Toronto, ON (July 21, 2010)-   The Michigan Bucks took another step closer to securing a playoff berth and another Great Lakes Division title with a hard fought 3-1 win against the Toronto Lynx on Wednesday night in Canada. The win brings the Bucks record to 10-3-2 (32 points), tied for the division lead with FC London (9-1-5) with both teams having one final regular season game to play on the weekend. Should the two teams finish with the same amount of points, the Bucks would take the division title based on more wins on the season since both head to head meetings ended in ties. The Bucks didn’t take long to get going in Toronto and came out with a plan to try and take the fight out of the Lynx with an early lead. That came in the game’s third minute following a Toronto corner kick. With a strong wind at their backs, the Bucks cleared the corner kick to forward Rubin Bega ( Harper Woods, MI/ MSU) who put it in high gear in an end to end rush. Strike partner Simon Omekanda ( Rochester, MI) made a 70 yard run to get into the play, where Bega took advantage of the 2-1 situation and played a pass to Omekanda, who cracked a sizzling shot into the side netting from 18 yards out.    The early goal didn’t seem to faze the young Toronto team, who rebounded from a 6-0 loss to the Bucks in Pontiac last week and refused to back down. Their hard work would pay off following a free kick when a loose ball fell to the feet of Mikael McNamara, who redirected the ball past Bucks keeper Mitch Hildebrandt (Livonia, MI/ Oakland) to knot the game before halftime. The star of the show, as usually is the case, was Bucks leading scorer Kenny Uzoigwe, who proved to once again be a handful for the Lynx defense all night long. Uzoigwe has had a knack for not only scoring important goals at the most opportune times, but also has a high light reel of finishes to his credit (which includes three spectacular bicycle kick goals). The goal he scored in the 40^th minute has to be in the top five of them all. Uzoigwe took a long pass from Adam Shaw (Lone Tree, CO/ Michigan) out on the right touch line and took his defender to the corner flag. In what seemed like a harmless place to be, Uzoigwe beat his man along the end line, walked the ball into the six and from an impossible angle put the ball in the far upper corner. Uzoigwe’s eleventh goal of the season would give the Bucks a bit of breathing room going into halftime with a 2-1 lead.

The Bucks came out a bit more patient in the second half and started playing more direct than they did in the early stanza. The half would get a bit more physical, with the referee issuing yellow cards at will. The Lynx were unfortunate to have a man sent off midway through the second half to make their comeback attempt all that much more difficult. The Bucks would continue to play their attacking style of offense until they could put the game away with an all important third goal. That came in the 70^th minute when a great series of passes found Mauro Fuzetti (Houston, TX/ Michigan) along the end line in the penalty box. Fuzetti beat one man, picked his head up and found Kyle Bethel ( Howell, NJ/ UCLA) who finished his first goal of the season for the Bucks. The Lynx would desperately try to pull a goal back late in the game, but Hildebrandt came up with several saves to record his tenth win of the season and keep the Bucks on top of the group standings.

First year head coach Gary Parsons was happy with the result but had some words of advice for his boys. “We warned them that this was not going to be the same team that we beat 6-0 last week and that we had to come out the aggressor. We did that but went away from our game plan with the early goal. We are going to have to be much more disciplined if we are going to finish the job on Saturday night in Indiana,” said Parsons about the regular season finale against the Invaders. The Bucks beat Indiana 3-2 last month at Ultimate Soccer Arenas in a game in which Michigan scored two goals in the game’s last five minutes to come from behind.   “If we go there and play them like we did last time, we are going to have a long ride home. This team has worked so hard to get where we are. One more win and we take the division and have a chance to host the playoffs next weekend. Those were two of our major objectives coming into the season and now we just need to win that game.” With the Bucks win in Toronto, the first year Dayton Dutch Lions were officially eliminated from playoff contention, leaving only the Chicago Fire Premier to challenge the Bucks and London for post season honors. Both the Bucks and London can clinch a berth with a tie or a win this weekend. The United Soccer Leagues will announce Conference Final Fours, venues and participants at the conclusion of the weekend’s games. For further information on the Michigan Bucks, please visit our web site at www.buckssoccer.com. 

BUCKS FORWARD ST. LOUIS MAKES PDL TEAM OF THE WEEK IN BACK TO BAKC WEEKS 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Michigan Bucks forward Stefan St. Louis (Trinidad/ Oakland) was named to the USL’s Premier Development League Team of the Week on Wednesday for his outstanding performance against the Toronto Lynx at Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac last week.  St. Louis registered three goals and added an assist in the team’s 6-0 win. This was the first time this season that the same Michigan Bucks player was selected to the Team of the Week in consecutive weeks.  St. Louis’ selection give the Bucks at least one player to the Team of the Week in the past six consecutive weeks. The Bucks will finish their 16 game regular season schedule on Saturday with an away game against the Indiana Invaders.

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Michigan Bucks star forward Kenny Uzoigwe has earned just about every honor a player can get in the PDL over his eight seasons of play, but none is as coveted as his second Paul R. Scicluna Award, which he was awarded at halftime of Thursday’s 6-0 Bucks win over the Toronto Lynx at Ultimate Soccer Arenas.  The Scicluna Award is named for the late Michigan soccer legend who founded the Livonia Wolves/ Michigan Hawks youth programs over three decades ago and served as a friend and mentor to Bucks owner Dan Duggan.  Scicluna was an original partner in the Bucks organization, along with Dan and his brother Jim.   The award is given to the Bucks player each season that best represents the team both on and off the field.  “Paul’s philosophy in life was simple,” said Duggan.  “He believed every kid was basically good and deserved an opportunity to show how great they could be.  His passion was soccer, but his message to the players he touched went much farther than the field.  The area lost a great soccer person and human being when Paul passed away in 1999.  This is the least our organization can do to remind our players and fans of Paul’s legacy and his message to young soccer players aspiring to play professional soccer.  His influence is a huge reason why this team continues to exist and succeed,” concluded Duggan.

UZOIGWE FIRST BUCKS PLAYER TO LAND MULTIPLE SCICLUNA HONORS 

Uzoigwe won the award for the first time in 2007 and was a long shot to win this season after a mediocre season last year.  The 33 year old is not only the leading candidate for PDL comeback player of the year, but he is only two goals from being the scoring leader in the 68 team league that stretches all across the US and Canada .  “I knew that I could still play at a very high level and had something to prove to a whole lot of people this year.  I love this team and this organization so it doesn’t take much to get me motivated to play on any given night.  I love working with the youngsters that come to Bucks camp and our fans are awesome.  This award is special to me because it was given to me by my teammates and coaches.  That is the highest honor a player can get.  Now my job is to make sure I do what is necessary to help us get to the playoffs and see what kind of fun we can have in August,” concluded the Toledo native.  Uzoigwe’s ten goals and two assists (22 points) have him tied for the team scoring lead with Stefan St. Louis (eight goals, six assists) with two games left to play in the regular season.

Pontiac, MI (July 10, 2010)-   The Michigan Bucks pulled off a key victory Saturday night at Ultimate Soccer Arenas when they took down the Chicago Fire Premier 2-1 in a game that may well determine the playoff fate of both teams. The win pushed the Bucks’ record to 8-3-2 (26 points) on the season and dropped the Fire into third place at 7-4-2 (23 points), with both teams having just three games left to play. The two teams are chasing first place FC London, who are 8-1-4 (28 points) to secure one of two playoff spots available in the Great Lakes Division. As most games this season, the Bucks came out the aggressor in the match, carrying the play into the Fire end most of the first twenty minutes. The team’s offensive mindedness paid off in the 19^th minute, when Alex Morisset tackled the ball outside of the Chicago eighteen yard box, made a nice recovery and slid a pass to a wide open Stefan St. Louis (Trinidad/ Oakland), who scored his fourth goal of the season. Morisset returned to the Bucks for the first time since playing for the team in 2008. Meanwhile, St. Louis continued his stellar play this week, which included a goal and assist in Cincinnati on Wednesday.   While it is always a great feeling getting the first goal of the match, history shows that Chicago teams can strike quick and often. Saturday night was no different. Following what seemed like a harmless foul thirty yards from goal, the Bucks fell asleep and Fire striker Kirk Urso caught the team off guard and put his quick restart past Bucks keeper Mitch Hildebrandt (Livonia, MI/ Oakland) to knot the score at 1-1 just two minutes later. Hildebrandt would only be forced to make a couple of saves on the night, but they were both excellent stops that quickly shut down Chicago’s momentum.  

The Bucks once again carried play in the second half, with forwards St. Louis and Rubin Bega (Harper Woods, MI/ MSU) penetrating the eighteen yard box time after time. Fire goalkeeper David Meves (Chicago, IL/ Akron) came up with several huge saves on the night and kept the score tied until the 70^th minute.  St. Louis took a pass from Bega, put his head down in the box and went directly at Meves. Unfortunately for the Fire, he was sandwiched between two defenders, neither of which got the ball and the referee called for the penalty kick. Defender Stew Givens (Rochester, MI/ Oakland) coolly slotted home the go ahead goal to make the score 2-1. On most nights this would have been the best play made by a Givens in a Bucks game, but his game winning goal was second only to the game saving clearance made by brother Colin (MSU) in stoppage time. In the last minute frenzy as the Fire were pushed up looking for the game tying goal, it appeared it was on its way when one of the Fire forwards found himself alone in front of goal and directed his shot to the corner of the Bucks open net. Coming from nowhere, Givens slid and saved the ball just as it was about to cross the goal line sending the ball into the stands. “Unbelievable,” said Bucks head coach Gary Parsons. “We lost a game in Chicago in the last second earlier this year and I thought it was happening again. I have no idea where Colin came from but we are all grateful he read the play. Colin, Stew, Ian Daniel (Rochester, MI) and Zarek Valentin (Lancaster, PA/ Akron) all played solid defense across the back line.  Chicago is always the hardest team to play each year because you can feel like you dominate them for twenty minutes and the next thing you know you are behind on the scoreboard. Fortunately that never happened to us tonight. This was a well deserved win for the entire organization. Hopefully the guys will build on the last couple of games and finish the regular season with three victories,” concluded Parsons.

The Bucks last home game of the season will be Thursday, July 15 at Ultimate Soccer Arenas when they play the Toronto Lynx in the first of two back to back games that finish with the Bucks returning to Toronto on Wednesday, July 21. Thursday’s kickoff is set for 7:30 PM and tickets are on sales at Ultimate Soccer or through the Bucks web site at www.buckssoccer.com.

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Cincinnati, OH (July 7, 2010)-  The Michigan Bucks made their third and final trip to the state of Ohio for the Great Lakes regular season and came away with a much needed 3-0 win over the Cincinnati Kings on Wednesday night.  PDL goalkeeper of the week, Mitch Hildebrandt (Livonia, MI/ Oakland) registered his fourth shut out of the season in recording his seventh win of the season while leading the Bucks to a 7-3-2 record (23 points), leaving the feisty team in a three way tie for the final playoff spot with the Chicago Fire Premier and the Dayton Dutch Lions.  With four games to play in the season, the Bucks once again control their own fate in making the post season.  If Michigan wins the final four matches, they are assured of at least one of the two division spots for the Central Conference Final Four to be played the weekend of July 30-31.  The Bucks record is identical to that of Chicago and sets up another Bucks/ Fire classic match up to be played this Saturday night at Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac.

The visitors struck early when new comer Gilles Nziengui (Lansing, MI) headed home a corner kick from Stefan St. Louis (Trinidad/ Oakland) in the thirteenth minute for a 1-0 lead.  The first half would end the same score after both teams settled in and put more emphasis on defense.  The Bucks have had a few games this season slip away when they seemed to have things under control in the second half.  On this night, Bucks coach Gary Parsons was not going to let that happen again.  The team came out the aggressor in the second half and never let up.  In the 52^nd minute, St. Louis would show off his offensive talent when he dribbled through three Cincinnati defenders and slotted a neat shot past Kings goal keeper Corey Whisenhunt.  At 2-0 Parsons added some defensive substitutions but kept the attackers headed towards goal until the 79^th minute when Max Touloutte would score his first goal of the year when he took a long Hildebrandt punt and would convert for the 3-0 final. 

The Bucks head home and regroup for the rematch with Chicago on Saturday night.  The Bucks seemed to have the game in hand with a 1-0 lead in early June in Chicago but gave away two late goals, including one on the last play of the game that gave the Fire a 2-1 win.  With identical records with four games to play, the winner of this match will most certainly have a leg up on the other teams for a coveted playoff spot.  The storied franchises are two of the Premier Development League’s (PDL) most successful clubs in history and have sent more players on to play Major League Soccer (MLS) than any other franchises in the 68 team league.

Tickets for Saturday night’s match at Ultimate Soccer Arenas (7:30 kickoff) are $10 for adults and $7 youth (under 16).  Children 5 and under are always free to Bucks games.   For further information, please visit the Bucks web site at www.buckssoccer.com or call the office at 248-334-7463.

HILDEBRANDT LASTEST BUCKS PLAYER TO EARN PDL TEAM OF THE WEEK HONORS 

Michigan Bucks goal keeper Mitch Hildebrandt was named to the PDL team of the week this week and is the fourth Bucks player to earn the honor in five different weeks.   Rubin Bega was the first Bucks player on May 29, followed by Mauro Fuzetti on June 15.  Kenny Uzoigwe earned the honor in back to back weeks, June 22 and June 29 was PDL player of the week.  Hildebrandt earned his third shutout of the season when the Bucks tied London 0-0 last week behind the Oakland University goal keepers eleven save performance.

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