The Pittsburgh Riverhounds advanced to the third round of the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a dominant 3-0 victory over the West Virginia Chaos at Highmark Stadium on Wednesday.
The Chaos, members of the USL’s Premier Development League, had entered the tournament as the first side from West Virginia. They dispatched the Fort Pitt Regiment of the NPSL in the first round, but were outmatched by Pittsburgh.
The Riverhounds fielded a starting lineup full of many regulars, despite the fact that they were playing a non-league game against a lower-division team. Ryan Hulings got the start in goal in place of a hobbled Ryan Thompson.
Sterling Flunder got his first start of the season on defense, and Kene Eze was the team’s lone forward to start the match.
As they have for the most of season, midfielders Kevin Kerr and Rob Vincent drove play forward for the Riverhounds.
Vincent got the opener in the 9th minute, as Kerr took possession of the ball in a herd of West Virginia defenders, and then passed back to Vincent, who is a former Chaos player, who buried it for this second career US Open cup goal.
Just a minute later, Riverhounds forward Lebo Moloto created a turnover and took it himself to beat Chaos goalkeeper Sean Teepen and make it a 2-0 lead for the home side.
That lead would hold through halftime and several substitutions. Miro Cabrilo and Stephen Okai came on for Eze and Boris Zivanovic, respectively.
With the Chaos pressing for any advantage late in the second half, Kerr would make them pay when he took a feed from Vincent, made a nifty move to his right and put a strong volley past Teepen to seal the victory in the 87th minute.
The Riverhounds will host the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the Tier-II North American Soccer League in the third round next Wednesday night.
The Riverhounds (2-3-3) return to USL action this Saturday with a 7:00 kickoff in Richmond, Virginia against the third-place Richmond Kickers (4-14) in a rematch of last week’s 1-1 draw.
Photo credit: Pittsburgh Riverhounds
