(October 16, 2024) Mena, Arkansas - Coming off a loss last week to the 7th ranked team in the country, the men's hopes for the postseason still remain with 3 very important games left in the season. Their first matchup was with NOC-Enid at Tapley Park on Wednesday. Earlier in the season, the Bucks lost to the Jets 1-0 in Enid. 

 

Soccer is a 90 minute game, but this one had so many stoppages that the game lasted just over 2.5 hours. The game had everying: 6 goals, numerous red and yellow card cautions, 2 penalty kicks, and wide ranges of good/bad play which dominated the frantic game. UARM scored the first goal through a piece of luck as Ebrima Jobe's (Memphis, TN) weak shot was defelected into the net by an Enid defender as the goalkeeper was reaching to save the shot. The goal proved the point that 'you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.'

 

Enid equalized just before the half with a breakout long ball after clearing a corner kick, leaving the Bucks defenders stranded upfield. The Enid striker ran away and scored with ease past the Bucks as he came rushing out to confront him.

 

The second half of the game started with a red card ejection for an Enid player, and despite playing with a man down, they scored the go ahead goal. A dribble down the right wing as the striker ghosted past 3 Bucks defenders before poking the ball home close to the near post made it 2-1. UARM made some changes to bolster their left side of the defense, and this enabled the game to be more of a stalemate as Bucks fought to take control of the game again. The goal did come when a foul was called in the box to award the Bucks a penalty kick. Mario Vingarzan (Madrid, Spain) stepped up to take the kick but had his shot saved. Fortunately for the Bucks, the rebound fell to the feet of Vingarzan who volleyed home to tie the contest a at 2-2.

 

In the aftermath of the goal being scored, the Bucks had a player receive a second yellow card for excessive celebration and had to play a man down. Despite this set back, UARM got on the score sheet next when Taylor Marange (Nuneaton, England) magnificently volleyed the ball home at the far post from a chip to the far post. The Bucks were now leading the game 3-2 with 10 players against 9 and only a few minutes left in the game. It looked an almost certainty that Bucks would come away with a valuable win when suddenley everything was turned upside. The Bucks defense cleared a high ball into their box from a long free kick, and with the Enid striker running the ball down and dribbling to the side line away from the Bucks goal, a UARM defender unexplicably decided to hack the striker down from behind to concede a penalty kick. Enid scored the resulting penalty kick in the bottom left corner to tie the game 3-3.