While Santino Quaranta hung up his D.C. United boots in 2011, he is back in the local soccer scene. As vice president of Pipeline Soccer Club, Quaranta saw his club overcome a three-goal deficit in the Rowland Cup – Maryland’s U.S. Open Cup qualifying tournament – yesterday to defeat Spartan FC 5-4.
“It was one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever been a part of as a player or coach,” Pipeline manager Bill George told thecup.us. “It shows a lot of the character of our team.”
While Quaranta did not suit up for this game, he may make an appearance in a Pipeline jersey before the end of the qualifying campaign. The club is one of three teams left that hope to compete in the USASA Region I Finals as the Maryland state representative. All MLS and NASL teams will earn berths into the third and second rounds, respectively, of the tournament, and smaller sides like Pipeline must play a series of games to qualify.
Quaranta, who featured for the Black-and-Red from 2001-06 and 2008-11, played in 159 games for United, notching 24 goals and 29 assists. At the time of his signing with DC, Quaranta was the youngest player in MLS history, at 16 years and four months. The Baltimore, Md., native made 15 senior U.S. Men’s National Team appearances and netted one goal, tallying against Honduras in a 2-0 CONCACAF Gold Cup win at RFK Stadium.
