{"id":46328,"date":"2017-08-05T21:54:55","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T01:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=46328"},"modified":"2017-08-05T22:25:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T02:25:39","slug":"elm-city-en-route-to-npsl-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=46328","title":{"rendered":"Elm City En Route to NPSL Final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Elm City Express<\/p><\/div>\n

Elm City Express is headed to the NPSL Championship Final after beating CD Aguiluchos USA 2-0 before a crowd of 2,261 in Saturday’s semifinal at Yale University’s Reese Stadium in New Haven, Ct.<\/p>\n

Graciano Brito broke it open inside of nine minutes while Shaquille Saunchez widened the margin in the 45th minute. Matt Jones made a collection of strong saves to help the Express punch their ticket to the final. <\/p>\n

Elm City will host the final on Saturday, Aug. 12 at Reese Stadium against Midland Odessa FC (Tex.). The Express are the first Connecticut club to reach a national final since Bridgeport’s Vasco da Gama reached the U.S. Open Cup final in 1992.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it was Aguiluchos (Oakland, Ca.) who started the match on the front foot as Jones was tested early. Inside of four minutes, Simon Rawnsley broke through the box and drilled a low drive that the Express keeper punched away inside of four minutes. Jones answered the call again moments later when he turned away another Rawnsley shot at the far post.<\/p>\n

But the guests were unable to capitalize, and the hosts would make them pay in the ninth minute. In the process of pestering the defense, Brito pounced on a botched back pass deep in the Aguiluchos’ end, stepped on the gas and buried it to turn the tables.<\/p>\n

Elm City kept the pressure on as the half progressed. To wit, Aguiluchos keeper Kevin Gonzalez was called upon to put out a fire in the 32nd minute when he stonewalled a breakaway attempt authored by Saunchez before the rebound fell outside the box, where Gonzalez had to quickly dribble it back into the box to corral. <\/p>\n

However, Saunchez would not be denied in the dying seconds of the first half when he latched onto a pass from Cris Hernandez and fired it through to send Elm City into the break with a two-goal lead. <\/p>\n

Tavoy Morgan made a bid to make it a three-goal game in the 47th minute when he tested Gonzalez with a low drive that the keeper pushed away on the dive. Hernandez gave it a go from distance on a left-footed blast that a spry Gonzalez dismantled in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n

Lucas Gabriel Sousa blasted a shot off the bar in the 73rd minute, but a third goal wouldn’t be necessary as the Express clinched their spot in the final not long after. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Express will play for the NPSL title next weekend in New Haven. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1649],"tags":[1663,1633,891,1295,1668,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Express-11.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46328"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46342,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328\/revisions\/46342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}