By Hugo Traverso
On a foggy Saturday at the legendary Kezar Stadium, once home to the San Francisco 49ers, beloved San Francisco Mission
District based El Farolito SC met with Hickory FC of North Carolina for the 2025 National Premier Soccer League National Championship. In the end, Hickory took home the trophy in a tense game with an incredible finish, winning 3-2. Hickory midfielder Tomas Pollacchi locked up the title with a brace in stoppage time which earned him Man of the Match.
With the Dead & Company playing in the Polo Field just a few hundred yards away, Golden Gate Park was packed with concert goers and supporters. It was an impressive atmosphere at Kezar as both teams brought hundreds of supporters. Hickory, who had recorded over 6,000 fans at their semifinal match last weekend at Moretz Stadium at Lenoir-Rhyne University, brought a large supporter section to Kezar and they were roaring. In postgame, Head Coach Carlos Rubio commented on the community of Hickory, “Hickory is a special place. That’s the best way I can put it. There’s a lot of good people, there’s a lot of good humans and that’s what happens when you put good people and good humans in front of the national stage, good things happen.” Everyone could see how interconnected the community was with the team as post match, all the players went to high five and talk with fans before receiving their medals.
Farolito also brought a large supporters section as the blue and gold covered a large part of the stands. The beloved club founded in the Mission District in 1985, named after a chain of restaurants, has thrown their weight around in the US soccer world, especially in the US Open Cup, beating high profile teams in the USL Championship, and making a few deep runs in the tournament. They have caught the eyes of media and fans across the country with their strong cup performances and domination in the NPSL. Coach Santiago Lopez talked about this community support post match, “We feel the support especially the roots of every person’s country where they represent. The soccer community here is so huge from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and just seeing that connection, it makes the players even more motivated.” San Francisco is a melting pot of cultures, but sports has continuously brought those cultures together and El Farolito is a great example. Lopez continued expressing how this community and atmosphere helps build the club’s reputation and helps recruitment, “It attracts even more other players from different regions as well, so for us it’s fantastic and now with the three new players we got last season from Ivory Coast, you never know what type of players are going to show up.” Both clubs had a large international representation, spanning every continent except Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Both managers are from Spain, but while Hickory has a very diverse representation from 13 countries between Europe and North and South America on their roster, El Farolito has a deeper connection with Latin America, with players coming from Honduras, Colombia, Mexico, and more.
GAME RECAP:
El Farolito opened hard on the attack, but the Hickory FC defense consistently held the backline and countered critically, switching their zone defense to a hard press. Tensions mounted early on with both teams playing aggressively, forcing the referee Jose Landa to pause play frequently. El Farolito’s Kipre Sacre picked up an early yellow on a hard sliding tackle against Ronan O’Mahony while trying to control the ball. Minutes later, a scuffle broke out between both teams yielding a yellow card against Hickory.
Both teams had decent chances early on in the match, but no one could quite find the back of the net until the 30th minute when on a counter attack, Alvaro Sanchez put in an incredible cross and the NPSL Golden Ball winner Antonio Pineda rose to the occasion, heading the ball into the back of the net. Tensions heightened after the opening goal from Hickory as the yellow card made another appearance, this time against Farolito defender Andrés Zuluaga, who made an aggressive tackle trying to win the ball back from Hickory midfielder Robbie Deighan.
El Farolito were aggressive in their search for an equalizer and their attack culminated with a penalty. Edgard Kreye brought it down the middle of the box and was through on goal until he was tripped up by a Hickory defender. Jose Landa pointed to the spot and Honduran Dembor Benson stepped up to take the penalty. Benson buried it in the bottom corner to make it 1-1 with five minutes to go in the half. Both teams fought hard in the closing minutes, but couldn’t break through and it stayed 1-1 for halftime.
In the second half, Hickory continued to press the ball, but their offensive approach was a lot more methodical as they relied on a tiki taka style of offense. This paid off for them as Deighan found open space and drew a foul, setting up a free kick. Diego Fernandez sent in a cross to the back post where Antonio Pineda volleyed it to Jeffrey Letienne who tapped it in to give Hickory the lead. Following the goal, El Farolito became more aggressive defensively, reflecting Hickory’s on ball pressure approach in the early first half. With this approach, Farolito had numerous chances. The closest came on a shot by Jhonatan Pérez which just barely missed over the crossbar from just outside the box after an attempted clearance from Hickory. Hickory responded with a strong counter attack and had Tomas Pollacchi through on goal, but Kevin Gonzalez made an incredible save to keep El Farolito in the game.
With ten minutes left, El Farolito set a high press and were relentless in attack. Despite the barrage of shots from Farolito, the Hickory defense stayed strong and rejected every attempt. With under five minutes to play, Antonio Pineda was sent off with a red card for when he argued with the referee after he slipped and fell while on defense. That was a huge loss for Hickory and with six minutes of stoppage time following the confusing send off, it was do or die time for Farolito. Farolito got close on a great cross from Perez to Benson, but Benson’s header wasn’t hard enough to finish the job. Immediately, four minutes into stoppage, Hickory went on one final strong counter and from the top of the box, Pollacchi saw an opening and put home the game sealer for Hickory, sealing the championship for Hickory. Coach Rubio raved post match about Pollacchi’s resilience through hardship, “Not many people know that, but Tomas scored the other day, the winning goal in the semifinal, and he hasn’t been able to practice for more than ten minutes this week. Just the fact that he was able to be on the pitch today was a win and him scoring a goal, there were tears, myself included. He’s a great human and deserves every bit of success.”
Farolito, with a minute left, responded with a goal of their own from Perez who fired in a rocket from outside the box to bring Farolito back within one, but the effort was not enough in the end as Hickory denied Farolito the chance at a repeat as NPSL National Champion, winning 3-2. Both teams fought with passion, and it was a great game, but ultimately, Hickory’s defense held strong in the end, denying Farolito time and time again. The trip from North Carolina was not in vain for the Hickory faithful as they walked out undefeated Champions of the NPSL.