After securing a 1-0 victory over Portland Hearts of Pine in the opening round, Wednesday saw Chris Taylor and Vermont Green FC return to action when they welcomed USL League One side Westchester SC to Virtue Field for the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It was a match that would end in depression for The Bhoys in Green as The Green suffered defeat with Westchester winning in penalties after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer.
Taylor made two changes from the lineup that secured victory over Portland in the opening round of the tournament. Niklas Herceg returned between the pipes behind the backline of Riley Moloney, Egor Akulov, Brandon Marshall, and Luca Nikolai. Tyler Caton and Connor Miller sat deeper in the midfield behind the trio of Ryan Zellefrow, David Ismail, and Marco Dos Santos. Mitch Baker served as the lone attacker up top.
On the opposite side of the pitch, Westchester SC came into the second round after knocking off UPSL side NY Renegades FC following a 2-0 victory. Despite the success in Open Cup action, things haven’t gone well for Westchester at the club level as they sit in 16th place in the League One table after starting the year with a 0-2-1 record in its opening three matches.
A Westchester handball inside the Green’s attacking half nearly saw Vermont find the game's opening goal in the eighth minute when Tyler Canton booted the ball high into the air that soared all the way to Westchester's goal, which forced Matías Molina to leap in the air and punch the ball away from danger before the Green could capitalize. The Green had another good opportunity in the 10th minute when Westchester’s Aleksei Armas fouled Ismail just outside the box. Moloney attempted to rocket the ensuing free kick toward goal, but Westchester’s wall deflected the ball away from danger.
Baker nearly put the Green on the board in the 21st minute when he executed some give-and-go passes with Zellefrow and drove along the goal line before attempting to slot it past the keeper. Molina was alert to the opportunity as he engulfed Baker’s attempt.
Vermont nearly found a good chance in the 29th minute when Moloney drove up the left flank and attempted to spring a ball right into the path of Baker, but Westchester’s defense narrowly got to it as they tapped the ball away before Baker could get onto it and capitalize. Vermont nearly found the opening goal in the 42nd minute when the Green got onto a loose ball in their own half and lobbed it forward into the path of Mitch Baker, who rocketed a shot on goal that Molina deflected away from danger.
Despite the great chances, neither side was able to gain an advantage, as the match remained goalless heading into halftime.
Vermont had the chance to find the game’s opening goal in the 59th minute when some give-and-go passing between Zellefrow and Nikolai led to Zellefrow tapping the ball into the path of a darting Nikolai, but the Westchester defense tapped the ball out of play before Nikolai could capitalize.
Vermont’s first change of the night came in the 61st minute when Alex Hall replaced Zellefrow. Another change came for Vermont in the 70th minute as Brendan Lambe replaced Caton.
Nikolai became the first Green player to enter the book as he received a yellow card in the 74th minute following his foul on Kyle Evans. It wasn’t the only card the referee pulled out as he strolled over to the Westchester sideline to issue a red card to Head Coach George Gjokaj for hurling abusive language toward the officiating crew for what he believed was a foul on his side moments earlier.
Vermont made two more changes in the 79th minute as Andrew Millar and Nikos Clarke-Tosczak replaced Dos Santos and Nikolai. Clarke-Tosczak entered the book in the first minute of stoppage time after plowing into Evans from behind just outside the left side of the box.
While each side had numerous chances to take the advantage, we remained scoreless after 90 minutes, which meant we headed to extra time. Vermont’s defense came up big in the 96th minute when a free kick lobbed into the box led to Herceg coming off his line, as a bit of contact led to him fumbling the ball inside the box. Westchester attempted to capitalize on the opportunity, but was unable to do so as the defense stayed locked in and cleared the ball away from danger.
Neither side was able to find the advantage in the opening 15 minutes of stoppage time as we headed to the second half. Vermont’s final change of the night came in the 117th minute as Martin Bakken replaced Ismail. 120 minutes was not enough time to separate these two sides as the match ended in a 0-0 draw, which meant we headed to a penalty shootout to determine who would move on to the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament!
The away side stepped to the spot as Connor McGlynn got things started by sending a right-footed shot to the right side of the net. Mitch Baker looked to etch his name into the Vermont Green lore when he looked to find the shootout-winning goal to end the fifth round, but he put too much on his attempt as it sailed over the goal. Miller stepped to the spot with the world on his shoulders as he needed to convert to keep Vermont’s Open Cup hopes alive. Miller attempted to send a shot to the upper-left corner, but Matías Molina came up big to get a hand to Miller’s shot and force it away from goal to seal a 4-3 shootout victory and a spot in the Third Round of the Open Cup for Westchester SC.
With the Open Cup run unfortunately over, Vermont Green now turns its attention to the 2026 USL League Two season, which kicks off on May 16 when they hit the road to face Seacoast United.
