RIFC advanced in the US Open Cup with a 4-0 win over CD Faialense tonight. It was yet another bitterly cold occasion at Centreville Bank Stadium, as it was this past weekend. Definitely one for the sickos out there. As always, I’m here to give my quick thoughts on the game and the overall experience. So let’s get to it:
Interesting 11
Before getting into what happened on the field, I feel like I need to address what was probably the most intriguing thing coming into this one: who was going to start? I have to say, I was shocked to see Koke Vegas in goal. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to see Will Meyer or Jacob Castro. The decision to play Koke actually has me wondering if Khano doesn’t have confidence in either backup. Against amateur opposition, the decision to play Koke was bizarre.
I did appreciate seeing our two signings out of college, CJ Williams (Boston College) and Jamin Gogo Peters (Brown University), get starts. I think it’s always a cool thing to see players make their professional debuts. I also liked that Kevin Vang got his opportunity. Seeing a native Rhode Islander out there is something I’ll always have time for. Vang even ended up as Defiance Man of the Match. Great moment
Unlikely First Half Goalscorers
As for the game, RIFC handled business in the first half as expected, and went into the break with a 2-0 lead. Both goals came from unlikely sources, with Dani Rovira first getting it started early:
Nice move and good control from Dani to be able to put that one away.
An even more unlikely goal scorer was next, as CJ Williams doubled the lead:
It was a scrappy goal but they all count. And more importantly, as the club duly noted, FREE CHICKEN! RIFC have finally scored from a corner for the first time since 2024. Chick-fil-A for all!!!
Scardina Goal and Job Done
Khano made some positive substitutions in the 2nd, bringing on 5 players who started against Sporting Jax on Saturday. Among them were Pity Rodriguez and Nick Scardina. Pity looked brilliant dictating play in the middle of the field. And Scardina made an instant impact with a goal to truly put the game away:
What a great move to set this up. Of course, it was started by Pity who was awesome in his second appearance for the club.
Scardina would get into a similar attacking position just a couple minutes later and another one went in:
While the post here has it as a second Scardina goal, it did officially go down as an own goal. Either way, great to see Nick getting into those positions and hopefully we see much more of that this season
Final Thoughts
In the end, it was a fun night at Tidewater. It was great to see some new faces on the field and the team took care of business. A win here tonight was essentially a given. The only questions were how many goals were going to be scored and if the team could get out of this one healthy. 4 goals and no injury issues is just fine by me.
I’ll be back here later in the week for a preview of RIFC’s trip down to Louisville on Saturday. It’ll be a great early test for the boys and I can’t wait to dig in and get to blogging about it. Until then, as always, UP THE TIDE!
Tide Talk 
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