| The Mid Michigan Bucks ended their eighth successful season of USL soccer with a 2-0 loss to the Chicago Fire Reserve Sunday night at Hurley Field in Berkley. Although the Bucks carried most of the action and continued to attack the steady Chicago defense, they could not get a shot by goalkeeper Matt Pickens, who played an outstanding game. Chicago got on the board first in the 15th minute after the referee called the Bucks for a foul in the penalty area. For the second night in a row, Bucks goalkeeper Jeff Weise was called on to stop the PK. This time, defender Kevin Wickert converted to put the CFR up 1-0.
The Bucks had several excellent scoring chances in the first half with all the Bucks players getting into the offensive end. The second half was no different. Pickens made 11 saves for Chicago, and more than a half dozen shots just missed the mark. Chicago finished the scoring on a nice goal from Rob Mouw in the 74th minute. Chicago will advance to the national semi-finals match next weekend to host Orange County (CA).
The loss was the final game played in a Bucks uniform for Stephan David, Kevin Taylor and Abe Geiger, who will all be graduating from college next spring and will be moving up to higher ranks of professional soccer next year. Also ending his career was Paul Snape, the seven year leader of the Bucks, who is also one of the top all-time scorers in PDL history. Snape will be moving on to be the assistant coach at the University of Michigan this fall. | |
