Asheville City SC

One Knoxville were down two men for nearly 70 minutes of 120-plus minutes of soccer Tuesday night in Asheville, N.C.

Still, the USL League One side survived a penalty shootout, with goalkeeper Jonathan Burke making three saves, to seal a victory and advance to the Third Round of the 2026 US Open Cup. There, One Knox will face a Major League Soccer team for the first time in club history.

“The one thing I’m very happy about is our fight,” said One Knoxville skipper Ian Fuller. “Two men down for nearly seventy minutes and they still fought like heck so I’m really proud of that.”

Asheville City SC thought they had the opening goal in the first quarter of an hour but it was called off due to offsides. Moments later, the USL League Two side thought a penalty call would go their way only to be waved off by the center official. 

Despite the attack from Asheville, One Knoxville opened the scoring through Braudilio Rodrigues in the 33rd minute. 

Knoxville would go into the half with a comfortable 1-0 lead.

Enter chaos.

Within the first five minutes of the second half, Knoxville nearly had their second only to have Asheville’s Panneberg make the initial save before Ryan Holmes cleared the ball off the line. 

Seconds later, Knoxville’s Stavros Zarokostas received a second yellow following a scuffle on the sidelines. 

In the 61st minute, Burke kept Asheville off the board thanks to a magnificent double save. He would end up recording a dozen saves on the night. But his work was far from over.

Less than six minutes later, Knoxville would concede a penalty and Simon Carlson sneaked one past Burke to level the score.

Enter more chaos.

Just before the 90 minutes were up, Knoxville’s Teddy Baker received a second yellow and the USL League One side would be down to 9 men for what would eventually be an extra half hour. 

“I’m not going to lie, we don’t train for that type of situation,” Fuller said. “It’s a test of character for one. And we want to defend from inside out and the most important thing is defending the goal. The guys did a tremendous job of that.” 

Asheville were the stronger side in added extra time, creating multiple chances, but still no one could find a winning goal. Even before the penalty shootout chaos, more chaos was added in the 121st minute when Asheville’s Johnny Fenwick received a straight red for denying a clear and obvious goal scoring opportunity.

And then the penalty shootout happened.

Both sides saw their first attempt saved before scoring the next two. In the fourth round of the shootout, Burke would save Asheville’s penalty attempt and after converting their fourth penalty, Knoxville was on the verge of advancing.

For a third time, Burke delivered.

“It’s a blast,” Burke said following the match. “At the end of the day, it’s all fun. You have to enjoy it. You can’t overthink it too much.”

Burke became just the 15th keeper in the 168 shootouts of the US Open Cup to have 3 penalty saves in a shootout. 

Both Zarokostas and Baker will miss the next round of the Open Cup due to their red cards but in the sports world, it’s always next man up.

“I expect all of our players to play,” Fuller said. “That’s why they’re here at this club. And they showed that tonight. They know that we believe in them.”

This now makes back-to-back years One Knoxville SC has advanced to the third round of the tournament. They lost last year to USL Championship side Colorado Springs Switchbacks in added extra time.

 

Asheville City SC’s first appearance in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup was a short one thanks to a dominating first-half showing from One Knoxville SC, its opening-round opponent on Wednesday night.

Behind two first-half goals, including a last-second strike in injury time from midfielder Callum Johnson, One Knoxville claimed a 2-0 victory in front of a crowd of 1,115 at UNC Asheville’s Greenwood Field.

“They say the perfect time to score is right before halftime because it dictates the pace of the second half,” Knoxville coach Mark McKeever said of Johnson’s late goal. “It completely changed the dynamic of this game.”

Johnson’s late dramatics capped a dominating first-half performance that saw Knoxville get out to an early lead. Forward Rodolfo Johnson poked a shot past Asheville keeper Tyler Turner in the 13th minute for a 1-0 advantage, which was almost doubled 10 minutes later when midfielder Angelo Kelly-Rosales got behind the defense but couldn’t get past Turner.

Asheville’s offense was held without a shot until the 29th minute, but forward Mason Duval nearly found the equalizer with a shot just over the crossbar in the opening minute of injury time. Knoxville outshot Asheville 6-3 in the first half and also dominated time of possession.

“You have to credit Asheville, though,” McKeever said. “They fought hard tonight. They didn’t let us close things out.”

Knoxville defender Jalen Crisler was sent off with his second yellow card of the match in the 61st minute after a hard challenge just outside of the 18-yard box. Asheville’s offense was able to press with the extra man, but despite 11 second-half shots and several corners, failed to find the back of the net.

In his professional debut, Knoxville goalkeeper Johan Garibay finished with a clean sheet and drew praise from his coach.

???? @OneKnoxSC’s number 9️⃣ getting the party started!⁰⁰Rudi Castro’s 17th pro goal gives Knoxville the early @opencup lead ???? ⁰⁰#USOC2024 pic.twitter.com/rBqKaWjQ3s

— USL League One (@USLLeagueOne) March 20, 2024

“I think he deserves man of the match for his performance today,” McKeever said.

With the win, Knoxville advances to Round 2 of Cup play, which will be played April 2-3.

The victory also adds another chapter to a growing regional rivalry. Wednesday night’s game was the third meeting between the clubs as they play for a hiking boot-shaped trophy in their Smokey Mountain Series. The trophy was welded by Knoxville native Alex Magnuson, who played college soccer at East Tennessee State University.

.@OneKnoxSC make it ✌️ #USOC2024 | @opencup pic.twitter.com/8iyhoQOn38

— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) March 21, 2024

Now, One Knoxville returns home with the trophy and the bragging rights until the next meeting in the Smokey Mountain Series.