Rhinos Fly the USL-1 Flag into US Open Cup Semifinals

By: alessio | July 8th, 2009

Well that was a pleasant game.

The Opponents: The competition were the USL-2 Wilmington Hammerheads, a team that had pulled upsets in the last two rounds of the US Open Cup.
The Location: ~~Paetec Park~~ ~~Rochester Rhinos Stadium~~ Marina Dodge Auto Stadium- Rochester, NY
The Weather: 60s and dry….a large improvement over last week, though true to Rochester, it started raining towards the end.
The Task:Defeat the Hammerheads to setup a Semifinal match against DC United.

With all respect to the Delaware-based club, they were outclassed by the Rhinos tonight. After some early struggles against Cleveland City in the Open Cup, the team has looked determined and fearless, in an attempt to recreate the heroics of the Raging Rhinos from 10 years ago. This game was no different.

The Rhinos were in control nearly the whole game, at the end of the first half, it was 7 shots on goal for the Rhinos in favor to the Hammerheads 2. Kenny Bertz was once again impenetrable in the back, winning every header and providing no joy to the Hammerhead attackers, making me continue to wonder how or why DC United failed to develop him. The half ended 0-0, but the Rhinos were in the driving seat.

It didn’t take long for MVP-of-the-game Mike Ambersley to open up the scoring with a wonderful cross to an unmarked Taiwo Atieno who headed in a powerful goal, with Hammerhead goalkeeper Polak (yes, you read that right) unable to make the save. Just a few minutes later Ambersley again showed some great strength to power into the box, make some cuts and draw the foul which gave a penalty to Rochester. Gregor buried it, and it was 2-0 to the home squad.

The Hammerheads were able to claw one back on a clusterf*** corner, setting the game up for an exciting finale. The Rhinos had several chances to kill the game, including two headers from 5′4″ 2008 MVP Johnny Menyongar that were just off-target. The Hammerheads pushed forward for a final goal, with keeper Polak waiting halfway across the field to collect and redistribute. They pounded the Rhinos defense, but like the game against Columbus, held strong and finished the game 2-1.

The Rhinos are now the sole non-MLS team still in the competition, and travel July 23rd/24th to Washington DC to take on DC United in an attempt to return to the finals for the 3rd time. This is the team’s best foray in the Open Cup since 1999, when of course the team famously won it 2-0.