Steve Clark

2008 First Round: City Stars overcome early blunder, knock out Michigan Bucks

June 10, 2008 by

The Cleveland City Stars overcame an early 1-0 deficit to defeat the Michigan Bucks 2-1, and move on to the Second Round. The game was played in the Bucks’ new indoor soccer stadium in Pontiac, Mich. but Cleveland eliminated the home team in the opening round for only the second time in eight tournament appearances.

In the 4th minute of play, a defensive mishap led to a Bucks goal. On a back pass to goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap, the ball took a funny bounce over Gilstrap’s foot, allowing Ty Shiplane to swoop in for the easy score.

Midway through the first half, Cleveland was able to equalize, as Floyd Franks scored off a pass from Neil Hlavaty. A few minutes later, the pair switched roles, as it was Hlavaty benefiting from a Franks cross to head home what would prove to be the game-winning goal.

One might assume that this would mark the first time that a US Open Cup match was ever played indoors. Actually, this was the second indoor match in the tournament’s history. In the Fourth Round of the 2004 Open Cup, the Minnesota Thunder hosted the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Metrodome in front of 5,505 fans. Minnesota won that match 1-0.

With the win, Cleveland has advanced to the Second Round in each of their first two seasons in franchise history. The Minnesota Thunder of the USL First Division await them in the next round.

SCORING SUMMARY
4th Minute #7 Shipalane (Unassisted) / Michigan
23rd Minute #23 Floyd Franks (Neil Hlavaty) / Cleveland
34th Minute #5 Neil Hlavaty (Floyd Franks) / Cleveland

                    Shots:     Saves:     Fouls:     Offsides:     Corners:
Cleveland          6            1           13             5                        4
Michigan           8            2           17             3                        5

CLEVELAND CITY STARS
#1   Hunter Gilstrap
#4   Jeremy Tolleson
#5   Neil Hlavaty
#8   Godfrey Tenoff
#10 Derek Potteiger
#11 Sallieu Bundu
#13 Mark Schulte
#14 Anthony Stovall
#18 Luke Williams (#25 Ryan Miller – 76th Minute)
#21 Adam Ruud (#7 Ian Leibbrandt – 72nd Minute)
#23 Floyd Franks

Subs not used: #00 Eric Reed, #9 Adriano Sella, #15 Josh Westermann, #16 Dana McGregor, #24 Randolph Jerome

MICHIGAN BUCKS
#25 Steve Clark
#3    Mike Holody
#22   Ian Daniel
#5    Fabien Lewis
#15 Dave Hertel (#9 Mauro Fuzetti – 82nd Minute)
#17 Piotr Nowak (#6 Stefan St. Louis – 86th Minute)
#14 Alex Morisset (#18 Doug DeMartin – 54th Minute)
#13 Zac Scaffidi
#7   Ty Shipalane
#11 Bes Bega (#8 Nate Jafta – 54th Minute)
#10 Kenny Uzoigwe

2007 First Round: Richmond hands Michigan Bucks first-ever opening round loss

June 12, 2007 by

For the first time in club history, including six previous appearances in the US Open Cup, the Michigan Bucks were eliminated in the First Round of the tournament. It was a battle between the Bucks, the defending PDL champion, and the Richmond Kickers, the defending USL Second Division champion, and it was the Kickers who came out on top, 4-2. The loss by the Bucks also ruined their perfect 5-0 all-time record against professional teams from the Second Division.

The Kickers took the lead in the first half on a pair of set pieces, scored by Robert Ssejjmba and Trevor McEachron. As the game moved to halftime, a severe thunderstorm moved into the area, and the start of the second half was delayed until almost 10:30 p.m. Once the game resumed, the Bucks created several scoring opportunities, but it was the Kickers who scored the next goal, in the 70th minute from Sascha Gorres. Michigan made a valiant comeback however, with goals in the 73rd and 76th minute from Nic Djokic to make the score 3-2. Richmond finally put the game away for good with four minutes to play when Matthew Watson scored for the 4-2 final.

The Kickers will now host the Cleveland City Stars in the Second Round on June 26. Both teams are undefeated this season in USL Second Division league play.

Scoring
(RICH) Robert Ssejjemba 7’
(RICH) Trevor McEachron 36’
(RICH) Sascha Gorres 70’
(MICH) Nik Djokic 73’
(MICH) Nik Djokic 76’
(RICH) Matt Watson 86’

Richmond Kickers: GK Ronnie Pascale, Trevor McEachron, Kelvin Jones, Steven Wolfe, Evan Harding, Sascha Gorres, Mike Burke, Matt Watson, Ihor Dotsenko, David Bulow, Robert Ssejjemba (Nowaf Jaman 77’)

Michigan Bucks: GK Steve Clark, Mike Holody, Kyle Russell (Eric Bronner 45’), Joe Donoho (Doug Demarkia 86’), Ian Daniel (Nik Djokic 45’), Pietr Nowak, Alex Morisset, Ty Shiplane (Xavier Balc 66’), Nate Jafta, Mkhokheli Dube, Kenny Uzoiqwe

Shots: RIC 13, MIC 6
Saves: RIC 3, MIC 7
Corners: RIC 3, MIC 5
Fouls: RIC 10, MIC 17
Cautions: BAN Lockhart 19’, SEA Scott 34’, BAN Id-Deen 88’

Cautions:
62nd minute: Kenny Uzoigwe (Michigan)
80th minute: Mike Holody (Michigan)
85th minute: Ihor Dotsenko (Richmond)

Referee: Shaun Papperman
Assistant Referees: Robert Velbis, Bill Dittmar
Fourth Official: Kyle Falce
Attendance: 522
Weather: Warm, stormy, 84º