Wisconsin Soccer Central

Croatian Eagles and Bavarian SC have dominated the Wisconsin Open Cup in recent years, combining to win nine of the past 11 titles.

On Saturday, one of them will add the 2014 crown to their resume.

Substitute Scott Widule (Kettle Moraine) scored twice to cap a four-goal second half that carried the Croatians to a 5-0 victory over newcomer North Shore United in one semifinal last Saturday, while Bojan Jovicic (Milwaukee Hamilton/UW-Parkside) had a brace as the visiting Bavarians held off Milwaukee Sport Club 3-2 in the other match.

Saturday's final will be played at Croatian Park in Franklin – the Eagles have home-field advantage for the match as the reigning champions. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.

The Wisconsin Open Cup winner advances to the U.S. Adult Soccer Association Region II tournament, which is being played in November and December this year in response to schedule changes implemented by the U.S. Soccer Federation.

There was hope that Wisconsin would be granted two spots in the regional tournament, considering it was the only state in the country last year to hold a state Open Cup competition, but that did not occur. The eight-team tournament includes three teams from Illinois and one each from Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Wisconsin. (Schedule below)

The Wisconsin champion will open the Region II tournament at home against Illinois club AAC Eagles – that game must be played by Nov. 10. The teams can agree to play earlier; if they cannot agree on a date, the match will be at 2 p.m. Nov. 10.

The two finalists in the Region II tournament traditionally have received berths in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and are expected to do so again this year.

CROATIAN EAGLES 5:0 (1:0) NORTH SHORE UNITED

Philip Suprise (Milwaukee Pius) and halftime sub Ilya Ksenidi (West Allis Hale/UW-Green Bay) each had a goal and an assist at Croatian Park, and the two-time defending champions posted their fourth shutout in five matches overall this season.

Suprise set up the opener by Scott Raymonds (Brookfield East/UW-Green Bay) just before the half-hour mark. Suprise got the ball at the top of the box, feigned a shot and laid it off for Raymonds to finish first-time from the right side.

"When you're the reigning champ, everyone's gunning for you," Croatians manager Alex Toth said. "They put a good squad together and they really had high hopes that they were going to beat us. But getting that first goal before halftime was big."

At halftime, Toth moved Suprise up top in the Croatians' 4-2-3-1 and brought on Ksenidi on the right side of midfield, and the moves quickly paid dividends.

Suprise got the ball wide in the 60th and played a cross in that midfielder Tony Walls (Wauwatosa East/UW-Green Bay) headed on frame. Marcel Feenstra, who will be one of Walls' teammates with the Major Indoor Soccer League's Milwaukee Wave this season, pushed the shot wide, but Ksenidi cleaned up the rebound. Ten minutes later, Suprise shook free inside the 6-yard box and had a first-time finish off a cross to extend the lead to 3-0.

"That took a lot of air out of their sails," Toth said of North Shore United, which is unbeaten in Wisconsin Soccer Leagues First Division play.

Widule came on with about 15 minutes to play and put an exclamation mark on the win, scoring off a cross from Ksenidi at the back post in the 80th and finishing off a breakaway after being played through by Ross Van Osdol (UW-Milwaukee) in the 85th.

The Croatians were without two regular starters: attacking midfielder Jason Willan (Menomonee Falls), who had fluid on his knee, and center back Aaron Schroeder (Milwaukee Pius), sidelined with a rib injury suffered during training last week. Willan scored the lone goal in the Eagles' 1-0 win over Bavarians in last year's final.

MILWAUKEE SPORT CLUB 2:3 (1:1) BAVARIAN SC

Jovicic, who plays with United Serbians in the WSL Major Division, finished off two breakaways in a 10-minute span as the Bavarians won at Schwabenhof in Menomonee Falls six days after dropping a league match to Sport Club on the same field.

Jake Jankowski (Muskego/Wisconsin Lutheran) scored both goals for defending WSL Majors champion Sport Club. He gave the home side the lead in the opening quarter hour when he tapped in a cross from B.J. Gottschlich (Germantown/UW-Platteville) past Bavarians goalkeeper Matt Schmidt (Racine Horlick/UW-Milwaukee).

Five minutes later, though, the visitors pulled level when Stefan Scoon (Racine Horlick/UW-Whitewater) sent a free kick from just outside the box past Sport Club keeper Matt Eisold (Burlington/Wisconsin Lutheran).

Jovicic scored around the 55th and 65th minutes to give Bavarians a 3-1 lead, the second of those goals coming on a somewhat odd play.

"It either bounced or bounced off (Eisold), because it took kind of a weird deflection over him and rolled into the goal," Bavarians manager Patrick Hodgins said.

Jankowski pulled one back with about 10 minutes remaining and Sport Club had a chance for an equalizer 5 minutes later on a side volley by Steve Sperl (Wauwatosa West/UW-Milwaukee), but the shot was deflected out for a corner kick.

"We had to refocus," Hodgins said.

Bavarians and Croatians haven't squared off in league play yet this fall – they're scheduled to play next weekend, Nov. 3 – but the teams certainly know each other.

And Hodgins was the Eagles' Under-23 coach before taking over the Bavarians, who have qualified for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup six times since 1995, the most berths for any USASA team during what is considered the tournament's Modern Era.

"I have a lot of respect for Alex and what they do down there," Hodgins said, "but we'll be ready to go."

WISCONSIN OPEN CUP FINAL ROSTERS

CROATIAN EAGLES: Ramon "Choko" Alvarado, Jamie Bladen, Bryce Boyd, Donnie Crego, Edison Crespo, Cheikh Drame, Ilya Ksenidi, Aaron Lauber, Gustavo Mena, Mike Narciso, Tony Patterson, Scott Raymonds, Aaron Schroeder, Philip Suprise, Ross Van Osdol, Billy Von Rueden, Mike Vukovic, Tony Walls, Juan Antonio Rodriguez, Scott Widule, Andrew Wiedabach, Jason Willan. Manager: Alex Toth.

BAVARIAN SC: Trevor Adams, Martin Castro, Neal Crowder, Brett Dietz, Bojan Jovicic, Dona Lado, Luke Marietta, Giovanni Luna, Paul Marx, Billy Meier, Dan Montanye, Ryan Morrissey, David Peplinski, Craig Posselt, Tenzin Rampa, Nathan Sabich, Matt Schmidt, Adam Schultz, Stefan Scoon, Jacob Walker, Eric Weigmann, Kyle Zenoni. Manager: Patrick Hodgins.

RECENT WISCONSIN OPEN CUP CHAMPIONS

2003: Bavarian SC
2004: Bavarian SC
2005: Milwaukee Kickers
2006: Croatian Eagles
2007: Bavarian SC
2008: Bavarian SC
2009: Bavarian SC
2010: Milwaukee Kickers
2011: Bavarian SC
2012: Croatian Eagles
2013: Croatian Eagles

2014 USASA REGION II OPEN CUP

(Home team listed first)
Quarterfinals
To be completed by Nov. 10
Des Moines Menace (Iowa) vs. KC Athletics (Kan.)
Cincy Saints (Ohio) vs. RWB Adria (Ill.)
Schwaben AC (Ill.) vs. FC Indiana
Croatian Eagles or Bavarian SC vs. AAC Eagles (Ill.)
Semifinals
To be completed by Nov. 24
Des Moines Menace or KC Athletics vs. Cincy Saints or RWB Adria
Schwaben AC or FC Indiana vs. Croatian Eagles, Bavarian SC or AAC Eagles
Final
To be completed by Dec. 8
Semifinal winners