Regular Season Champions

FC Bartlesville hosted the Little Rock Rangers on Saturday in a clash between the first and the second teams in the standings. Around 150 people came to the Custer Stadium to see the last regular-season game.

The match started with the Rangers showing quality and aggressiveness in the attacking half. The Rangers drew 3 fouls after quick counterattacks. All 3 fouls resulted in yellow cards since they were stopping a promising attack. Booked for FC Bartlesville were Ivan Ristic, Vukasin Lukovic, and Nikita Pakhomov. Little Rock took 3 shots in the opening 15 minutes, but none of those shots presented danger for Iker Gonzalez. 

As it was the case in all 10 regular-season games this year, the Buffaloes struck first. What turned out to be the game-winning goal came from Aidan De Gannes’s shot from the edge of the box. Brandon O’Rourke was quick to pass the ball to Aidan after forcing a turnover.

This was Aidan’s 4th goal in 4 matches for FC Bartlesville. Aidan is proving to be a great signing thus far.

The opening goal helped the Buffaloes calm the game down and gain more control, which resulted in another goal fairly quickly after the first goal was scored. 

Luka Djurovic and Nikita Pakhomov combined well on the left side. Although the possession was lost for a few seconds, the ball found Djurovic again. Luka took a great touch to get rid of a defender before placing the ball in the bottom right corner to extend the lead to 2-0 before halftime.

The Buffaloes made 2 substitutions during halftime. Both Luka Djurovic and Luka Milicevic were done for the day, while Luis Mencos and Perica Obradovic entered the field. Luis had an immediate impact about 5 minutes into the second half. Brandon O’Rourke had done an amazing job winning the ball high up the pitch and passing it to Simeon Adair, who found Mencos wide open in front of the goal. Luis was calm and collected and scored his first goal in the Buffalo jersey. 

The last and final goal was scored after a great combination between Nikita Pakhomov Ian Belong. Ian made a fantastic run behind the last defender, where he received a ball from Pakhomov. Ian took a touch and, with a precise shot, beat the goalkeeper to put the last goal on the board. This was also Ian Belong’s first goal as a Buffalo! 

FC Bartlesville completed the regular season with 9 wins and a draw out of 10 games. This will mark the first time the Buffaloes went undefeated and also the first time they won the regular-season Title. 

Although the feeling is great, this win doesn’t mean much in theory since the Buffaloes have to win the playoff title too in order to make the National Tournament. Being first in the standings will mean that the Buffaloes host both the semi-final and the final game of the playoffs, should they reach the finals.

The Semi-Final game is still not scheduled, but will most likely happen in the evening of June 21st. The club will announce the news as soon as they find out!