Rochester, MI (May 19, 2007)- The 2006 North American Champion Michigan Bucks went to 2-0 on the new season after dominating the aggressive Cleveland Internationals last night at Troy Athens High School. The PDL champs opened the night receiving their championship rings from Bucks owner Dan Duggan, and promptly returned the favor by gifting him their second shutout win of the season. If the Bucks can win their next two matches (Chicago on May 26 in Canton and Indiana in South Bend on May 28), they are assured of their much coveted US Open Cup berth. The Bucks high powered offense was stifled on Friday, as the Internationals did everything they could to contain the Michigan offensive weapons. But as is usually the case, Nate Jafta (Lindsey Wilson) was the instant offense the Bucks needed, as he beat his tight marking Cleveland defender to the ball and flicked it to forward Doug DeMartin (Michigan State), who coolly slotted the ball past Internationals keeper Alex Fatovic. The Bucks pushed the game at the younger squad for the majority of the first half, but the Internationals would not back down and refused to allow a second goal before intermission.

"They defended us exactly how we expected," said Bucks second year assistant coach Brett Jacobs. "They did a good job of disrupting our flow and frustrating our midfield connections. I was very happy with the fact that we never got out of our game, even though we didn't finish some well designed chances. Cleveland is a young team that is going to cause several teams a whole lot of problems this year." The Internationals fall to 0-1 in their 2007 opener and will have a very difficult time qualifying for Open Cup after tonight's loss. The second half was played at a slower pace than the opening stanza, but the Bucks finally connected with an insurance goal in the 77th minute, when the counterattacking trio of Jafta, Khelli Dube and Kenny Uzoigwe attacked the Cleveland goal at a furious pace. Kenny's pass to Jafta sent the speedy midfielder in alone on goal, only to have him drop the ball to a trailing Dube to finish the second goal of the game. This would prove to be the final tally of the game and the Bucks recorded their second shutout in as many games. Goalkeeper Steve Clark (Oakland) served the Bucks well in goal, but was the beneficiary of a rock solid defense anchored by Mike Holody, Kyle Russell and Ian Daniel that gave Cleveland very few sniffs at goal.

Now the focus quickly shifts to the Bucks Great Lakes rival Chicago Fire Premier (1-0-1), who will come to Canton next Saturday to take on the Bucks for the right to move on to the Open Cup. The leader of the division after the first four Cup qualifiers moves on to Round One. The classic match up will take place at 5:00 PM (moved up from 6:30 original start time) at Independence Park as part of the Canton Cup Memorial Day tournament. The Bucks will then go on to South Bend to play the Indiana Invaders on Memorial Day in the last game of the Open Cup, before coming back home to Berkley on Wednesday, May 30 to take on Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew.

For more information, visit the team web site at www.buckssoccer.com

Cleveland Internationals vs. Michigan Bucks
Troy Athens High School
May 18, 2007

Scoring Summary:
MICH -- Doug DeMartin (Nate Jafta) '11
MICH -- Khelli Dube (Nate Jafta) '71

Lineups:

Cleveland: 20-Alex Fatovic, 2-Corey Sipos, 3-Geoff Marsh, 5-Chris Korb, 6-Mitch Boyer, 26-Matt Tutich, 16-Adam Ross, 15-Rick King, 16-Jon Brickman, 11-Shakir McCoy, 17-Kwame Oduro
Head Coach: Tony Dore

Michigan: 25-Steve Clark, 3-Mike Holody, 22-Ian Daniel, 4-Kyle Russell, 14-Alex Morriset (13-John Palladino '77), 17-Piotr Nowak, 8-Nate Jafta, 20-Dan Stevens (15-Santos Perez '59), 7-Ty Shiplane (11-Steve Bonnell '74), 21-Khelli Dube (9-George Josten '88), 18-Doug DeMartin (10-Kenny Uzoigwe '54)
Head Coach: Dan Fitzgerald
 
Misconduct Summary
MICH - Alex Morriset '56 (caution)
MICH - Ty Shipalane '73 (caution)

Shots: Cleveland 5, Michigan 14
Saves: Cleveland 0, Michigan 5 
Fouls: Cleveland 12, Michigan 12
Offsides: Cleveland 2, Michigan  2
Corners: Cleveland 5, Michigan 3 

Referees: Marc Lawrence, Steven Scanio, Russ Cassaboom, Mike DeAngelo