HARRISON, N.J. – For the first time at Red Bull Arena, the home team raised the championship trophy.

Given the travails the New York Red Bulls organization has gone through over the past 20 years, the fact that it was the New York Red Bulls II accomplishing the feat didn’t seem to matter too much to former Red Bulls player and current Red Bulls II Head Coach John Wolyniec.

“I actually let myself think about that this week, not for too long, but it feels great,” Wolyniec said following his side’s 5-1 victory against the Swope Park Rangers in the 2016 USL Cup Final, Presented by Nike. “I was proud before the game, I’m proud after the game. I thought we were going to put a good effort out there. I think we put a lot of work in during the year, these guys have been great.”

A good effort might be understating things a little. The Red Bulls II ended the season just as they had performed through much of it, pressuring their opponents into mistakes that led to goals, and then pouring on in the second half to secure the victory.

It was the means by which the Red Bulls II had set a USL regular-season record with 61 goals in 30 contests, and which also saw the side lead all teams in the postseason with 13 goals in four contests. While the side was putting in the types of performance that carried the Red Bulls II to the top of the Eastern Conference, though, the details remained what mattered within the group.

“I didn’t look at it that way for most of the season,” said Wolyniec after being asked how early he thought he had a championship caliber team. “I knew from early on we were going to be a good team, and we were going to be competitive week-in and week-out, and I knew we could be very tough to play against, and I knew we were going to be in every game we played this year, I knew that pretty early.”

As comfortably set for the title as the Red Bulls II seemed, even while Swope Park gained the upper hand in the second half only to misfire in front of goal, a twist arrived with 17 minutes to go through Tomas Granitto’s free kick, which found its way through the penalty area and into the net to make the score 2-1. The goal certainly rattled the hosts for a moment, but then the final 10 minutes produced a final push that left Wolyniec beaming in his technical area.

“Anytime you’re up two and you give up one, there’s a moment of uneasiness, but that’s probably one of the proudest moments I have of this season,” Wolyniec said. “In a tough situation where it would have been easy to get a little tight and be concerned, our guys were aggressive and proactive and went after the game in a way that said, ‘we’re not giving this away.’”

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Brandon Allen’s two late goals, sealing the second hat trick in USL Cup Final history, and Vincent Bezecourt’s stoppage-time tally put the game to bed, and in turn ended a historic season as the Red Bulls II became the first MLS owned-and-operated club to claim the USL Cup.

For Wolyniec, having that opportunity spoke volumes about the way in which his players had worked to become the best squad in the USL in 2016.

“A lot of guys wanted to talk tonight about what we should be focused on and what we should be doing,” Wolyniec said. “When you're a coach and you step back and the players are talking about the right things before the game, during the game, at halftime, it's a great thing and I'm very proud of that.”