2025 Regular Season Comes Down to Final Game
When we last looked at Orange County’s II team they had just come off a 2-0 victory over City SC back in the middle of July. Since then it has, in all honesty, been a bit of a struggle to find time to continue these recaps. But with the team being a bright spot in a 2025 soccer season they deserve their roses.
The OCSC II team have the opportunity to finish tied for first in the Southwest Division of the USL Academy League. They can achieve this with a win in their last game of the regular season in an “away” game against West Coast FC, who are also in the same position. Officially the way to make the postseason in the USL Academy league is to finish as the top team in the group based on points per match (PPM). Multiple teams from the same division can make the postseason.
OC last qualified in 2023. That postseason run saw them make it all the way to the final before losing to Charlotte Independence.
But before we really dive deeper into all the scenarios, we have five games to cover. Each game will get a paragraph detailing what went down. Let’s start things off with a game that got rescheduled:
8/12 @ AMSG FC
This was the “forfeited” game from earlier in the season when AMSG did not have a proper trainer at the game so the game could not be played. Whoops. This game would get rescheduled as a AMSG home game, but was played at Championship Soccer Stadium. This was a game that saw both teams go home frustrated. AMSG scored a first half goal off of a bad turnover, but generally annoyed OC all night. OC continued to pepper the AMSG backline and it was not until the fourth minute of stoppage time that Cheick Kone scored and spoiled it for AMSG. The game would end 1-1 with both teams wanting more.
8/27 @ Ventura County Fusion FC
The biggest away trip for the Orange & Black was up the coast to Ventura. This was the only game that I was not able to attend, since it was a 5:30 pm weekday start time. Not much is known about this game except for the scoreline: a 3-0 victory for Orange County. Solid effort for a solid defensive team.
9/16 vs Ventura County Fusion FC
This was a rare scheduling instance where OC II played the same team on back to back occasions. By the way things started for OC, it looked as if it would be another dominant performance as OC had gone up 2-0 within the first half hour. Then Ventura County got the game back under control and stymied the OC offense. Ventura County would end up dominating the rest of the game, scoring, and with a 85th minute penalty, scoring again to tie the game. One of the more frustrating outings.
9/23 vs Capo FC
After the Ventura County draw at home. There was a bit of an edge to the club when they faced off against Capo FC for the return leg. OC had destroyed Capo FC 6-0 in the first game. This game basically panned out the same way, with OC coming away with another 6-0 victory. The difference in quality between the two teams was night and day.
9/26 vs AV Alta FC
This was a rare non-league match up for OC II who played an AV Alta side that may or may not have only played one game all season according to the USL Academy website. This was a very chippy affair that saw OC need to play very physically to match AV Alta’s intensity. Ethan Phung scored in the first half, and the team held on for a 1-0 win.
This is now where Orange County finds themselves. With just one game left in the regular season, Orange County have a PPM of 2.00 which is the exact same as their final opponent West Coast FC. West Coast FC are the only team to defeat Orange County this season and have historically had their number. Through nine games played they have 6 wins and 3 losses while OC have 5 wins, 1 loss and 3 ties. Officially both teams have 18 points and both are behind City SC who finished the season with 21 points. Whoever wins the final game will end the season tied for first in the Southwest division. Orange County, among qualified teams, have only conceded four goals all season, which makes theirs the best defense in the USL Academy League.
10/7 @ West Coast FC
Orange County found themselves on the outside looking in coming into their final regular season matchup. Even though they had just one defeat all season, the handful of draws put OC in 3rd in the Southwest division behind both West Coast FC and City SC. Orange County had swept City SC giving them their only two defeats on the season and West Coast had been Orange County’s only blemish. However both OC and West Coast were tied with 18 points and behind City SC’s 21 points. Only the top teams from each division move on to the postseason tournament with one wildcard team across 3 different divisions so both teams needed a win to advance based on tiebreakers.
On Tuesday evening at Championship Soccer Stadium, OC would be considered the road team and would play in front of a well attended USL Academy league game in a hostile environment that favored West Coast. West Coast FC have historically gotten the better of the OC II team and it looked like that trend would continue when West Coast would score off a set piece within the first 10 minutes of the game. Set piece defense would be Orange County’s weakest part of the field all night and it would come back to bite them again in the 20th minute. Not even halfway through the first half and it looked as if OC were down for the count. OC would actually make a first half substitution and from that point forward they easily had the majority of scoring chances. Yet they could not find a finishing ball to save themselves and they would enter halftime with a frustrating 0-2 scoreline.
The second half would be heavily dominated by OC in almost all categories but the West Coast goalkeeper would be up to every test. OC had 3 different opportunities on an open goal and would miss all three. Finally in the 68th minute Roberto Molina would get OC’s first goal to finally break the seal. By this point Orange County was throwing everything forward and would come agonizingly close on multiple occasions. Then in the 79th minute Ethan Phung would score his second goal of the season off a bouncing ball in the box that fooled the West Coast defense to give OC the important equalizer and really put the pressure on West Coast. With a tie neither team would advance and West Coast seemed content with this. OC were the far more aggressive side and would get chance after chance to score the winner even hitting a crossbar once. Then as he has done all season Cheick Kone in the first minute of added time saw his shot barely cross over the line but was ruled a goal and like that OC had come back from 0-2 down to lead the game 3-2 with five minutes left of added time.
The match would end in chaotic fashion with a West Coast player and front office member sent off but in the end OC II would scrape by with a 3-2 victory.
Final Thoughts
Orange County II officially clinched a spot in the USL Academy playoffs for just the second time in program history. The USL Academy tournament is scheduled for December 4-7th and will be held at IMG Academy in Florida. It is a single elimination tournament of 16 teams that is seeded. The 2023 team that made the postseason might have been the more complete team but the 2025 team definitely has more skill players especially on the offensive side of the ball. The OC II program did a good job rebounding after a disappointing 2024 season and they definitely have a handful of players that could easily have a future in professional soccer. The scariest part is that they are still missing a couple of players to injury.
No matter how the team does in the postseason, Coach Crettenand should be happy with his entire team along with the coaching staff. Heading into the final game of the season this was a team that had the best defense in the entire USL Academy league. The future is definitely bright for Orange County SC.