⚽️ The Second of Three

Newcomer dominance continued for West Chester United on Saturday as the WC Predators booked a spot in the American Premier Soccer League final with a 10-1 win over KO Elites at Whitehall High School.

The Predators got up early on an own goal and rode the momentum to a barrage of goals to stretch their inaugural season in the league to the final day of the season today at noon. They’ll face a team that is no stranger to the APSL finals today in NOVA FC, which will be appearing in their fourth straight final. After winning back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023 they fell to the New York Greek Americans in last year’s final.

A win for the Predators would make them the third team to win the growing league, which is filling out conferences in the eastern seaboard before expanding west and beyond. Lansdowne Yonkers FC won the first league title in 2021.

Today’s final is the second of three West Chester United is participating in this summer. They lost to El Farolito in the semifinal of the Hank Steinbrecher Cup in New Hampshire earlier this month and will head to Milwaukee at the end of the month to play in the National Amateur Cup semifinals on July 25. The final will be played July 26.

“We’re in this business to try and win national titles every year,” head coach Blaise Santangelo said. “We’re on track to at least do what we wanna do in the game.”

Today’s final will be streamed live by Game in Frame.

📈 Top of the Table

The lopsided score of Saturday’s semifinal had the added benefit of allowing some of the starters to leave early and head to Reading for the USL League Two match. The game was one of three on West Chester’s schedule for Saturday, which also included a WC Predators match at Jackson Lions in NPSL Keystone East action.

The USL2 team won 2-1 to go top of the table in the Mid-Atlantic Conference while the Predators lost to drop to the bottom of the Keystone East Conference standings. West Chester United, meanwhile, is on top of the Keystone West Conference standings, putting them in position to add two more regular season league titles to the two they’ve already won this year in the USL of PA and the APSL Delaware River Conference.

The West Chester United team in the Keystone West is also fifth in the overall NPSL league standings.

🗓️ Calendar

Sunday, June 22 - APSL Final vs NOVA FC, 1 p.m., Whitehall High School
Monday, June 23 - NPSL Keystone East at New Jersey United, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Stadium
Wednesday, June 25 - NPSL Keystone West vs Hershey PA, 7:30 p.m., Kildare’s Field
Saturday, June 28 - NPSL Keystone West vs Electric City Shock, 7 p.m., KIldare’s Field
Saturday, June 28 - NPSL Keystone East vs Philadelphia Union DS, 7 p.m., YSC Sports
Saturday, June 28 - USL2 Match at Ocean City Nor’easters, 7 p.m., Carey Stadium