CARSON — There were several teenagers on the field for Ventura County FC in Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Open Cup. The first question was how would the predominantly young group handle the opening round of a tournament.
The end result should have been more comfortable, but Coach Matt Taylor and the team, formerly known as Galaxy II, will take the 2-1 victory over Irvine Zeta II FC and advance to the second round, which will be played April 2-3. The pairings for the next round will be drawn Friday.
Thursday night’s match was played at the Dignity Health Sports Park Track and Field Stadium.
“I hope they take away positives,” Taylor said. “Created a lot of chances to score goals, didn’t give up much. … I think aside from the (first-half) PK, from inside the 18, I don’t think they had a shot. So, we managed the transition moments and managed to create a lot (of opportunities).”
Irvine Zeta II, the second team of Irvine Zeta from the NISA (National Independent Soccer Association) opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Daniel Baumgartner converted a penalty kick.
The lead didn’t last long. In the 11th minute, Tucker Lepley’s corner kick was headed toward the goal by an Irvine Zeta defender and was then hit by another before crossing the line to make it 1-1.
Then in the first minute of first-half stoppage time, Sean Karani made it 2-1 for VCFC and that’s where the score remained.
“In the first half, I think we had seven really good chances to score, probably 10 in the second half,” Taylor said. “I think they’ll walk away disappointed that they didn’t score more, but in the end, it’s about winning this game and moving on to the next round and the next round is a different challenge because this is the first time we’ve been asked to carry the game with this group.
“We played college teams but they came right us, so we were able to break them down in different ways. This team sat with 10 guys, 30 yards from…
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