West Chester United SC dominated New York Pancyprian Freedoms on Saturday evening in the 2025 USASA Region I Amateur Cup Final. The Pennsylvania side won, 3-0, and earned a direct spot in the 2025 National Amateur Cup tournament later this summer. The win is West Chester’s second-ever regional amateur cup but first since the tournament began awarding direct US Open Cup qualification in 2017.
The New York Pancyprian Freedoms, the defending National Amateur Cup champions, will not be able to defend their title in Milwaukee. West Chester meanwhile will attempt to win their first ever National Amateur Cup. The team is two wins away from both the natty and a guaranteed spot in the 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.
On a soggy day at the Ukrainian American Sports Center in Horsham, Pa., West Chester technically played the role of the visitors despite being only a couple miles from home. They opened the scoring in the 12th minute when goalkeeper Tino Kneis sent a ball down the field to a running Josh Luchini. He finished the play with a successful low shot past the Freedoms’ goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
The Freedoms looked stunned. The goal marked only the second time this tournament that the team had trailed. Speaking to Philadelphia Soccer Now after the game West Chester head coach Blaise Santangelo noted how the Freedoms still couldn’t be overlooked.
“Getting up early on them was super huge,” he said. “They’ve been down to Lansdowne (Yonkers FC) twice recently, and they’ve come back to win 3-2 so we knew they weren’t going to go away without giving a fight.”
West Chester kept the pressure early and capitalized once again before the half hour mark. A free kick by Dylan Lacy found the head of Ridge Robinson on the left side of the box. The attempt found the back of the net to make it 2-0 in the 28th. The goal was Robinson’s third of the tournament.
New York exited the half trying to cut into the deficit. The defending champs pulled the West Chester backline but couldn’t break through. It forced the New York goalkeeper to push up into the Predators’ end. In the 84th minute, defender John Ricks headed the ball to substitute Tomas Ascoli. A quick pass to Jack Jasinski saw the Princeton player hit a slow roller on goal that made it across the goal line.
That was the nail in the coffin for the Freedoms title defense. When the full time whistle sounded, coach Santangelo congratulated everyone in his group for their effort on the day.
“I tell the guys every year at the beginning of the year, this is the one, this is the one we need to win,” Santangelo said. “We lost in the final to Milwaukee Bavarians in 2018 and this is one we’ve been trying to get to and to finally get back there. We still have a lot of work, we’re going to play against some great competition, I’m sure, but it’s to get out of this region is pretty special. A lot of times national champs come out of this region.”
The following two paragraphs come directly from Philadelphia Soccer Now’s recap of the match.
The trip to Milwaukee in late July will be the third final four event of the season for the Predators, who are managing multiple leagues and competitions with a deep and talented pool of players ranging from teenagers to players approaching their 30s and older. They came up short last weekend in the Hank Steinbrecher Cup to champions El Farolito in the semifinal but have a chance to win the American Premier Soccer League title next weekend in addition to this third opportunity.
Saturday’s final for West Chester United nearly didn’t happen. After losing to Christos FC in the semifinal, West Chester United filed a protest that was upheld by the league office in Chicago.
