Ballard FC of the USL League Two rolled past Sharkotpus FC of the UPSL/Cascadia PL, defeating the underdogs 5-1 in the third round of US Open Cup qualifying on November 1st.
Despite making the championship game, Ballard was left out of automatic USOC qualification due to final USL League Two regular season standings and the amount of spots the league were able to allocate.
On the other hand, Sharktopus had a dramatic path to the third round after a second round replay was mandated against Bellevue Athletic due to the first game’s referee being a player of Bellevue’s second team. Sharktopus, after losing the initial match, defeated Bellevue 5-0 in the replay game.
Photo: Ballard FC
Ballard’s squad included several former Sounders players in their squad, suiting up Lamar Neagle, Kelyn Rowe, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, and Jordan McCrary against Sharktopus.
Neagle heavily contributed to the Bridges’ victory, scoring two goals and earning two assists. Unsurprisingly, Neagle was named player of the match. Nii Engmann also scored a brace and Cale Spence found the net once.
Ballard will have one more test in US Open Cup qualifying later in the month, where a win will qualify the 2023 USL League Two national champions a third straight US Open Cup tournament appearance.
Cover Photo: Ballard FC
