One Knox Advances in US Open Cup with 3-1 Win
USL1 One Knoxville SC

One Knox Advances in US Open Cup with 3-1 Win

Published on March 18, 2026 under United Soccer League One (USL1)
One Knoxville SC News Release


GARFIELD, NJ - Despite letting a goal slip by in less than a minute after the opening whistle, there would be no 'cupset' for One Knoxville SC on a chilly Wednesday evening in New Jersey. The club stormed back to a 3-1 victory over SC Vistula Garfield to move on in the 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

"Not thrilled about the way we started, but the 89 minutes after that, we didn't put many feet wrong," said One Knox Head Coach Ian Fuller. "We moved the ball really well and created a lot of chances, so to advance feels good."

The second round of the competition will take place on March 31 and April 1 with matchups to be drawn and announced by US Soccer. The win marked One Knox's fifth win in its young Open Cup history, having advanced in its opening match of the competition for a third consecutive year.

Playing with a heavily rotated squad, just four days removed from its last match, the visiting side turned the tables after the early deficit with goals from Babacar Diene, Real Gill and Mikkel Gøling. One Knox flexed its muscles against the semi-professional side from the American Premier Soccer League.

One Knox outshout SC Vistula 19-9 (7-5 on target) with 71.8% of the possession and 40 touches in the opposing box, while the home side had just nine.

"All these guys deserved the minutes they played tonight," Fuller said of the rotated lineup. "We saw some stuff for a lot of good individuals tonight and I want to give a lot of credit to Scott (McLeod), Finn (McRobb) and Abel (Caputo). It's not easy defensively when you have a lot of the ball, but they did a really good job in thwarting their attacking chances."

After SC Vistula pulled out in front with a goal Simon Gorczowski just 55 seconds into the match, Diene reset things in the 14th minute with a powerful finish on a loose ball in the box off of a Will Perkins cross.

"It's really valuable for Baba as a striker to get that first goal on the scoresheet," Fuller noted. "It was also an important goal for us because the longer we play a goal down, the more momentum the opponent gets. So that was really good for us."

It was Diene's fourth goal in Open Cup play, having scored three in as many matches in the competition with One Knox last year.

The away side would grab the lead for good just seven minutes later as Gill opened his goal scoring account for 2026 with a clinical settle and strike in the box via a corner kick for Steven Cordova, who made his club and professional debut on the night.

"I've been challenge Real since the moment we signed him that he can get double digit goals," Fuller said. "For him to score the way that he did proved that he is capable of that."

Having entered the match in the 72nd minute, Gøling wasted little time to find the back of the net just four minutes into his outing with a gorgeous curling strike from the top of the box.

The Danish midfielder was one of five One Knox changes on the evening, including the club debut for Eli Cook, who signed a USL Academy contract for this season. The 16-year-old forward entered the match for Eli Conway in the 79th minute.

"Eli (Cook) got those minutes because he deserved them," explained Fuller. "He was obviously a little nervous going in, but if you see how he trains with the rest of the squad, you'd never know that he is 16 years old."

LINEUPS

KNX: Burke - GK, Perkins (Fernandez 63 ‚¬Â²), McLeod, McRobb, Tiao (Brown 45 ‚¬Â²), Caputo - C, Cordova, Conway (Cook 79 ‚¬Â²), Gill (Gõling 72 ‚¬Â²), Linhares, Diene (Krioutchenkov 63 ‚¬Â²)

VIS: Muñoz - GK, Gorczowksi, Davis, Kondratowicz - C, Tomlinson (Davis 45 ‚¬Â²), Nitek, Taraska (Gutierrez 74 ‚¬Â²), Elezai (Kondratowicz 82 ‚¬Â²), McGeechan (Iloski 68 ‚¬Â²), Moroz (DeSouza 74 ‚¬Â²), Karcz

GOALS

KNX: Diene 14 ‚¬Â²; Gill 21 ‚¬Â²; Gõling 76 ‚¬Â²

VIS: Gorczowski 1 ‚¬Â²

DISCIPLINE

KNX: McRobb (Yellow) 68 ‚¬Â²

VIS: Karcz (Yellow) 73 ‚¬Â²

NEXT UP

One Knox jumps back into USL League One play with a two-match homestand next week beginning on Tuesday, March 24 against Corpus Christi FC (tickets), followed by a date with the Richmond Kickers (tickets) on Friday, March 27. Both matches from Covenant Health Park kick off at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the One Knoxville SC Statistics

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United Soccer League One Stories from March 18, 2026


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