In front of their home crowd and with payback on their minds, USL League Two side Asheville City SC etched their names in the “Cupset” lore of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The professionals from USL League One’s Greenville Triumph made their way up the mountain looking to repeat their 2025 success against Asheville City. But it was the amateurs from Asheville City who would strike first with an Evan Southern goal in the 13th minute, only to have Devin Boyce equalize six minutes later. The score would remain tied until the 82nd minute. Ashton Bilow would put ACSC back in front from close range.
The hero of the match, however, would be US Open Cup newcomer Ben Fall. He would provide the assist to Bilow for the go-ahead goal for Asheville City and sent the Blues fans home happy with a goal of his own in the final minute of added time to secure the 3-1 victory.
For his performance, Ben Fall was voted TheCup.us Player of the Round. He separated himself from a pair of players who tied for second place. When the voting was tallied up, Virginia Dream FC goalkeeper Hector Guerrero, who helped the UPSL side upset the Carolina Core FC (MLS NEXT Pro), and Charleston Battery’s Colton Swan who scored both goals in the Battery’s 2-1 home win over Florida Badgers FC (UPSL) were deadlocked for the runner-up spot.
The Player of the Round award is voted on by TheCup.us staff, a select panel from the North American Soccer Reporters and select backers (those that pledge $10 or more) from TheCup.us’ Patreon team.
Ben Fall started the match and created the breakthrough that gave City the lead in the 82nd minute.
“We recovered the ball from a throw-in and Ashton (Bilow) played it to Simon (Carlson) and he played it to me on the right side,” recalled Fall, who has previously played for NPSL teams First State FC and FC Motown. “I see Ashton at the back post and try to decide which is the best way to get him the ball. If I keep it on the ground, there’s a good chance it gets intercepted by the defense, so I put it in the air.”
The clinching goal came deep into second half stoppage time. After Fall made a run at the ball in Greenville territory, he went down and it appeared as though he was nursing a cramp. When the Greenville goalkeeper put the ball down to send it up the field in hopes of a last second equalizer, he took a heavy touch and with the ball wandering away from him, Fall got up and saw an opportunity. Some observers thought it appeared as though Fall was faking an injury to fool the goalkeeper.
“No, I was not trying to trick him,” Fall said with a laugh. “I was trying to kill the momentum of the play, but the officials decided to play on. While everyone is yelling at me to get up, I saw that he made a big touch on the ball, and I was able to steal it for the third and final goal.”
After Fall gets his master’s degree, he hopes to one day play soccer professionally and has already spoken to a few pro clubs.
With the upset win, Asheville City advances to Round 2 where they will host another pro team, One Knoxville SC (USL League One). Unfortunately, Fall will not be available due to academic commitments. Fall is finishing his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Grand Canyon University and has an exam at the exact same time as the match on Tuesday. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Management from Long Island University where he played four years and was an all-conference selection during his senior year in 2023.
Prior to the 2022 US Open Cup, tournament organizers moved the start of the competition to March, which meant for summer league teams like Asheville City that primarily rely on college players to fill their rosters, it made it difficult to enter competitive teams.
“It’s very challenging for college soccer players to attend some of the US Open Cup games because we cannot miss classes to go attend a game and some of us have on a part-time job and it’s not easy,” said Fall. “But if some of the games could be on the weekends that would be good, but I realize some professional teams schedule league games on the weekend.”
If Asheville City are able to pull off a second consecutive cupset against One Knoxville on Tuesday, he will be available to play. And he is confident that his team will need him in Round 3.
“(My Asheville City teammates) are capable of beating any team and I believe we will win it on Tuesday night.”
