Complete U.S. Open Cup Coverage

Bay Cities FC

2022 US Open Cup Round 3: Under new management, San Jose Earthquakes dominate Bay Cities FC

by

Paul Marie of the San Jose Earthquakes celebrates after scoring a goal against Bay Cities FC in the Third Round of the 2022 US Open Cup. Photo: Photos by Benny Blanco | @Bennyy_Blanco
Paul Marie of the San Jose Earthquakes celebrates after scoring a goal against Bay Cities FC in the Third Round of the 2022 US Open Cup. Photo: Photos by Benny Blanco | @Bennyy_Blanco

Last round, soccer fans in the Bay Area and beyond fell in love with the start of a Cinderella story in Bay Cities FC. The Redwood City team upset USL Championship side Monterey FC in a thrilling 2-1 victory. Edson Cardona’s unbelievable goal led the motivated Bay Cities side.

Bay Cities moved on to play the San Jose Earthquakes in the next round on Tuesday where their inaugural Open Cup run came to an end.

Paypal Park, the Earthquakes’ stadium that Bay Cities used to host their First Round game in, was the site of Tuesday’s game.

It was an interesting match due to the San Jose Earthquakes having fired Matias Almeyda in the days leading up to the game and replacing him with interim coach Alex Covelo.

In the end, the Quakes, under new leadership, ended up winning 5-0 over a completely outclassed Bay Cities FC. With goals from five different players, this marked the first win for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2022, and the club’s first win over an amateur team in the Open Cup since 2001.

The Earthquakes scored five goals on the day and it seemed like almost everyone was on the scoresheet with five different goalscorers.

Alex Covelo had some high praise for his team after their dominant victory that saw the Quakes have 23 shots and 77% possession.

“I cannot speak about the past. I can speak about what I saw today, and I think that the guys did amazing,” said Covelo. “I interpreted what we want to do today. We spoke to them, tried to tell them what we’re looking for defensively and offensively. It was the first step. Also, we were able to give some minutes to other players, experienced players so that they can feel part of that style that we want to play. It was great. I told them all the credit to them.”

The Earthquakes deployed a new formation and some brand new tactics under newly-appointed Covelo. The Quakes went with a 4-2-3-1 formation and with a whole new gameplan.

“The game plan, to be honest, was pretty different,” said San Jose’s Jack Skahan, who scored the opening goal in the 25th minute. “There are some different things structurally, especially when we attack, where we are positioned to stop counter attacks specifically, and you can see a lot of that with the opposite outside back coming into the middle to sit next to the six. And I thought we implemented it well. I think that we really haven’t had any time to practice it and we really did well translating as a team and we have a lot to build on.”

Skahan’s opening goal came from a free kick at the of the box in the 25th minute, beating the goalkeeper who dove to his left but was unable to keep it out.

Paul Marie doubled the lead in the 37th minute when a cross from the left wing was cleared by the Bay Cities defense. The clearance fell to Marie who fired a low-driving shot into the back of the net from about the same distance as Skahan’s free kick.

Ousseni Bouda was the man of the match and it showed. At the start of the game he was extremely timid and didn’t want to take his defender one on one. Once the game went on, he took over. After halftime, Bouda ended up winning his team a penalty that Cade Cowell ended up putting in the back of the net in the 59th minute, but Bouda eventually got himself on the scoresheet in the final minutes of the game.

Another highlight of the match was 16-year-old Niko Tsakiris getting his first professional goal. Niko showed why the teenager he was on the Earthquakes senior roster. Tsakiris took on three defenders and shot it right past the goalie in the 82nd minute.

The Quakes passed their first test as if they studied this formation and tactics for years. This might have to do with the team being an extremely young team and Alex Covelo already having coached a lot of players that played in this game.

The Quakes shouldn’t celebrate this victory too much as they have a big test coming up this weekend when the Seattle Souunders come to town on Saturday, April 23. They will then play the Sounders on the road for their Fourth Round match on May 11.

Bay Cities keeps their heads up high as they faced an MLS opponent in their first year of existence in the US Open Cup.

2022 US Open Cup Round 2: Bay Cities FC spoil reunions with late winner vs. Monterery Bay

by

Bay Cities FC Monterey Bay FC 2022 US Open Cup
Edson Cardona of Bay Cities FC celebrates his stoppage time goal with his teammates in a match against Monterery Bay FC in the Second Round of the 2022 US Open Cup. Photo: Lyndsay Radnedge – @el_radical_photos

Bay Cities FC is hoping this is the beginning of a Cinderella story. The club, founded in little over a year ago, has now moved on to the Third Round of the 2022 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The match was played at the home of the San Jose Earthquakes, but was labeled as a home match for Bay Cities. Bay Cities, who play in the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA, Div. 3 pro) won 2-1 over a big favorite in Monterey FC of the USL Championship in front of a crowd of about 500 fans. Bay Cities ended up spoiling a return to PayPal Park for former San Jose Earthquakes player Simon Dawkins and former coach Frank Yallop. The run continues, as a lot of firsts for the Bay Cities’ history happened today.

If you appreciate our coverage of the US Open Cup for the last (nearly) two decades, and want to see it grow in the future, consider joining our Patreon team by clicking above.

Both teams were making their tournament debut and both scored their first goals in US Open Cup history, and Bay Cities got their first win in US Open Cup in their short history as well. And they did it in dramatic fashion.

The first goal came off the right foot of midfielder Rei Dorwart as the shot is a deflection off the Monterey Bay FC goalie JJ Dallas.

Monterey Bay scored the second goal of the match off a header by midfielder Robbie Crawford, he was assisted by Morey Doner.

The last came off a failed clearance by Monterey Bay defender Hugh Roberts. Edson Cardona took advantage with a beautiful left foot volley that screamed past the goalie to shock the whole stadium.

“They played with heart, they played for their communities,” said head coach and co-founder Anders Perez. “This is a group of guys that should be playing Division 1 or Division 2, nobody gives them much opportunity. This why we started this, this is why I started this. There are a lot of players not being seen, and we are giving them a chance.”

“We were definitely the underdog today, I don’t think a lot of people were expecting us to get the results we have been getting lately,” said Tony Jimenez about his team’s upset. “It was such a beautiful feeling to be out there, this is my first contract.”

On the other side of things, Monterey FC was hampered with the thought of losing in their first US Open Cup match ever. That fate loomed large as Bay Cities celebrated like it was a cup final.

”It was like a cup final for them … credit to them honestly … they capitalized on the mistakes that we made, and they punished us,” said Monterey goalscorer Robbie Crawford.

Monterey head coach Frank Yallop, who was coaching in his 25th US Open Cup match, 10 of them with the San Jose Earthquakes, had a more somber tone after the game.

“It’s not a good feeling losing any game, we didn’t play very well … they had two or three good chances, and they scored two goals, we had five really good chances and scored only one,” said Yallop. “It’s disappointing as it is. It’s not a fair reflection of the game, but you got to finish your chances.”

Despite the result, the fans that were there to see beloved former San Jose Earthquakes player Simon Dawkins return to PayPal Park got to see him play for 84 minutes.

“It was good to see the fans out here, there were a lot of San Jose Earthquakes fans, and they are supporting the local teams out here, it was good to see a good turn out,” said Dawkins. “It was great to play in front of them again.”

“That was my first match in the last three years, it was good to get match fitness in for me,” said Dawkins. “Disappointed with the result, but one personal thing I can take away from this is I got some minutes in”.

The former Tottenham and Jamaican International prepares to make a mark in the USL Championship as he makes his return to soccer.

Bay Cities moves on to the US Open Cup Third Round that has a possible date with an MLS team. The draw for Round 3 will take place on Friday at Noon ET.

Copyright © 2026 • Built by Jacob Martella Web Development