Bucks ‘Assault’ Akron to reach milestone 200th win
BY ALEX DROPKIN
CORRESPONDENT
AKRON, Ohio — The Michigan Bucks achieved yet another Premier Development League milestone Wednesday when they became the first team in league history to win 200 games in a 4-3 victory over host Akron Summit Assault.
The Bucks (8-1-1, 25 points) kept their slight lead in the Great Lakes Division by winning their eighth consecutive match, while Akron (4-3-3, 15 points) dropped to fourth place in the standings, percentage points behind Toronto for the division’s final playoff spot with six games remaining. The two teams played for the second time in seven days and the advantage went to Akron early.
“They came out with a good game plan and pressured our back four from the outset. We knew what they were going to do and what they are capable of,” said Bucks head coach Gary Parsons, “We failed to execute our game plan in the first thirty minutes.”
The Bucks game plan is usually pretty predictable — play solid defense and play the high powered attackers in to create offensive opportunities. The Bucks did create some early opportunities starting with a cornerkick in the game’s first minute and a potential breakaway for Lucky Mkosana in the 12th minute.
Mkosana and Akron goalkeeper Brad Stuver would arrive at a loose ball behind the defense 35 yards from goal, but Stuver was able to get a foot on the ball to keep the speedy forward from opening the game’s scoring. Stuver would leave the game shortly thereafter with a leg injury suffered while making the save.
Then came possibly the strangest 16 minutes in Bucks’ history.
In the 17th minute, confusion between two Bucks defenders and goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt allowed a ball to sit unattended in the box. Akron forward Aodhan Quinn tapped in the ope-netter to put the home team on top, 1-0, and marked the first time the Bucks trailed in a game since the 93rd minute of their only loss of the season on May 23.
Bucks midfielder Simon Omekanda would suffer a hamstring injury that would bring striker Tom Catalano off the bench in the 22 minute and it wouldn’t take him long to get into the action.
Catalano took a nice pass from Mkosana and buried a shot in the top corner to knot the score at 1-1 just a minute after entering the match.
It would take only one additional minute for the Bucks to take their first lead of the night when Luke Holmes beat his defender and laid off a great ball that Mkosana finished neatly. The goal was the third in three games for Lucky and Luke’s fifth assist of the season put him atop that category for Michigan.
With the 2-1 lead, coach Parsons was a bit more comfortable while hoping his team had settled in defensively and would keep things in order.
Two minutes later, lightning struck again when a poorly cleared ball fell to the feet of Akron’s Tom Schmidt, who finished another first time easy chance to tie the score.
If the first two mental errors were not enough for the Bucks fans, six minutes later in the games 32nd minute, the third giveaway put Akron striker Ashton Campbell in alone on Hildebrandt and he calmly slotted home the go ahead goal.
While most teams would be devastated by the bizarre turn of events over the short period, the Bucks continued to do what they do best — and that is attack. Two minutes after falling behind a goal, Catalano took a pass from Sebby Harris, cut across the 18-yard box, beat two defenders and ripped a left footed shot in the top corner to knot the score at 3-3.
“With the mental errors we made tonight, we were lucky to get to halftime with a tie. I don’t know whether it is lack of concentration or arrogance, but we often try to make a low percentage pass into dangerous area,” said Parsons. “Good players and good teams will make you pay. Tonight we didn’t give Mitch a chance in goal. We gave them three gifts and they buried them all. The key to the second half was to not give up the ball. If they were going to beat us, they were going to have to break us down defensively.”
The second half did indeed look much better for the visitors, as the Bucks tightened things down and didn’t allow a second half shot on goal.
Offensively, Michigan continued to counter-attack and had a few chances but couldn’t break through with the game winner until the game’s 60th minute.
Bucks leading scorer Kenny Uzoigwe was a constant force up top keeping the Akron defense busy. He took a long ball into the goal mouth and was ready to head in the go ahead goal when an Akron defender came over the top with a hand ball to deny the striker the opportunity to finish.
Bucks co-captain Stew Givens stepped up to take the team’s first penalty kick of the season and scored his third goal of the campaign and second against Akron in back-to-back games, for the game-winner.
Hildebrandt recorded his eighth win in goal for the Bucks this season and was only forced to make two saves on the night.
The nature of the game put a bit of a damper on the 200-wins milestone, as the Bucks were disappointed with the mental breakdowns that occurred in the first half.
“We’ll take the road win and the three points and move on,” said a relieved Bucks Chairman/CEO Dan Duggan. “You need a gut check like this during the season. We talked this weekend about how we would react when we got to that one game that would be a shoot out. The guys were convinced they can score goals with anyone and proved it tonight. I would prefer in the future if they just did their job defensively and didn’t have to prove they could come from behind.
“As an organization, we are proud to be the first PDL team to ever reach the 200 win plateau,” continued Duggan. “I suspect in years to come we will be in a very select and special group of franchises that ever achieve this milestone. It reflects our team’s consistency over the years. We have played for 16 seasons and never had a losing season, which is something that we are quite proud of.”
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