Tambe’s hat trick leads unbeaten Flint City Bucks past Livonia City
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
FLINT — This time around, the Flint City Bucks floored the pedal from the opening kickoff.
This time around, the Bucks refused to take the pedal off the metal.
Ayuk Tambe, who scored the game-winner during the Bucks’ U.S. Soccer—League II North American title game last August, erupted for three goals to lead the unbeaten Flint City to a 7-0 rout of Livonia City FC Sunday afternoon at Atwood Stadium.
“It’s alway difficult when you play a team that you know nothing about or be like,” offered Tambe, a Tesculum University alum. “We just knew we had to go hard.The first 15 minutes was very difficult but then a few things started to come together. We were fortunate enough to finally get that first goal and that just gave us so much momentum.
“Coach (Andy Wagstaff) told us before the game to come out and try to put a lot of pressure on them and I think it eventually worked,” added Tambe. “For me this was our fourth game with no goals before (today) so I knew I had to bring something more to the team and luckily that happened.”
Tambe netted the natural hat trick by scoring the game’s first three goals. It was Ayuk’s first three goals of the exhibition season.
TJ Ifaturoti (Davenport) added two goals, while Amadou Cisse (Madonna University) and Marty Maybin (Regis University alum) scored single goals for the Bucks (4-0-0).
Flint City came out of the gate with a flurry of shots during the first 30 minutes without bearing any fruit. Finally on the game’s 10th shot, Tambe broke the damn open when he one-timed a volley off the bounce following a long through ball from Maybin at the 30:50 mark. The Bucks took a 1-0 lead into the locker room despite a 13-2 shots edge over the first 45 minutes.
“All we did differently today then from the last couple of weeks was that I talked to the players about being a little bit more problematic on our approach,” said Wagstaff. “Sometimes when I express my desire to play a really good brand of football where we keep it and we don’t give the ball away and we build it up, sometimes that creates a slow start. We often try to be a little bit more patient. Today, I wanted us to be a little bit more aggressive up front and play forward as quickly as we can. The moral of the story was to come out of the box a little more aggressive, a little more direct and get behind them when you can and that’s how we played the first half. I challenged the forwards a little bit because we have been creating chances the past couple of weeks but not scoring a ton of goals and I think the player of the match the past two weeks has been a defender in my opinion. So I thought it was time our forwards started to shine.”
In the second half, Flint City began to pour it on Livonia City FC, rarely relinquishing control of the ball or backing off applying pressure on Livonia’s defense.
Tambe more than took Wagstaff’s advice to heart.
Tambe notched his two other goals less than one minute apart early in the second half. The first came off a penalty kick at 46:50, while the third came at 47:45 off a swift pass from Gonzalo Caceres (Marygrove alum).
Cisse got involved in the scoring act with an unassisted goal at 62:45 to push the advantage to 4-0, as Flint City continued to break down Livonia City’s defense.
Ifaturoti scored the fifth goal of the contest when he rifled home laser from the corner of the box that snuck in beside the far post following a pass from Elliott Bentley (Oakland alum) at 71:32, while Ifatuori set up Maybin for the sixth marker on a two-on-one break at the 76-minute mark.
Ifaturoti capped the scoring at the 91:00 when he finished off a cross from Cisse.
Eliott Tarney (Oakland alum) recorded his first shutout of the season and the Bucks’ second clean sheet in four exhibition matches on the strength of four saves.
For the game, the Bucks posted a 24-4 shots advantage, including 16-4 with shots on frame, and even held a 5-1 differential on cornerkicks to continue their dominance during this six-game exhibition schedule. Peter Ardon made nine saves for Livonia City.
For the season, Flint City has outscored the opposition after four weeks by a commanding 19-2 margin with two shutouts. No team has scored more that one goal in a game in a contest on the Bucks while the hosts have yet to yield double digit shots in any one contest.
Defensively, the Bucks played lock down defense on Livonia City and rarely allowed the guests to even threaten.
“Today we brought in TJ Stevens who played for me a couple of years ago at Saginaw Valley back in the day and he was my captain. I thought he stepped in and did a great job today and he was brilliant for me at Saginaw,” noted Wagstaff. “I knew we needed a little bit of extra cover on the back line with some players missing this week. We signed Gonzalo Ceseres from Inter Detroit because we played them last week and he was so good against us that we brought him in, too. Going back to the back line you got two former standout Oakland players in Elliott Bentley and Spencer Nolff, actually three with goalkeeper Eliott Tarney. Then you have Dom Hart and TJ (Stephens) from Saginaw Valley. You know you are going to field a great defense with this group of guys and all their experience.”
QUICK FACTS
— As many current college players are having to report back to campuses despite the NCAA Division I, Division II and Division III seasons being pushed to the spring due to COVID, most of the Bucks players in Week 3 and Week 4 are alums of various colleges throughout the Midwest, including several from Oakland University and Saginaw Valley State University.
— The Bucks will wrap of their 2020 six-game exhibition schedule with two more friendlies matches the next two weekends. Flint City will host Detroit United on Sept. 20 and Rebels FC on Sept. 27. All games will be televised live at 12 noon on CW46 out of Flint.
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