Quarterfinal win over Charlotte sets up semi vs. Naples on Saturday, Nov. 8
One Knoxville SC began its push for postseason glory in promising fashion by dispatching the Charlotte Independence 2-1 at Covenant Health Park on Sunday, Nov. 2.
Eight days removed from lifting the Players’ Shield as the regular-season champion of USL League One, the squad hosted the North Carolina club in the first round of the playoffs. The home side had momentum in its favor, whereas the No. 8 seed had backed into the matchup by falling to FC Naples on the final day of the season and squeezing into the field only by virtue of both AV Alta FC and Forward Madison FC suffering losses of their own and thus failing to leapfrog the Independence.
Still, the three previous games in 2025 between the regional foes had been extremely tight affairs, with each team earning a win on either side of a draw and Charlotte eking out a plus-one goal difference in the series.
Appropriate for the end of daylight saving time and the onset of late autumn, cold, steady showers pelted the afternoon’s proceedings, which kicked off at 4 and concluded under darkened skies. While – as one might expect from a hardy band of die-hard supporters – the Scruffs braved the elements in the exposed Section 118 for the full 90 minutes, the majority of the 4,635 attendees sought refuge under the covered portions of the concourse until the rainfall diminished in the second half.
Knoxville manager Ian Fuller proffered the same starting 11, arranged into his favored 4-2-3-1, that defeated Greenville Triumph SC to clinch the league. Charlotte began with an adaptable setup that alternated between a standard formation featuring four at the back and one that incorporated wingbacks outside of a back three. The latter option was employed more often than not, which stretched the pitch and allowed attacks to emanate from wide areas.
Both sides started the match with nervous energy that saw them testing the waters in the first few minutes. When the ball wasn’t pinballing around the midfield or being turned over, Jon Bakero and Souaibou Marou were linking up for the Independence, while Stuart Ritchie and Stavros Zarokostas aimed to exploit open space on the flanks for One Knox.
Unfortunately, the saturated state of the turf appeared to be a factor early on, as well.
Reinstalled in the second week of September after the last baseball home game, the sod covering the infield at the north end of the Cove had taken root long ago, eliminating fraying at the boundaries and furnishing a suitable playing surface in dry conditions; however, issues still seem to persist in inclement weather. There were noticeable bobbles on Sunday as the ball was passed in and around that segment of the ground, and the instability nearly resulted in a Knoxville own goal in the 12th minute.
Anthony Sorenson lasered a low cross into the penalty area from the left that Jordan Skelton readied himself to clear, but it hit a divot and bounced up at least a foot or so in the air at the last instant. The startled captain, named later in the week to the 2025 All-League First Team, shinned the ball 180 degrees from where he had intended to boot it, and it flew just to the outside of the near post and over the endline. The ensuing corner floated long but was headed back to the edge of the goal box and met with a mean half-volley by Christian Chaney. Sean Lewis could only look on as it thumped off the base of the right upright and out of play.
A passive spectator for that chance, the First Team netminder was a decidedly active participant during the next.
In the 14th minute, Christopher Jaime whipped a wicked inswinger from the left to the back stick for Marou. The forward shrewdly tracked its flight and snapped a header that looked destined for the bottom 90, but Lewis anticipated its path brilliantly, kept his wrists firm and pushed it off of a trailing Clay Dimick for a goal kick. The stunning save elicited gasps and murmurs of appreciation around the park, but the focused, veteran goalkeeper treated it as just another routine stop.
Having yielded mostly one-way traffic and a couple of truly harrowing moments so far, the apparently intentional strategy of sitting in a low block, absorbing pressure and hitting on the counter was starting to feel at least a bit risky if not highly suspect. The calculated gamble by the Coach of the Month for October paid off in the 17th minute, however, as the approach led directly to the breakthrough goal.
Nico Rosamilia switched the point of attack with a cross-field ball to the right to fullback and Second Team selection Jaheim Brown, who played a first-time pass down the seam to Zarokostas. Holding his run just long enough to stay level with Pele Ousmanou, the diminutive winger sped past the lanky defender, sliced in front of him and centered to Kempes Tekiela. Cutting the ball onto his weaker right foot to avoid a tackle, the attacking midfielder took a shot from 12 yards out that deflected off the leg of Oluwatobilba Adewole and skittered just wide of the near post.
Tekiela took the resulting set piece, which he delivered with pinpoint accuracy to Sivert Haugli at the back stick. Although the center back was loosely marked, his mass and leverage gave him the ability to outmuscle his man and power a header just short of Amal Knight’s goal line and up into the net. Having provided One Knox with an all-important early advantage, Haugli lumbered over to the corner flag in front of the Modelo Watering Hole to celebrate with his teammates and the ecstatic fans congregated in the tiered seating.
Charlotte appeared to be reeling following the restart and straightaway almost found itself in a two-goal deficit.
As the ball rotated along the backline, Knight came close to getting stripped by Babacar Diene. A few seconds later, he had to sprint to foil the Player of the Month/Second Team honoree from pinching a lax back pass. Soon enough, though, the Independence forced Lewis into another incredible stop. From a corner In the 21st minute, the keeper repelled a solid shot by Marou from point-blank range with a sharp reaction save and somehow held onto the ball to prevent a follow-up.
On a quick counter in the 27th minute, Zarokostas laid a long pass from Brown off to Tekiela and received the return ball to go on a two-on-one break with Diene, who was occupying the center channel. The chance evaporated when Adewole, the lone defender, got a toe on the wingman’s attempted center and Knight fell onto the loose ball. Just one more inch past the center back’s outreached boot, and the striker would have been in all alone.
At the half-hour mark, Jaime had a decent look at goal from inside the area, but his side-footed effort was blocked out of play by Skelton. On the same possession, the midfielder unleashed a screamer from distance that swerved menacingly over the crossbar. In the 34th minute, he divested Abel Caputo of the ball, tore down the left flank and curled an inviting ball to the feet of Chaney. The talisman sidestepped Haugli’s slide tackle but couldn’t avoid the recovery challenge of a closing Callum Johnson. In the 40th, Jaime manufactured a movement that culminated in him shaping a shot on frame but not bending it enough to seriously trouble Lewis.
Knoxville maintained the bulk of possession as the first half wound down but didn’t accomplish much with it until the 43rd minute. Johnson played a searching ball to the forward line, and either Diene’s touch let him down or he deliberately dummied it to release Zarokostas down the left channel. With two defenders hot on his tail, the wide player surveyed his options, opened his hips and aimed for the far post. Knight got the slightest of touches on the shot, and the ball rolled agonizingly close to the stick but over the endline.
No extra time was added to the opening three-quarters of an hour, and the rain-soaked squads retreated to their respective dressing rooms. One Knox surely was the happier of the two teams, as the halftime scoreline was not representative of the flow, essence or events of the match to that point. The data suggested as much, with Charlotte leading in shots (9-4), shots on goal (3-2) and corner kicks (6-4). The home side held an edge in the most important statistical category, of course, as well as in possession (58%).
The second half began with both sides ramping up the energy and applying pressure higher up the pitch.
Bakero registered the first good chance of the latter 45 minutes with a low shot from inside the area in the 49th that Lewis did well to turn away at his near post for a corner, one of several the Independence earned in the opening minutes of the period. On another in the 54th minute, Chaney rose unobstructed between two defenders for a header from 6 yards out that he drove too steeply downward, and it bounced up and over the bar without posing any danger to the Knoxville net.
The next passage of play was almost exclusively controlled by the home team.
One Knox settled into sustained possession and found inroads through the middle third by preserving its shape and spreading the ball around with precision passing. A lofted pass from Haugli to Brown in the 62nd minute was drilled forward into the area to Diene, who flicked it over the backline to Tekiela, who volleyed it with his instep wide of the mark. Although it looked like the right back had kept him on, Diene was ruled to have emerged from an offside position, so the strike wouldn’t have counted anyway, but the move was indicative of One Knox’s increasing interest in augmenting its lead.
And it didn’t take much longer for the Scruffy Boys to do just that.
As part of a coordinated press, Caputo stepped up to intercept an attempted pass by Ousmanou, and the ball ricocheted to Tekiela, who was stationed in his own half just outside of the center circle. Spotting Zarokostas drifting into the right channel, the No. 10 slotted an inch-perfect through ball to the winger with so much zip that it completely took Ousmanou out of the play.
Carrying enough pace to keep the defender at bay, Zarokostas zoomed in on Knight, dipped a shoulder to feign a near-post effort and ripped a shot behind the keeper to double the Knoxville advantage. The scamper was reminiscent of the sequence in the first half that generated the corner that produced the opening tally, but the move and finish here were devastating in their swiftness, efficiency and impact.
Kneeling before the Scruffs and plugging his ears to drown out any naysayers, Zarokostas soon was skirted on both sides by elated teammates who clearly relished the opportunity to celebrate a crucial and well-taken goal scored by one of the pillars of the franchise. While it wasn’t quite a dagger, with 25 minutes remaining in the quarterfinal, One Knox could just about dream of the next step in its journey.
After dominantly shielding the ball from two defenders in the right corner and dribbling down the endline to escape them, Diene set up Tekiela to try to seal the deal in the 70th minute. Adewole lunged to deflect his shot past the left stick, though, and Skelton’s diving header from the resulting corner flew narrowly wide of the opposite post.
Before the set piece was taken, Fuller sent Gio Calixtro and Angelo Kelly on for Rosamilia and Johnson, respectively, to provide defensive reinforcement. Throwing caution to the wind, the Independence introduced three offensive substitutions in the 73rd minute. And, in a reverse tactic, Tekiela made way for Mikkel Gøling in the 77th.
However, Charlotte halved its arrears a minute after the Dane’s entrance, with Chaney sliding to supply the telling touch to a Sorenson cross and cap off what had started as a simple, seemingly innocuous move down the left touchline. Dropping deep to overload that flank, Tumi Moshobane found the overlapping fullback with a well-weighted through ball, and Brown afforded him too much time and space to deliver a low cross to the forward, who got goal side of Haugli.
Not to take anything away from the visitors, as a goal was nothing less than what their endeavors on the day deserved, but it was a fairly cheap sort of score, the kind of which the vaunted One Knox defense has conceded only sparingly this year. And to its credit, rather than wilting to initiate a frantic finish to the match, the squad buckled down and largely dictated the action for the last 12 minutes plus stoppage time.
Still, the final few flashes were uneasy for the players and excruciating for an anxious fanbase chomping at the bit to see its beloved soccer club progress farther in the playoffs than it ever had before. Much like the teeming precipitation that had begun to pick up again in earnest, whistles started pouring down from the stands in the fourth of six added minutes and continued until the referee officially signaled an end to the match a handful of seconds into the 97th minute.
With the victory, Knoxville will welcome Naples to the Cove on Saturday, Nov. 8. That 7 p.m. semifinal pits the overall top seed against the upstart No. 4, which is enjoying an immensely successful inaugural campaign. The Paradise Coast outfit survived 90 minutes of regular time, 30 minutes of extra time and a penalty shootout to outlast the decorated Union Omaha, winner of last year’s Players’ Shield and USL League One Championship and a pre-tournament favorite to take home the 2025 title.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 7 Portland Hearts of Pine – another first-year club – shocked No. 2 Chattanooga Red Wolves SC 1-0 on the road to advance to play No. 3 Spokane Velocity, which eked by No. 6 South Georgia Tormenta FC in a match that also went to penalties. That semifinal will commence in Washington on Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST. Both games will be available to stream via ESPN+ – although One Knox would love to have your support in person to help spur on this special season.
