Peoria City 2-3 (AET) Seacoast United Phantoms

USL League Two, National Final: Peoria City SC 2-3 Seacoast United Phantoms (after extra time) at Shea Stadium, Peoria, Illinois

From 128 teams had to come one winner, and whichever way this game ended, it would be a first-time winner that would lift the trophy. It ended up being Seacoast United, a team described to me as “scary good” before this game was even scheduled. As it was, the home side forced the game into extra time, but could not withstand the visitors’ attacks for the full 120 minutes.

The first half was mostly Peoria’s game to lose, with the home side looking fairly comfortable after Justin Wilson giving them the lead after 19 minutes. The second half was another story, with Seacoast United coming out of the dressing room swinging and leaving Peoria struggling to keep up. Goals in the 49th and 53rd minutes for Taig Healy and Terry Makedika went very much with the run of play, but though momentarily stunned, Peoria managed to hit back quickly when DJ Koulai equalized in the 58th minute to make it 2-2.

The game had the same flavor as the 3-3 with Des Moines that eventually ended 5-5 with Peoria winning the shootout, but that wasn’t how the story ended this time. Seacoast forced their way through a tiring Peoria defense who lost track of attacker Bilal Hersi, who shot into the goal under mild pressure to put the away team ahead for the first time in the match. It was a lead they would not give up, despite increasingly frenzied Peoria attacks, encouraged by a sellout crowd. Peoria can look back on their first three years of existence and now have the USL2 Central Conference and Finalist trophies in their cabinet, and will be looking to push on and win the Heartland Division outright next year. Meanwhile, Seacoast United return to New Hampshire with a national title to add to their three Division titles and 2024 Eastern Conference title, and will look to dominate the Eastern Conference again next year.