WPSL Central Region Playoffs Review

Saturday

St Croix Legacy 3-1 Union KC

Both these teams have tight-knit rosters of players who have played through their local club before matriculating. Legacy’s players are largely at colleges across the upper Midwest. However, a sizeable number are just outside the Stillwater area at schools elsewhere in the Twin Cities Metro, whence they return in Summer to play WPSL football. Marisa Bonilla has the longest journey home, from Gainesville in Florida.

Union’s players largely come from the smaller Kansas City Metro to spread out across the broader Midwest, with Caroline Carter the most further afield in Hawaii.

The match kick off was delayed an hour by heavy rain but it didn’t take St Croix long to break through. In the 6th minute, Hastings MN’s Bella Meier chipped a ball over the Union defense into the right channel, and the shot by Stillwater’s Brooke Nelson was parried into the path of Amara Smith – the second leading goalscorer out of Lake Elmo, MN.

Smith and Meyer linked up again in the 28th minute, Amara Smith drove in from the left but couldn’t find an opening. Bella Meier took on the ball and blasted it into the side netting from the top of the box. Union had a few chances to score, but headers were off target from in-close.

Around the hour mark, the deficit was halved by Union as a deflected cross into the right channel was met by Reece Birch, slicing the ball past Johnson. In the 77th minute, Nelson drove down the St Croix right and her deflected shot was dispatched by Cici Emery out of Mahtomedi, MN to make it 3-1. 

Oklahoma City FC 3-0 Austin Rise FC

OKC’s roster are all from the surrounding area, except for Oklahoma Sooner Kiki Smith, who’s from Ahwatukee, AZ, and Plant City, Florida’s Chloe Murphy.  Rise have the most diverse roster in this tournament, from Puerto Rico to Japan via Texas. 

The match was a comfortable home win, dominance in possession capped by set piece execution – two goals from corners in the first half through Hannah Voskuhl from Edmund, OK and Sabrina Guzman from Oklahoma City, OK and a blast on the rebound from a saved shot in the middle of the second half from fellow Oklahoma Citian Jenna Munson. The fate of the visitors was summed up when an Austin Rise penalty kick was saved by Norman, OK’s Callie Sullivan.

Sunday

Central Region Final – Oklahoma City FC 1-2 St Croix Legacy

The home team Scissortails dominated possession in the first half, but Legacy took the lead after Minneapolis’s Wren van de Walker on the counter attack in the fourth minute clipped the ball into the path of Amara Smith, who chipped the keeper Callie Sullivan. The visitors would finish the half with only two shots on target, but also saw a strong appeal for a penalty kick turned down.

Around the hour mark, Jenna Munson drove into the Legacy box and Edmund, OK’s Lydia Viets provided the finishing touch on the equalizer. The drama was nowhere near over, as Amara Smith continued to drive the Legacy forward. In the 82nd minute, Smith connected on a counter attack and streaked away from Hannah Voskuhl. Norman, OK’s Elle Abbey, who played the enforcer the entire game, took her down. Abbey received her marching orders for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity. Only three minutes later, Brooke Nelson drove in, but Sami Guzman took her down and Amara Smith spun the PK into the side-netting, just beyond Sullivan. And so it was that Oklahoma City FC’s only defeat of the season comes in the Central Region Final.

St Croix Executive Director Nathan Klonecki was full of admiration:

Again, the players just keep coming up big everytime. Amara Smith basically took it upon herself to score today and they had no answers to stop her. The rest of the team just worked hard and did their role to the best of their ability.

Coming Up:

The Central Champions St Croix Legacy return to Central Oklahoma, 90 mins drive from OKC at Oklahoma State University and face the Eastern Champions Sporting CT at 6pm on Friday.

The Western Champions (and defending champions) California Storm play the Southern Champions Chattanooga FC at 8:15pm on Friday

The WPSL Championship is at 7pm on Sunday.