MORE: Five teams advance to final round of qualifying in first weekend
Over the last 20 years, there has only been two USASA clubs from the state of Virginia (Mo’s Sport Shop in 1996 and Dulles Sportsplex Aegean Hawks in 2007, 2009) to qualify for the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. On Sunday, Aromas Cafe FC of Charlottesville, Va. put themselves one step closer to joining that club with a 3-1 win over the Dulles Sportsplex Aegean Hawks.
Jake Van Yahres scored a pair of goals to lead the way at Charlottesville High School, the same place that he played his high school ball.
Aromas Cafe, making their first attempt at qualifying for the Open Cup, will advance to the final round of the qualifying tournament which is scheduled to take place in April of 2016. Their opponent won’t be announced by the US Soccer Federation until after Jan. 1.
Aromas opened the scoring around the 40th minute when Ty Clare received the ball outside the 18-yard box with his back to the goal. He turned and chipped a pass behind the defense to an onrushing Van Yahres who fired a low shot that the goalkeeper got a piece of, but was unable to keep it out.
About 10 minutes into the second half, they doubled the lead with Ivan Arapovic playing a long searching ball forward for Van Yahres to run onto. Van Yahres, who played his college ball at Virginia Commonwealth, muscled his way past two defenders and was able to chip the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper.
Aromas finished off the scoring through Van Yahres who combined with Price Thomas for the third goal. Thomas made a long dribbling run out of the midfield to the edge of the 18 and laid it off to Van Yahres, who rifled a shot on goal that was saved by the Hawks netminder. Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, he was unable to control the rebound and Luke Oostdyk, who was trailing the play pounced on the loose ball to put the game away.
“You only get one career in soccer, and a lot of times you’re not able to play at a high level with friends that you’ve been with for a while,” Van Yahres told NBC29 after the match. “I’m 27, and this is something I probably won’t get to do again, so it’s a one-time thing. Two goals, I get the attention, but everyone is doing something that deserves it as well.”