Michigan Bucks hope to make some ‘Thunder’ in PDL playoffs

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

PONTIAC — After suffering a minor defeat of not being able to host a PDL regional, the Michigan Bucks are still focusing on the bigger scale: That’s returning to dominance in the Premier Developmental League.

One of 16 teams to qualify for the postseason out of 67 franchises, the Bucks (11-3-2) will head north to Thunder Bay, Ontario, this weekend for the Central Conference regional.

Michigan will face the Rochester Thunder (10-3-3) at 3 p.m. Friday, while host Thunder Bay (12-2-2) will play FC London (10-1-5) at 5:30 p.m. in the second semifinal. The championship game is set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday with the regional champ advancing to the PDL Final Four Aug. 6-7 at a site to be determined.

“We have to go up there (to Thunder Bay). I guess it is what it is,” said Bucks head coach Gary Parsons. “We can’t do anything about it. We just have to prepare for Friday.”

The Bucks have used 36 players this season due to various reasons. There can be 26 players listed on the postseason roster, but only 18 can dress for each game.

Michigan will not have marking back Ian Daniel (Troy Athens/Oakland alum) for its first-round game, but most of the key players from the stretch drive, which featured five straight wins and a 7-1-1 record in its final nine contests, will be in uniform Friday.

“Other than not having Ina Daniel, we have pretty much everybody we thought we would have,” said Parsons. “We can dress 18, so we have a solid idea of who those guys are. We’re not going to change much now.”

Michigan has two of the top-20 scorers in the entire PDL, with Kenny Uzoigwe and Stefan St. Louis (Oakland) picking up 27 and 20 points, respectively in the regular season. Uzoigwe has 12 goals and is tied for fifth overall in the league. St. Louis has collected seven goals and six assists with one hat trick.

Simon Omekanda (Rochester Adams/Penn State alum) has chipped in with three goals and five assists, Stew Givens (Troy High/Oakland alum) has scored four goals with two assists as a marking back, and Rubin Bega (Grosse Pointe North/Michigan State) has picked up three goals and three assists for the Bucks. A total of 16 different Bucks have scored at least one goal this season.

Goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt (Livonia Stevenson/Oakland) has logged 1,440 minutes, second in the PDL, and his six shutouts and 0.88 goals-against-average also rank high in the league.

Rochester, which finished second behind Thunder Bay in the Heartland Division, counters with striker Mark Heath Preston, who is also among the nation’s points leaders with 24 points (11 goals). He has scored 11 of his team’s 20 total goals and no other Thunder player has scored more than two goals.

Three different goalkeepers have combined for minutes and eight shutouts for Rochester. Sebastian Narvaez has five shutouts and has surrendered seven of the 10 goals allowed while playing in 10 games. Paul Grandstand has three shutouts in four starts.

Rochester joined the PDL last season after competing in a higher level of the United Soccer Leagues prior to 2009.

“We have never played them,” said Parsons. “They are relatively new to the PDL. They were a (semi-pro) team that folded, then they re-formed as a PDL team. We talked to some coaches about them and what to expect. We’ll just have to make adjustments as the game goes.”

Michigan failed to make the postseason last year, finishing fourth in the PDL’s Great Lakes Division. The Bucks, who have now advanced to the postseason a record 13 times in its 15-year history, wrapped up the regular season this time around with a five-game win streak and collected 35 total points to win the division — its eighth in its history.

Michigan won the national championship in 2006 and finished as the national runner-up in 2007. In 2008, the Bucks were the overall No. 1 seed in the postseason before being upset in the first round.

“Our goal was to get back (to the postseason) this year because we did not make it last year,” said Parsons. “Now, we have to go up there and win a couple of games.”

To submit information to www.northoaklandsports.com, e-mail dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com.  To advertise, e-mail advertising@northoaklandsports.com

Last updated: Aug 07 2010 at 6:22 PM