Birmingham native Chandler Hoffman, Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Prosper Kasim and Eddie Opoku scored goals for Birmingham Legion FC tonight en route to a 4-1 victory over West Chester United SC in a U.S. Open Cup match at BBVA Compass Field.

Opoku starred throughout the match, assisting on Hollinger-Janzen’s and Kasim’s goals while also scoring his own. In total, he had five shots, two shots on target and three chances created.

Hoffman scored in the 22nd minute with a penalty kick after Opoku was taken down inside the box, starting a dominant performance for Birmingham againast the National Premier Soccer League’s West Chester Predators.

“To be fair we could have had more in the goal. We had a ton of chances,” Legion FC coach Tom Soehn said. “It was a good learning experience for some guys who haven’t had much playing time.”

The U.S. Open Cup is recognized as U.S. Soccer’s national championship and is an annual competition open to all amateur and professional soccer teams associated with U.S. Soccer. Birmingham Legion FC will now advance to the third round against Louisville City FC, another United Soccer League squad.

“We have Louisville,” Soehn said. “We’ve played (them) twice with very different results. They really took it to us last time.”

West Chester, hailing from Pennsylvania, plays in the NPSL’s Northeast Region and advanced to the match with Birmingham after a shootout victory last week over FC Baltimore Christos.

Hoffman, The Man 💪



Amateurs @WCUSCPredators were sharp early, but Chandler Hoffman of @bhmlegion put the home side into a lead from the penalty spot.



1-0 | #USOC2019 pic.twitter.com/N5tWEQg9Vd — U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) May 16, 2019

That early penalty shot to put Birmingham up 1-0 followed an even earlier opportunity, when Hoffman received a pass from Opoku and shot on target just 43 seconds into the match. West Chester goalkeeper Pierre Gardan got two hands on the shot and deflected it.

Hollinger-Janzen increased the lead in the 36th minute when the midfielder shot a header ahead of Gardan after an assist from Opoku.

Legion FC kept the pressure on in the second half, adding the goal from Kasim in the 50th minute.

Kasim drove the ball the length of the field, dropped it off to Opoku and then received the ball again to put the home team up 3-0.

Live long & Prosper 🤓



With @WCUSCPredators over-extended in search of a goal, Prosper Kasim raced up the other way to finish off a ⚡️ counter-attack for the @bhmlegion.



3-0 | #USOC2019 pic.twitter.com/TeXLHsctwF — U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) May 16, 2019

West Chester’s lone goal came in the 60th minute when forward Charles Wilson scored inside the box.

Legion added a final score in the 88th minute, when Opaku added a goal to his assist stats; his goal came off an assist from Daniel Johnson.

West Chester’s best opportunities for additional goals came in the 19th minute when Wilson sprinted to the goal for an on-target shot which was batted away by Legion FC goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg who’s playing for a still-injured Matt VonOekel.

In the second half, the Predators had a prime chance to score spoiled by a double save from Spangenberg. The goalkeeper first blocked a free kick blasted his way, then rebounded to knock down another shot on target from inside the box.

Birmingham Legion FC finished tonight’s game with 18 shots (7 of them on target) and a 61 percent possession rate. The Predators had just three shots in the first half, 10 total and five shots on target in the match.

Hoffman had six shots and Hollinger-Janzen had four to add to Opoku’s five; Kasim had two shots and Tyler Turner had one. Other starers to play the entire match were Benjamin Kucera, Razak Cromwell and Marcos Ugarte.

Legion FC returns to USL play with a game on the roadSaturday against North Carolina FC, and its next home game is the following Wednesday against North Carolina SC.