November 17th was one hell of a night to remember for America Soccer Club. They were competing in potentially the last round of local qualifying for amateur sides against Soda City FC from South Carolina. In this contest of two top UPSL clubs, it could be seen that both teams were up to the task of leaving it all on the pitch.

For the first 15 minutes of the match, things were evenly contested and it was beginning to turn in to a chess match. However, that changed in the 17th minute. Soda City took a corner that ended up in the mixing pot in front of the America keeper. While the ball pinged around, none of the America defenders could get a foot to it and it ultimately landed at the feet of a Soda City player, who poked it home to give them the early lead.

The tide began to swing in America’s favor just a few minutes later, though. In the 22nd minute, William Eyang was dragged down in the box after fighting with a Soda City player for a loose lobbed ball from an America player. Once the ref cleared the area, Rafael Tobias stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to tie the game in the 25th minute. Eyang added another to America’s tally at the end of the first half on a lobbed ball over the top. He beat out two defenders and was able to poke the ball home in to the bottom left corner, past the keeper’s outstretched hands. Shortly after America scored the second goal, the half ended.

The second half was rather uneventful, aside from multiple yellow cards handed out to both sides due to rough challenges.

In the end, America came out victorious by a final of 2-1. Once again, this writer was able to pick the correct winner, however, the score was wrong. While the margin of victory was correct, there was no clean sheet to be had in this round.

America now waits to learn whether they must play another qualifying round or they’ve made it to the first round proper. Unfortunately, they won’t find that out until January 2019. Here’s to hoping they are placed in the US Open Cup tournament and continue their run.

- Shawn Laird