lot of great things and inspired a lot of great kids that want to play for us,” West Chester United head coach Blaise Santangelo said of Amspacher. “He’s just clutch and class.”

West Chester players celebrated on the field and posed for photos with both cups afterwards, soaking up a moment that has been a goal for the club for the better part of the past decade.

“It’s been something we’ve been striving for for going on eight years now and it’s very difficult to do because we have a lot of good teams in this part of the state that want to compete,” Santangelo said. “We’ve been playing a lot of soccer hard in the last two years and this is a culmination of it.”

With both state cups in hand, the team will look ahead to competing for Region 1 crowns in both competitions this spring along with entry into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which is returning after a two-year hiatus. The club qualified for the U.S. Open Cup with both its USL League Two and NPSL squads.

“We’re either going to win or we’re going to lose,” Santangelo said of all the competitions they’ve now played their way into for 2022. “But my mom always said the Lord doesn’t give you more than you can handle so we’ll see.”

Lineups

West Chester United: Leonardo Lopez, Levi Maruca, Clay Moyer, Shane Bradley, Colin Muller, Conor Bradley, Mike Gonzalez, Spencer Burkhardt, Troy Amspacher, Chas Wilson, Justin Jaime

Subs Used: Carter Burris, Mason Miller, Blaise Milanek, Sama Tima

UGH: James Brett, Adam Nork, Ken Lassiter, John Gravelle, Joseph Hansen, Belal Mohamed, Bob Hennessy, Anthony Amore, Matthew Sullivan, Ken Tomczuk, Sixtus Akinlosotu

Subs Used: Jason Rocha, Dakota Taylor, Jason Pixley

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