Revs top RailHawks in OT, advance to final
Anthony Maher gave Carolina the lead on six minutes with a side-foot finish to the right side of Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis. After Shalrie Joseph and Connolly Edozien saw red after a 42nd-minute confrontation, New England drew level in first-half stoppage time through Jeff Larentowicz.
Neither side broke the deadlock in the second half, forcing the match into extra time with New England up a man after David Stokes was dismissed for hauling down Adam Cristman on his way to goal 10 minutes from time.
Pat Noonan, who had seen shots go off the post twice on the night, fired the Revolution ahead three minutes into extra time against the nine-man RailHawks to secure the victory.
With the victory, New England advances to face the winner of Tuesday night's other semifinal between FC Dallas and USL-1 club Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field in Seattle. If Seattle wins, New England will face the Sounders on Tuesday, Oct. 2 at Qwest Field. If FC Dallas arranges an all-MLS final, the duo will battle on Oct. 3 at Pizza Hut Park, in Frisco, Texas.
With the win, New England earned its first berth in the Open Cup final since 2001, when they lost 2-1 in overtime to the Los Angeles Galaxy at Titan Stadium in Fullerton, Calif.
Former overall No. 1 MLS draft pick Chris Carrieri missed out for the RailHawks after he picked up his second yellow card in the 1-0 victory against USL-2 side Richmond Kickers in the Open Cup semifinals. Head coach Scott Schweitzer named Edozien in his starting lineup after the former Revolution midfielder shook off an ankle knock.
Revolution head coach Steve Nicol named a first-choice lineup with two exceptions: defender Jay Heaps missed out with a calf strain and Taylor Twellman remained at home due to illness. James Riley and Adam Cristman, respectively, replaced the missing duo.
Against the run of play, Carolina scored inside six minutes. The Revolution defenders defended minimally, and the RailHawks found the seams. Johnny Steele fed the ball inside to Maher, who made no mistake from 10 yards to give the second-tier side a shocking lead.
New England mounted a series of attacks but could not find the equalizer. Noonan fired off the right post on 14 minutes after Khano Smith fed him the ball. Smith then shot at RailHawks goalkeeper Chris McClennan in the 21st minute.
McClennan smartly dove at Cristman's feet on 21 minutes after Avery John fed him a diagonal ball, and the 'keeper managed to poke Cristman's impending attempt away with his feet.
Carolina asserted itself in the following period, going close as Edozien slid the ball into the net in the 29th minute, but the effort was ruled out for offside.
The match flared to life in the 38th minute after a hard John tackle, which looked fair, caused a fracas in front of the Revolution bench. Players grouped and discussed the situation and it took referee Shane Moody and his crew a few minutes to sort out the resulting melee. Yellow cards were issued to John, for the tackle, and Carolina defender David Stokes, for his role.
If Moody thought he quelled the danger, it flared again before the restart in the 42nd minute. Joseph and Edozien came together. No punches were apparently thrown, but both Edozien and Joseph were sent to the showers as the game sputtered out of control.
The incident seemed to sharpen New England's focus and the Revolution drew level in first-half stoppage time. Cristman started the move, feeding Noonan to the right of the RailHawks goal. Noonan's cross found an open, diving Larentowicz to head home from 10 yards.
Carolina started stronger after the break and nearly had the ball in the net on 58 minutes. Chad Dombrowski rose majestically to head home a Kapono Low corner kick but Michael Parkhurst saved off the line. Reis then saved the follow-up effort to keep New England level.
Noonan clanked his second post of the evening in the 61st minute after being flicked through by a Cristman header. Noonan looked well positioned to finish, but pushed his effort off the woodwork. Andy Dorman forced a diving save from McClellan in the 72nd minute with his 25-yard effort.
New England pressed forward in the late stages searching for the winner but could not find it before the full-time whistle blew.
Luck finally broke for Noonan three minutes into extra time. Debutant Sainey Nyassi streaked down the right and crossed behind Cristman. The burly forward collected the pass and dropped it into Noonan's path to fire home from 20 yards. New England saw out the final 27 minutes of extra time, with one final Reis save at the death, and earned its place in the Open Cup final.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
