After a long regular season and a grueling playoff run, the UPSL Fall Season all came down to a final four in Irvine, California this weekend. The four clubs came from across the country to decide a national champion in a tough series of two matches, a semifinal and then a final across three days. Soda City, the defending national champion, faced F.U.T. Ohio SC in one semifinal, while FC Folsom took on El Paso Rush ACM3.

Neither semifinal match was close. Soda City dispatched F.U.T. Ohio 4-2, with a brace from Rauf Salifu and goals from Troy Paul and Gabriel Guadagno. The other half of the bracket was just as lopsided, with Nathaniel Carrasco scoring a brace for FC Folsom in a 4-1 rout of El Paso. Those results set up a National Championship match on Sunday from the appropriately-named Championship Soccer Stadium between Soda City and FC Folsom. The entire weekend’s slate of matches was broadcasted on YouTube by the UPSL and featured some quality work by the broadcasting team.

FC Folsom would open the scoring in the 23rd minute, after a beautiful bit of connecting play down the left side. That led to a pass into the box that team captain Dalton Pando one-timed into the far corner for the 1-0 lead. Hykeem Martin would equalize for Soda City on a set piece play 10 minutes later. Martin found himself free on the back post and punished the keeper with a blistering shot into the corner to knot the match up. Nathanial Carrasco, who scored two in Folsom’ s semifinal, had a chance at the go-ahead goal just before half, with a point-blank header that was stopped by Soda City’s keeper.

Soda City’s roster showed its championship mettle from the whistle in the second half. With the players still shaking off the half-time dustiness in the first minute, Soda City pounced on an errant pass, pushed it upfield, and John Curte put a shot near post that beat the keeper to take the lead for the champions. That lead would hold through the second half, as the fog rolled into Irvine. Martin would score his second in the 69th minute and Jeyson Flores would add a 4th goal to Soda City’s total just 6 minutes later. The last 20 minutes of the match were almost unwatchable on the feed, as the weather continued to lower visibility with persistent foggy conditions.

But the fog didn’t dampen Soda City’s celebration when the whistle blew. The team can claim something no pervious UPSL Champion can, winning back to back titles. The team is a model of consistency in the harsh environment of amateur soccer. Players may come and go, but Soda City returned to claim a second UPSL crown.

- Dan Vaughn