Capital District has had one heck of a week. It start with losing an epic three day bidding war with arcrival Alamo City over the rights to Giovani Do Santos. But it ended with the Gunners not just winning this year's Empire Cup over Spartans 1612, but also winning the club's 80th regular season match. Also, while the club may have missed out on Dos Santos, league officials have declared Capital District have won the rights to Lucas Melano.
Kei Kamara opened the scoring for the Gunners with an early goal, but the Spartans rallied back with an assist from Diego Fagundez. As the clock began to run out, the match looked to heading towards ending in a draw. With a draw, Spartans 1612 would have retained the Empire Cup thanks to away goals tie breaker to the then deadlocked aggregate score. But then the maestro provided some more late match heroics. Diego Valeri's goal proved to be the match winner, the derby winner, and securing the club's 80th regular season win of all time.
"Fantastic result tonight," Manager Kevin Connor praised his club. "Kei and Diego have been two key pieces for us all season. Winning the cup, and it being our 80th win is great, more importantly we're still in the hunt for the Honors Trophy."
Next up for the Gunners is an opportunity to claim their second piece of hardware, the Founders Cup, as they face Gateway United.