Orange County FC defeated neighboring UPSL club Santa Ana Winds FC by the score of 3-0 on Wednesday night in the First Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. With the win, Orange County moves on to Round 2 where they will take on FC Golden State Force on the same field at Orange County Great Park on May 16.
Orange County, who are led by their head coach, US National Team legend Paul Caligiuri, raised the momentum at the beginning of the game showing Winds a little bit of their endurance and skill that frustrated Winds FC, which fell behind 1-0 on a goal by Daniel Ten Bosch.
With at least half of the fan support behind them (398 people attended the game), Winds FC went into the second half pressing for an equalizer, but one never materialized. Instead, they lost control of their emotions, sharing unpleasant comments to one another on the field and then watched at minute 66’ when OCFC’s Tomas Canale, who assisted the first goal, double the lead.
Winds did not give up, even though OCFC tried to slow down the game with midfielder Daniel Crisostomo drawing fouls. Quinnin Harter and Espinoza Isreal, both received yellow cards for Winds as they struggled to get back into the game.
OCFC took all of their opportunities and goalkeeper Gomez Hugo, Gomez kept the clean sheet. Ten Bosch left Winds with no chance to get back in the game when he added his second of the game in the 86th minute to make the final score 3-0 to OCFC.