(August 21, 2025) Mena, Arkansas - After failing to make the Region II Tournament the past 2 years, the Bucks are looking to rebuild and make the trip to Enid, Oklahoma at the end of October. The season started this afternoon at Tapley Park against Region 6 foe, Coffeyville Community College.
Due to injuries and late arrivals on campus, the Bucks had somewhat of a patchwork team as players were asked to fill in and play a position they might not be familiar with in order to help the team. Very early on, it was very evident that the Coffeyville team had players of very high technical ability as they dominated possession and created numerous good looks at goal as a result. The Bucks changed shape to give the team a more solid defensive shape which nullified Coffeyville attacks,and as half time was approaching, it looked like the Bucks had been able to survive the onslaught and be ready to reset for the 2nd half. Just before the halftime whistle was blown, goalkeeper Micah Brooks (Northside, Anguilla) came rushing out to punch a high ball away and made contact with the Coffeyville striker instead of the ball, leading to a penalty kick. The shot was dispatched low into the right corner, and the Bucks went into the break down 1-0.
The planned comeback was soon blown out of the water very soon after the restart when the Bucks gave the ball away in their own penalty area, giving Coffeyville an easy shot into an almost empty net. This mistake caused the air to be sucked out of the balloon for the Bucks players and their heads dropped. It took a few minutes for them to find their feet, but once they did, the men started to create more penetrating passes into the final third of the field which had high levels of possibility of resulting in a goal, but Coffeyville escaped the pressure and broke down the right to cut the ball back from the end line for a slammed shot high into the goal for the 3-0 lead.
UARM reacted well and did manage to get on the score sheet in the 84th minute as Juan Serrano (Aubrey, TX) buried his 12-yard shot into the corner after a lay off from Elliott Ramsey (Batley, England) who had received a long ball form Carlos Lara (Corpus Christi, TX) in defense.
Coach Sherry was very optimistic after the match. "Coffeyville were a very good team full of exceptionally technical players who showed our players how easy it was to keep possession of the ball with quick control and accurate passing mixed with high level decision making. This was the perfect game to start the season with because now our players fully understand they need to play quicker and work hard with more focus in upcoming practices. We did well, but Coffeyville showed us there is another level we need to search for moving forward."
The men play again in less than 48 hours against UA Cossatot. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 pm at Tapley Park on Saturday, August 23rd.
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