For the seventh time in the club’s history, the Des Moines Menace of the Premier Development League (PDL) have beaten a pro team to advance to the next round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. This time, it was a 2-0 result at home against the USL’s Tulsa Roughnecks.
With seven upsets over professional teams — four against Division 2 teams (4-3-0), three against Div. 3 clubs (2-1-1, 1-0 PKs) — they are second only to the Michigan Bucks (9) for most among all amateur clubs in the Modern Era (1995-present).
The early minutes of the match were mostly dominated by the Roughnecks, but neither team would have a real shot on goal until the 14th minute when Des Moines’ Heath Preston fired an attempt just side of the net.
Tulsa continued to control the ball through the first half, which went into the break tied at 0-0.
The second half of the match would bring plenty of action.
In the 48th minute, Tulsa coach David Irving was sent off. The sending off of Irving was the first of many officiating decisions that would not be in the Roughnecks favor. Defender Mason Grimes would receive a yellow in the 56th minute followed by a red card being shown to forward Taylor Morgan just 10 minutes later.
It would quickly get worse for Tulsa as Des Moines’ Sean Hoek opened the scoring just two minutes after his squad went up a man. The Roughnecks managed to hold off an attacking Menace side until the 81st minute when a bullet shot from Elvir Ibisevic would put the match away for the Menace. The remaining nine minutes and stoppage time proved to be not enough for the 10-man Tulsa club to mount a comeback.
The win moves Des Moines on to the next round of the Open Cup where they will host San Antonio FC on June 1. Here, they will hope to add another pro team to their list of upsets and earn a fourth date with a Major League Soccer team in the Fourth Round.