Other than a flicker of fear early in the second half, USL Championship side San Antonio FC confidently strode to a 6-0 win at home over ASC New Stars of the Houston FA’s Premier Division in Round 1 of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup on Wednesday night, with five different players on the scoresheet.
The match marked ASC New Stars’ first appearance in the Open Cup proper since 2012 and fourth overall. While its defending in the first half kept SAFC from putting the result out of reach, it struggled to get the ball forward and relieve pressure, and SAFC eventually wore it down to rack up the goals.
Fielding a rotated but respectful lineup where not even a single academy player was in the squad, SAFC won its first Open Cup match since 2023 with its highest margin of victory and goalscoring tally ever in the competition. Its previous record for both came in a 4-0 win over Midland-Odessa Sockers FC on May 16, 2018.
“The way we train, we want to score in many ways, whether it’s on the buildup play, whether it’s on the counter, whether it’s on a set piece,” said SAFC defender Alexis Souahy. “We want to be champions whether it’s in the league or in the Cup, you want to be the best at everything, so we trained and we worked hard and we saw tonight we can score in different ways. …It’s very important for the team to have multiple goalscorers, and that will play a big part in the long run.”
SAFC was in control of the match by pinning ASC New Stars back early on. That pressure finally paid off in the 15th minute after successive corners. The visitors managed to clear the first behind, but the second came to Nelson Flores Blanco at the top of the box and he swung it in first-time, finding Souahy in the six-yard box where he poked it past goalkeeper Emmanuel Frias for his first goal since joining SAFC ahead of the 2025 season.
That goal also marked the first time Frias and ASC New Stars had conceded in this cup run after keeping clean sheets in all three qualifying matches.
SAFC continued pushing and doubled its lead in the 37th minute as Mitchell Taintor received a long diagonal ball on the left flank and lofted a cross to Curt Calov at the top of the box. Calov let the ball bounce once before firing a rocket from the top of the box into the top right corner, notching his first goal since joining SAFC on loan from Minnesota United 2 on Feb. 20.
ASC New Stars was handed a lifeline in the 50th minute as SAFC goalkeeper Richard Sanchez stretched out to grab a ball but took down Ivan Luquetta in the box for a penalty. Sanchez made amends a minute later though, saving the kick from Jovany Macias before Tiago Suarez pounced on the rebound and cleared the ball out of danger.
“Something we talked (about at halftime) was 2-0 wasn’t enough,” said SAFC head coach Carlos Llamosa. “Something that we said at halftime was ‘Make sure this team doesn’t come back into the game, make sure it doesn’t get confidence in the game.’ Fortunately for us, I think Richard did well stopping that PK and that gave us a boost to come back and score more goals.”
While ASC New Stars missed its chance to get back into the match from the penalty spot, SAFC didn’t waste its own chance to extend the lead to 3-0 just minutes later. A defender brought Luke Haakenson down in the box and Christian Sorto stepped up in the 59th minute to confidently place the ball in the bottom right corner before Frias could get down to it.
SAFC began to put the icing on the cake in the 64th minute with Cristian Parano delicately dribbling into the box and avoiding challenges before squaring the ball to Dmitrii Erofeev, who smashed it in from a few yards out for the 4-0 lead. The goal was Erofeev’s first for SAFC since joining ahead of the 2025 season, while Parano has already provided three assists in three matches across all competitions for SAFC in 2026.
Just four minutes later, Erofeev played the provider as he threaded a ball through to Sorto at the top of the box, where he evaded two challenges and blasted his shot toward goal. Frias managed to deflect it but not enough as the ball still snuck inside the right post, stretching SAFC’s lead to 5-0 and securing a brace for Sorto in his first start with SAFC.
“The guys have accepted me with open arms and I feel like I’m fitting in with the style, the staff is giving me that confidence to play my game,” Sorto said. “It’s good to get goals, especially early on in the season, it’s good for the team and it’s good for myself, so hopefully we can just keep building on this.”
Sorto’s goal also marked the first brace in the Open Cup for SAFC since Henrik Sakshag netted twice in a 3-1 win over D’Feeters Kicks SC on April 5, 2022.
SAFC put the cherry on top of its sweet victory in the 73rd minute as Frias parried a squared ball from the left side of the box to the feet of EJ Johnson, who alertly poked the ball in from just a few yards out. Johnson only signed with SAFC on Tuesday, making an impact in his first match after training with the team for a few weeks.
By the end of the match, SAFC had outshot ASC New Stars 30-6 and taken 53 touches in its opponent’s box, underscoring its thorough control of the match. With 10 saves for Frias, nine blocked shots and 23 clearances, ASC New Stars did what it could defensively to give itself a chance, but SAFC was too overwhelming.
“The other team dropped into a low block, for the most part they defended well,” Llamosa said. “I’ve been there in those games before as a player and as a coach, and I know that was a great opportunity for (ASC New Stars) to come here to Toyota Field and perform. I believe the first 45 minutes, they defended well, they had 10 guys behind the ball.”
SAFC will face a fellow Round 1 winner in the next round on March 31 or April 1, deciding which team will go on to face MLS opposition in the Round of 32.
