Its been a long wait but the end of the UPSL’s 2022 Autumn/Winter Season is upon us. The league has 20 matches slated for this weekend, including 16 Regional Cup matches spread over three days with the two semi-finals, third place match, National Title match, and six additional regional cup matches all taking place at Great Sports Complex in Southern California. Vyre, will be the home of the UPSL Finals and you should be able to catch all the action there.

Santa Cruz FC vs SCU Heat

02/03/23 at 5:30 pm (PST) from the Championship Soccer Stadium at Great Park Sports Complex

Santa Cruz FC, from Lowell, Massachusetts, outscored Detroit United 5-2 in an exiting league quarterfinal. Finishing second in the New England Division, Santa Cruz FC were led by Mario Prata who finished the season with 10 goals. He added 4 more in the playoffs so far, to help his side win three playoff matches in a row; over WHC Alliance FC 3-2, New Jersey Alliance FC 2-0, and previously mentioned Detroit United 5-2, back on December 4th - they’ve been on hold since that time and are set to now face SC Heat in the UPSL National Semifinals.

SCU Heat, from Columbia, South Carolina battled to get past a very competitive Little Haiti Supreme out of Miami, 1-0, on Saturday, January 21st. The Heat have not lost all year; winning the Mid-Atlantic with 10 consecutive wins in conference, scoring an amazing 54 goals and only conceding 7. Every match is a total team effort, with goals coming from 15 different contributors - led by 7 from Mitchell Backer, 5 from Alejo Binaghi, and 5 from Seth Hanson. Meanwhile playoff goals have come from Dan Wheeler, now with 3, and Matheus Barrozo with 2 in their 2-0 shutout of a potent Olympiacos and a 3-2 thriller over Beaman United FC in round two.

Santa Cruz FC from New England take on SC Heat from the Mid-Atlantic

Olympians FC vs rush acm3

02/03/23 at 8:30 pm (PST) from the Championship Soccer Stadium at Great Park Sports Complex

Olympians FC finished 1st in the Arizona Conference and went undefeated with 9 regular season wins and 1 draw - 28 points and +24 goal difference. They had 7 different players with multiple goal seasons; including, 8 goals from Paul Garcia and 7 from Paolo Cardozo. While the high-scoring didn’t continue into the first rounds of the playoffs; edging past ADG FC 2-1 then eking past LA Galaxy Academy 2-1, Olympians FC blasted their way past a travel-weary Deportivo Rose City in the Quarterfinals, with Dawoda Sesay bringing his playoff goal tally up to an astonishing 9 goals.

Rush ACM3, are the Cinderella team of the tournament, having gone on the road back in December to face Olimpia FC and win 1-0; then away to D’Feeters and blow them out 4-1 - most recently, last week, the Rush ACM3 boys travelled to St David’s Performance Center in Austin, Texas and defeated the MLS Academy side for Austin FC, 4-2. If you took a look at the table for the West Texas / New Mexico Conference from last Autumn, you’d see they finished just 3rd, with only 4 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses - playing two fewer matches than most sides who entered the post-season. Everything revolves around Matthew Alvarado in the offense; he led the team with 12 goals during the regular season (Arturo Astorga and Joel Barboza each had 5 to themselves) and Alvarado now has 5 in the playoffs.

Olympians FC out of Arizona go head-to-head with Rush ACM3 of West Texas/New Mexico

Protagonist Soccer’s Post-Season Coverage of UPSL
by Joshua Duder