After the Ocean City Barons claimed a 3-1 victory against the Richmond Kickers Future on Friday night, their fate in U.S. Open Cup qualifying was out of their hands. It was their fourth and final cup qualifying match, and they finished with a 2-0-2 record. While eight points in four matches is a respectable total, they would fall short of a berth due to victories by the Cape Cod Crusaders and the Fredericksburg Gunners later that night. OCEAN CITY, NJ (May 23, 2008) - After the Ocean City Barons claimed a 3-1 victory against the Richmond Kickers Future on Friday night, their fate in U.S. Open Cup qualifying was out of their hands. It was their fourth and final cup qualifying match, and they finished with a 2-0-2 record. While eight points in four matches is a respectable total, they would fall short of a berth due to victories by the Cape Cod Crusaders (5-2 at Vermont) and the Fredericksburg Gunners (2-0 vs. Hampton Roads) later that night.

"The Open Cup is just a bonus," said Barons general manager Neil Holloway after learning that his club would miss out on the 94-year old tournament. "We’ll just continue to focus on the league and hopefully we can keep earning points on the road and wins at home."

Ocean City was led by three different goalscorers and the squad controlled much of the possession in their second home game of the season.

With Mama Mia’s Chef Joe Massaglia serving gourmet food, and Miss Ocean City, Andi Cocozza, singing the national anthem, the Friday night matchup got off to a festive start ahead of Memorial Day weekend. However, the visitors would strike first.

A failure to communicate would be to blame when the Kickers played a ball over the top toward the Ocean City goal. Barons’ defender Connor Gorman and goalkeeper Zach Zamek were left looking puzzled at one another after neither player took charge and cleared the ball. Boris Gatzky would pounce on it and put it into the empty net in the 27th minute.

The Barons would find an answer just eight minutes later when Adam Williamson sent a corner kick to the far post. Steve Miller would head the ball back into the danger area and his strike partner Lee Squires would head it home for his third goal of the season. With the assist, that gives Miller a point in three consecutive games.

Ocean City would control the run of play for the remainder of the first half, but couldn’t find a way to break the 1-1 tie before the break.

10 minutes into the second half, the Barons would replicate the first goal. Another Williamson corner kick would find a head, this time it was defender John Fletcher, who headed it to Joe Banks and the veteran center back scored his first goal since the 2006 season.

Less than two minutes later, the Barons would put the game out of reach. The ball was crossed into the box and after pinballing around, it came out to Nick Sih who fired a well-placed shot into the back of the net for his first PDL goal. Sih, a high school All-American at Germantown Academy, will be a sophomore at Duke University in the Fall and has started the last three games for Ocean City.

Richmond’s veteran goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra kept the game close, making eight saves for the visitors. Zamek was only forced to make two saves.

"I think the team is really starting to come together after four games," said Holloway.

The Barons improve their all-time regular season record against the Kickers Future to 2-0-1. While the Barons are eliminated from Open Cup qualifying, they are in a 3-way tie for first place in the Northeast Division with the Newark Ironbound Express and the Long Island Rough Riders.

The club will get Memorial Day weekend off and then it’s back to work as they prepare for back-to-back road games next weekend at the Cape Cod Crusaders next Saturday and then they travel to Rhode Island to take on the Stingrays on Sunday.