The Kitsap Pumas have only played four league matches in their young history, but all four doubled as both league counters and US Open Cup qualifiers. Kitsap won three and drew one in that stretch and are now headed to the United States Open Cup after a 3-0 win over the Cascade Surge of Salem Oregon last night at Bremerton's Memorial Stadium.
The Pumas hope to find out their first round opponent in the cup as early as this Tuesday. Kitsap have submitted a bid in hopes of hosting their first round match. Kitsap finished with 10 points in the race for a cup spot, one ahead of the Portland Timbers U-23's, who won 1-0 last night at Tacoma. The Pumas join four other PDL clubs who have clinched spots in the June 9th Open Cup first round.
Kitsap's Mark Conrad rises to head the ball as the Pumas beat Cascade Surge 3-0 in Bremerton.
The Pumas printed their ticket into the tournament with a spectacular 45-yard smash from defender Steve Mohn in the 16th minute. The ball had cleared the Cascade box and landed at Mohn's feet. He made no mistake with a line-drive kick that came back too fast for the Cascade keeper to stop.
Red card mayhem followed later as the Surge were reduced to 10 men when they were called for a penalty for tripping Pumas' forward Steven Phillips in the box in the 41st minute of play. Surge goalkeeper Brandon Cave did the trip and was ejected for being the 'last man on defense' who committed the foul on Phillips' break away. Kitsap's Tony Kerr converted the try to put the Pumas up 2-0. Cascade would lose a second player to a red-card ejection before the half when defender John Swenson was sent off by lead official Soo-Hui Um for a hand to the head on Kitsap's Alex Megson following a jump in the Cascade box that had been ruled a foul on Megson.
In the second half Cascade's TeTeh Bangura was issued two yellow cards. The second card in the 75th minute sent him packing. The Pumas went into 'ball control' mode up 11 men to 8, and had several near misses until Mark Lee gave Kitsap their third and final goal in the 78th minute. Lee took a pass on the left side from Jesse Wheelock and neatly tucked the ball to the right of the keeper from well inside the box.
See a gallery of match photos from Jenni Conner at GOALKitsap.com
Pumas supporters encourage 'No Mercy" as Kitsap went up 11 men to 8 in the second half.
After the match fans and players milled about the stadium and emptied onto the pitch to celebrate the US Open Cup berth. The crowd of 889 seemed noisier than the opener that drew over 1,500.
The Pumas' next league match is a battle for first place at Seattle against the Wolves next Saturday May 30th at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
Read a match report from the Kitsap Sun here.
REPLAY: See Steve Mohn's 45-yard goal again below, and in slow motion...
Kitsap's #14 Stephen Phillips challenges for the header.
Comments
Thanks a lot for the coverage David. The Pumas' own site doesn't even have the result yet. Go figure.
David - great coverage. Is there something you're doing that has caused a notification for this story to show up in my e-mail four times? I'm not complaining - I'm just curious if it's a bug or something we have control over. Keep up the great work. - Ed.
Ed, my guess would be it is because I route stories through both Yardbarker and FootballBlips for exposure. If you also use 'Google news or blog alerts' then you might get some duplicates. Sorry about that, but the extra exposure does help the 'bottom line' out here. :)
It was a very supportive crowd as you can see by the video. Good times here in Bremerton. I'd like to see at least 1200-1500 for every home match in June. Get behind our Pumas!
Forget "Allez Pumas!" I am going with "No Mercy" from here on out! :)
If I had to wager a guess right now as to whom the Pumas might face in the first round of the USOC, I'd say the Portland Timbers of the USL-1.
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