It was a night where one would be hard-pressed to call United’s 2-0 victory over the amateur Ocean City Barons at the Maryland SoccerPlex undeserved. It took a penalty kick, a mishandle by the goalkeeper, some kind woodwork, and a some spectacular efforts from Milos Kocik to get by a team consisting of collegiate players, an elementary school teacher, a civil engineer, and a youth soccer coach. You can probably forgive the few United supporters in attendance for sweating a bit.

In cup football as in life, though, all’s well that ends well.

To be fair, this match was as big as it was going to get for the small Jersey shore club from the Premier Development League. It was obvious that the Ocean City players realized that this was probably going to be the biggest match of their lives — and they played like it, providing consistent effort and plenty of heart. Placing ten men behind the ball for most of the match, the Barons constantly frustrated United, who, albeit possessing the ball for long stretches of time, couldn’t create anything of note on net.

How bad did Ocean City want it? Barons manager Neil Holloway had to be removed from the field of play by police after he was red carded for dissent early in the second half. (Now there’s passion for you.)