Mint Hill FC advances 3-2 over SCU Heat in US Open Cup qualifier
Familiar UPSL foes meet for third straight year in Open Division qualifier
It was a 3-2 win for Mint Hill FC Saturday afternoon in the Charlotte suburbs as they advance past the visiting South Carolina United Heat in the Second Round of 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup qualifiers.
These two UPSL clubs are familiar opponents in the Mid-Atlantic Conference and have met the past two years in USOC qualifiers with the road team winning the previous meetings. Mint Hill reversed this road-team-winning trend on this cloudy, mild, early fall afternoon on the field turf at Mint Hill Veterans Memorial Park.
The Heat had a dream start to the match and went up 1-0 in just the 10th minute as Matheus Barrozo was able to settle a long ball sent over the Mint Hill backline that caused confusion as it bounced around drawing the Mint keeper off his line. Barrozo slotted the ball past the onrushing keeper and put the Heat up 1-0.
Just minutes later, Barrozo looked to finish off a free kick service with another goal but was deemed to be offside erasing second goal that would have sent the Heat on thier way. Mint Hill picked up the physical play and weathered this Heat wave of attacking soccer early in the match to slowly tilt the field in the home team’s favor.
The breakthrough moment for Mint came in the 32nd minute as John Agnew curled a free kick through a gap in the Heat defensive wall to level the match. The right-footed Agnew hit a driven, curling ball at the center of the wall where the ball had just the right flight to find a gap in the wall before bouncing just before the goal line leaving the Heat keeper at full stretch unable to make the save. Game on at 1-1.
Mint Hill scored again in the 40th minute as Matthew Guarda drove into the penalty area running down a pass where he drove a slicing ball high into the near post upper 90. Mint took this 2-1 lead into the halftime break.
A physical, midfield stalemate played out to open the second half and this pattern of play lasted until each team was shown a red card on a hard tackle and resulting mass confrontation in the 78th minute. The match opened up as both teams played with just 10 men and Mint Hill was first to use this extra space to their advantage.
A ball was played by Mint Hil square across the top of the box and Jamie DiLuzio found the ball in a free pocket of space and made no mistake curling the ball low into the near post for the 3-1 Mint Hill advantage in the 88th minute.
The Heat pulled a goal back in second-half stoppage time as Alfredo Diaz-Santillan looped a header off a corner kick over the multitude in the goal mouth to make the score 3-2 in the 90+5 minute. Just seconds later was the full-time whistle to send Mint Hill into the next round with the 3-2 win.
“It means a lot (to advance), the last three years we’ve played the SCU Heat in the First Round (of Open Qualification) so we know it’s always a really hard fight,” said Mint Hill FC Captain Ian Larson. “Last year was the first year we beat them and we got to advance, so that gave us a little bit more experience to come out here and fight hard, we knew what we had to do. Everybody stepped up and played their position quite well, we had a couple of injuries right before we kicked off, so we had a couple of guys who had to step in and that’s really tough to do last minute playing this good of a team. A team effort across the board and we’re excited for anything (in the next round of qualifiers).”
Mint Hill FC will find out their next opponent in the upcoming draw for the Third-Round match to be played November 1 or 2.
