However, the Foxes got far more, adding two second half goals to three scored in the first half in a 5-0 trashing of the team from the San Francisco Bay Area at Shea Stadium in Highlands Ranch.

With the win, the Foxes move forward in the nation’s oldest soccer tournament to face the Kitsap Pumas on June 21 in Bremerton, Wash. The Pumas defeated the Chivas El Paso Patriots 6-5 in a shootout to advance on Tuesday.

At Shea Stadium, the Foxes spread the scoring and the credit. Taylor Kemp, Isaiah Schafer, Kyle Christensen, Sterling Copeland and Craig Thompson scored for Colorado as the team overwhelmed the California visitors.

Johnny Foley played the full 90 minutes for the Foxes in earning the shutout.

The U.S. Open Cup, first contested in 1914, is open to all sanctioned teams in the United States. One hundred fifty-five teams entered the competition and were winnowed to 40 for the start of the tournament proper. The first and second rounds are made up of exclusively lower division and amateur teams, with eight teams advancing to play eight MLS teams on June 28 in the third round.

The quarterfinals will be played on July 12 and the semifinals will be played on Aug. 30. All 2011 U.S. Open Cup matches are scheduled to be played on Tuesdays.

Every winning team’s name is engraved on the base of the Dewar Challenge Trophy which dates to the first year of the tournament and currently resides at U.S. Soccer House in Chicago.

The two-time defending champion Seattle Sounders will enter the tournament in the third round.

The Foxes earned a spot in the nation’s oldest soccer tournament by winning the first four games of the club’s Premier Development League season. Now the Heartland Division leaders, with a 7-0-1 record, take to the turf at Shea Stadium in Highlands Ranch against the U.S. Amateur Soccer Association side from the San Francisco Bay area.

The DV8 Defenders earned a spot in the tournament by winning the USASA Region IV title at a tournament in Sacramento, Calif. This is the first time either the Foxes or the Defenders have qualified for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

The winner on Tuesday will travel to either Bremerton, Wash., or El Paso, Texas, for a June 21 second round game. They will face the winner of a showdown between two Premier Development League sides, the Kitsap Pumas and the Chivas El Paso Patriots.

Watching Foxes: Scoring has come from surprising locations for the Foxes. Through the first eight games, defender Julian Donaldson leads the team with five goals and one assist. Following him is midfielder Kyle Christensen with four goals and two assists, and midfielder Drew Beckie with four goals and one assist. Taylor Kemp, another defender, has chipped in three goals and two assists to round out the scoring leaders.

Iron Man: Donaldson also leads the team in minutes played (693 out of 720 this season) and shots on goal with 16.

The Assistant: Midfielder Joseph Madigan picked up a pair of assists on Saturday and leads the team in that category with four. Madigan has also scored once this season.

Last Line: All three goalkeepers on the roster have seen time on the field in the first eight games. Miguel Rosales has played the most minutes, 360, and leads the team with a 1.25 goals against average. Johnathan Foley has spent 315 minutes at goal and recorded a 1.428 goals against average. Roberto Perez has logged 45 minutes at ‘keeper and surrendered a lone goal.

Behind a brace from John Wolyniec, the New York Red Bulls shot past the Colorado Rapids 3-0 and into the main draw of the U.S. Open Cup. With the win, the Red Bulls advanced to the third round where the team will face an opponent to be determined later this summer.

The loss at Red Bulls Arena knocked the Rapids out of the cup play-in for the third year in a row.

Wolyniec scored in the 11th and 43rd minutes for the hosts. Conor Chinn finished the scoring in the 56th minute, putting the third goal past ‘keeper Ian Joyce.

Lineup: The Rapids, who hadn’t played a game since beating D.C. United 1-0 on May 15, fielded a mix of regulars and reserves. Joyce got his first action in goal. Quincy Amarikwa started up top, and Ross LaBauex, Colin Clark and Carlos Lopez were in the midfield. Jeff Larentowicz and Wells Thompson filled their regular slots in the middle. 

The backline was filled with Marvell Wynne, Julien Baudet, Drew Moor and Danny Earls. Michael Holody came on for Baudet in the 53rd minute. Earls was ejected for a late tackle in the 86th minute.

Mehdi Ballouchy, Omar Cummings and Andre Akpan all came off the bench in the second half.

Remember This: If the Rapids swoon in the final third of the season, as the team did in 2009, remember that the squad has few outside excuses. Other than the MLS season in front of the squad, there is nothing else to play for in 2010. There’s no SuperLiga, no relegation and, now, no U.S. Cup.

Seattle Next: The quick turnaround may explain the mixed bag lineup on Wednesday. The Rapids return home to face the Seattle Sounders at 7 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. After that, it’s Columbus Crew at DSG Park on June 5.

Wells Thompson scored both goals for the Rapids, first equalizing the score in the 24th minute and then knocking in the winner in the 80th.

The midfielder’s first goal erased a fourth minute strike from rookie forward Teal Bunbury that gave the Wizards the lead on the University of Missouri-Kansas City field. 

With the win, the Rapids will now face either Philadelphia Union, New York Red Bulls or New England Revolution. Philadelphia plays at New York on April 27, with the winner hosting the Revolution on May 12.

Jamie Smith assisted on Thompson’s first goal, and Claudio Lopez, who came on the field for the first time this season one minute earlier, fed the ball to Medhdi Ballouchy and on to Thompson for the second goal.

The Colorado Rapids, coming off a disappointing tie at home, will get to find out today. The Rapids visit the Wizards in an early season battle of undefeated teams. The game starts at 6:30 p.m. with television coverage over the air and in HD on KWGN Channel 2. And, if they didn’t get a close enough look, they will get another chance on Tuesday night in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play-in game, also in KC.

The biggest change for the Wizards has come at midfield, where new acquisition Ryan Smith scored and added two assists in his debut. Against D.C., the Wizards midfield, which looked soft in 2009, suddenly showed some toughness. It could make for an intriguing matchup today, especially if Wizards cast-off Carlos Lopez gets on the field for the Rapids. Lopez was part of that midfield unit that failed to produce in ’09.

Latest Meeting: Neither team could muster a goal last September at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. The 0-0 tie was another in the late season swoon that left the Rapids watching the playoffs from home. The Wizards also stayed home in 2009.

Last Win: The Rapids have not won in Kansas City since Sept. 14, 2002. Since then, the Rapids are 0-6-3 in KC.

New Forward: Don’t be surprised if Quincy Amarikwa appears in one of those two games. The Rapids picked him up on Wednesday in exchange for a second round 2012 Major League Soccer SuperDraft pick to San Jose.

Amarikwa is fast and, despite  scoring only once in 25 appearances last season for the dismal Earthquakes, adds some depth to the attack. It will be interesting to see how the team changes with Lopez and Amarikwa getting on the field.

Doubleheader: Yes, the U.S. Open Cup is a little-loved and oft-neglected competition. True, no one sits around making commemorative knick knacks for Open Cup Winners. Quick, name last year’s winner.

Step past all of that. It’s a 97-year-old competition that includes all the MLS teams and results in a trophy at the end. It’s hardware for the trophy case. And the Rapids trophy case needs some hardware. The U.S. Open Cup is an ideal chance to get some hardware.

Tuesday night, 8:30 Mountain time, the Rapids face the Wizards at Stanley H. Durwood Stadium and Recreational Field on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. For the third season in a row, the Rapids start with a play-in game on the road. In ’09, the Rapids beat the L.A. Galaxy 4-2 on penalty kicks before falling to the Seattle Sounders 1-0 in the next round. It will be interesting to see what team takes the field at UMKC, regular starters or a bunch of reserves.

And the answer to the question above is the Seattle Sounders. The team won in its inaugural year of competition. Since the A-League’s Rochester Rhinos won in 1999, the MLS teams have owned the competition. Shouldn’t it be the Rapids turn?

“(The way) the whole system has been conducted has led us down a path that it was obvious the MLS league games are far more important to everybody in our league,” Smith said. “Why should we risk our best players when nobody actually sees this as an important competition?

Read the rest of Smith’s comments here.

Roger Levesque headed Sanna Nyassi’s long throw-in toward goal. Forrest’s diving header gave the Sounders a lead they would not give up.

The attendance was 4,007.

The match was the second for the Rapids in four days against Seattle; Colorado and the Sounders tied 2-2 on Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Read more about the game at the U.S. Open Cup Web site or at the MLS Web site.

According to prostamerika.com, here are the lineups for the teams:

RAPIDS
Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura, Ty Harden, Rob Valentino, Michael Holody; Jacob Petserson, Mehdi Ballouchy (Nick LaBrocca 45′), Terry Cooke, Ciaran O’Brien (Jordan Harvey 69′); Ross Schunk (Scott Palguta 69′), Gregory Richardson

SOUNDERS
Kasey Keller; Evan Brown, Jhon Hurtado, Patrick Ianni, Tyson Wahl, Nyassi (Nate Jaqua 79′), Stephen King, Nathan Sturgis, Forrest (James Riley 71′); Roger Levesque, Sebastien Le Toux.

Isn’t Tukwila where Sarah Palin is from? Just sayin’.

Anyway, the game is three days after the next Rapids home game, Saturday, May 23. So it’ll be a quick turnaround for some players. And, as some readers have pointed out, it’ll be interesting to see which players coach Gary Smith puts in the starting lineup on the 23rd and the 26th.

Stay tuned.

In the other play-in game, D.C. United will host the Red Bulls on May 20 at RFK Stadium.

Here’s a link to the U.S. Open Cup Web site.

The coin flip happened Thursday.

The date and time of the game have not been finalized. The Rapids said they will play sometime before May 25.

Sebastien Le Toux scored twice and added two assists and teammate Roger Levesque recorded three assists against RSL in Tuesday’s game in Tukwila, Wash. Of course Rapids fans will remember Le Toux as the architect of that horrendous 5-0 Open Cup rout back in August 2007, when the Sounders were still in the United Soccer Leagues.

The host of the Rapids-Sounders match will be determined by a coin flip, and the winner will officially be part of the U.S. Open Cup competition.

In Wednesday’s play-in game, former Rapids defender Mike Petke scored in the second minute of play as the New York Red Bulls defeated San Jose 2-1 at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Petke knocked in a loose ball after a Red Bulls corner kick.

Read more about Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games (and get a TON of links) at the Open Cup official Web site.