Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Wisconsin Amateur Cup kicks off with semifinal matches Saturday, and while a berth in next week's state final is on the line, there's a bigger prize up for grabs, too.

Milwaukee Sport Club plays host to North Shore United at 3 p.m. at Schwabenhof in Menomonee Falls, and Bavarian SC faces the Croatian Eagles at 4 p.m. at UW-Milwaukee's Engelmann Stadium in the semifinals.

Saturday's winners will meet in the final at 3 p.m. May 17, and both finalists will earn spots in the U.S. Adult Soccer Association Region II finals from June 13 to 15 in Westfield, Ind.

The Croatians, who lead the Wisconsin Soccer League Major Division, are the defending champions and will play host to the final if they advance. If the final pits North Shore United and Bavarians, NSU would host the match in Cedarburg. And if the Bavarians face Sport Club, a blind draw would determine the site in the final.

This will be the third meeting of the 2014-15 season between the Croatians and Bavarians – the Eagles won the first two matches last fall, winning 3-1 in the Wisconsin Open Cup final on Oct. 26 and 5-1 in a league game Nov. 3. The Croatians have outscored opponents 37-3 in nine league matches (8-0-1).

Sport Club (8-3-0) is second in the WSL Majors with a plus-30 goal differential, while North Shore United (9-1-1) stands second in the WSL First Division with an amazing plus-53 goal differential. However, in their only match against a Majors team this season, NSU lost to Croatians 5-0 in a Wisconsin Open Cup semifinal on Oct. 19.

Here are the 22-player rosters for the semifinalists – each team can have 18 players on the game-day roster. Teams can use up to seven substitutes in the matches.

MILWAUKEE SPORT CLUB: Oliver Bell, Hans Borosch, Tony Colvin, Joe Cuda, Matt Eisold (GK), Alex Gibas, Patrick Gilbertson, Brian Gottschlich, Kyle Gottschlich, Andrew Hicks, Jake Jankowski, Andrew Krenzien, Sam Krenzien, Dylan Leeper, Ryan Moylan, James Pike (GK), David Scherer, Michael Scherer, Paul Sikinger, Steve Sperl, Nick Unger.

NORTH SHORE UNITED: Pat Birder, Adam Brown, Spencer Bursten, David Check (GK), Mick Collins, Marcel Feenstra (GK), Shaun Gallagher, Tyler Hawley, Dustin Keegan, Daniel Nogueira, Dennis Orellana, Christian Pedroza, Dominic Quinan, Mohammed Sethi, Jules Sekhi, Brett Wiesner, Alberto Valle, Srbo Vujanic, Jason Zitzke.

BAVARIAN SC: Logan Andryk, Jamie Bladen, Martin Castro, Will Chaney, Luke Davey, Brett Dietz, Dennis Holowaty, Charlie Hoover, Giovanni Luna, Paul Marx, Billy Meier, Colin Monahan, Dan Montanye, Ryan Morrissey, Dorian O'Lochlayne, Tenzin Rampa, Nate Rohde, Nathan Sabich, Matt Schmidt (GK), Mike Unwin, Mac Wheeler (GK), Kyle Zenoni.

CROATIAN EAGLES: Joe Anderson, Bryce Boyd (GK), Aaron Cranfill, Edison Crespo, Cheikh Drame, Luke Goodnetter, Andy Huftalin, Ilya Ksenidi, Chris Kurth, Aaron Lauber, Tom Lynn, Adam Lysak, Mike Narciso, Luan Oliveira, Tony Patterson, Scott Raymonds, Josh Rohde (GK), Aaron Schroeder, Philip Suprise, Scott Widule, Andrew Wiedabach, Jason Willan.

• The Croatians were drawn into Group D with New York Polet and Canadian clubs Livno Oakville and Hamilton Croatia for the 51st annual Croatian National Soccer Tournament of Canada and USA, which is Aug. 30 and 31 in Norval, Ontario.
• The Northern Wisconsin Soccer League will start its 2014 season on May 18, with eight teams from Green Bay and the Fox Valley in Division I and six more sides in Division II. Schedules on NWSL website
• The Madison Soccer Association, meanwhile, is wrapping up its 2013-14 season, with the penultimate round of matches this weekend. The league's final regular-season games are scheduled for May 18 and 23, with the playoffs set to start June 1. Schedules, results, standings on MSA website