Chicago House AC beat Forward Madison FC 3-2 after extra time last night in a sublime upset in the Second Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Down 2-0 in the second half, the Chicagoland Midwest Premier League club managed to score three goals under improbable circumstances to defeat the professional USL League One team from Madison.

Originally scheduled for April 4th, the match was moved to April 11th due to inclement weather. The game was lovingly dubbed the Peter Wilt Derby by fans due to the well-known soccer executive’s connection to both clubs. Current president and CEO of Chicago House, Wilt led the group which founded the club as a professional side that began play in the 2021 NISA fall season. During the winter offseason NISA dropped Chicago House from its membership and the club joined the amateur Midwest Premier League for the 2022 season.

Following the MWPL season, Chicago House took part in the Open Division local qualifiers for the 2023 U.S. Open Cup. It advanced to the First Round proper where it beat the National Amateur Cup champion Bavarian United SC to advance to the next round.

Following the win over Forward Madison, Protagonist Soccer reached out to Wilt for comment. “Winning as an underdog is always better than winning as a favorite,” Wilt said. “You have nothing to lose. Having to qualify last fall provided an additional layer to work to get here. That all makes it very gratifying.”

Chicago House players warming up before the match.

Forward Madison took the pitch before 1802 home fans at Breese Stevens Field and took control of the match from the whistle. Madison built patiently out of the back with a dominating possession game built around a 3-5-2 formation. The professional side methodically moved up the field until it found a player in space or a crack in the Chicago defense. Forward Madison would then quickly get into the attack and put pressure on the House keeper, Tony Halterman.

Matt Glaeser’s scheme would pay dividends for Forward Madison as Mauro Cichero found Jayden Onen with a pass in the left side of the penalty area. Onen dribbled towards the end line. Halterman and most in attendance likely expected that Onen would center a pass to the trailing runners.But the former Sheffield Wednesday player took a quick flick with his right boot and sent a low shot into the far corner giving Madison a 1-0 advantage in the 19th minute.

Little changed during the rest of the first half as Forward Madison continued to keep most of the possession and Chicago House had trouble even pushing their attack past the half-way line. The first half ended with Madison up a goal and Chicago struggling for any answer.

Things got worse for Chicago House soon after the start of the second half as Forward Madison controlled possession around the Chicago penalty area. A pass found Jayden Onen at the top of the box who slotted a pass into the right side of the penalty area finding Celestino “Tino” Vásquez on a diagonal run. The 16-year-old midfielder, who recently signed a USL Academy contract, took a quick shot that found the back of the net in the 48th minute. That score from Vásquez continued a run of goals by teenagers in this year’s U.S. Open Cup including Roman Holt and Dan Agustin for San Antonio FC as well as Phillip Brown for Maryland Bobcats FC.

The 2-0 scoreline seemed near-insurmountable for a Chicago House team that was finding on rare occasions of possession. Forward Madison kept up its stifling possession game giving Chicago little on the attack. A rare mistake by Madison found Chicago House in possession at the top of their attacking third. Ricardo Avalos corralled the ball and sent a pass upfield to an onrushing Adam Mann. The Chicago striker settled and took a long shot off his left foot well outside the penalty area that caught Madison keeper Bernd Schipmann leaning in the wrong direction. The ball found the right corner of the goal and Chicago was only down 2-1 at the 75th minute.

The score gave Chicago the spark it needed and stunned Forward Madison. While still on the back foot, the amateur club began gaining more traction in their attack and found themselves with more possession around Madison’s penalty area.

Forward Madison had used four substitutions by minute 71 and one more in the 80th minute. Chicago House had made one sub at halftime and one more just before their goal. Two more subs by Chicago during the last 10 minutes of regulation seemed to give them more of a bounce than Forward Madison. Five minutes of injury time were given. That was enough for the upstarts as a pass found AR Smith Jr. in the box behind two Madison defenders. Neither of the Madison players could clear the ball. Smith was able to keep his feet and he took a quick shot from the center of the penalty area which got past Schipmann. Two rare mistakes by Forward Madison and two rare opportunities by Chicago House led to a 2-2 scoreline two minutes into stoppage time. After more chances, Madison could not get on the scoreboard and the game went to extra time.

Chicago House players and fans celebrate the win. Photo credit @lukegarrott.

Four minutes into extra time, Chicago keeper Halterman came up big. Halterman had to react quickly to block a long har shot from Eric Conterty. The ball shot up and bounced off the crossbar. The rebound went to Francis Jno-Baptist right in front of goal but Halterman was able to knock away the ensuing shot.

In fact, Halterman has been called on to make big saves for House during its U.S. Open Cup run. During qualifying, House went to penalty kicks in two of their three qualifying matches. That included a marathon series in their final qualifying round match against Brockton FC United where Halterman stopped a pk in the ninth round to win the match and move on to the tournament proper. More recently, in the First Round, Halterman made a huge double-save at almost the same point in stoppage time to preserve the 1-0 win over Bavarian United.

Five minutes later, Chicago House coach Matt Poland subbed in Alejandro Mentasti for Ricardo Avalos Jr. in the 99th minute. The move to bring on the 33-year old attacker would pay off. In the 103rd minute Chicago put together a string of shots at the Madison goal. In the Madison penalty area, Nico Williams took a shot that rebounded to Mentasti. His shot missed but found AR Smith at the right side of the six-yard box. With the Madison defenders scrambling to keep up, Smith’s low left-footed shot found the far right corner. Chicago House was incredibly up 3-2.

Forward Madison put on the pressure for the second 15-minute extra period. The ball was in Chicago House’s half of the pitch for almost the entire remainder of the match. The pro team was able to put a half dozen good chances on the House goal but none of them found the back of the net.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more passionate fan of the USOC than Peter Wilt. Photo credit @lukegarrott.

After two minutes of additional stoppage time the score stood and Chicago House was through to the Third Round. Peter Wilt’s current team is now scheduled to meet the team that Wilt is most known for - Chicago Fire of MLS. Wilt spent seven seasons as the GM of the Fire winning an MLS Cup and three U.S. Open Cups.

But, for now, Wilt is focused on Chicago House. “I’m very proud of the club and everyone associated with House,” he told Protagonist. “Our fans and investors have had our back during difficult times, our staff has volunteered while doing tremendous work, the players haven’t lost in almost a year and Coach Poland has created one of the best organizational cultures I’ve ever been around. This is special.”

- Dan Creel