Successful Four-Point Weekend for FC Buffalo

FC Buffalo’s unbeaten run is now at six matches following a four-point weekend which started with a 2-1 Friday win at home and finished with a 3-3 draw in Cleveland on Sunday.

Call Friday’s event a wasteful win.

Despite more than 20 shot attempts and an even 20 corner kicks, FC Buffalo could only muster early goals in each half to beat visiting Greater Binghamton FC Thunder 2-1 at Robert Rich Sr. All-High Stadium on Friday.

The win moved FCB into second place in the conference.

Kendell McFayden scored his 15th career FC Buffalo goal just five minutes into the match, finishing off a cross from Charlie Livesey, who was making his first FCB start at left back.

Binghamton held the score line until halftime, when Bauld cleaned up a mess off a corner kick for his first FCB goal.

Two days later, a wild Father’s Day match-up in Ohio saw FC Buffalo run its unbeaten streak to six with a 3-3 draw with Cleveland SC on a 95-degree day at Don Shula Stadium.

FCB led 2-0 and 3-2 in the match, but couldn’t get the win over the line in drawing CSC for the second time this season.

McFayden, Bauld, and Akean Shackleford scored for the Blitzers, with Sammy Wasson, Austin Stout, and Chris Berardi recording assists. Jeremy Figler made a number of saves in the draw.

FCB opened the scoring with McFayden’s fourth of the season, the veteran striker on the doorstep to poke home a rebound when Stout’s shot dropped to him.

The Blitzers doubled their leader before halftime when Wasson (Clarence, N.Y./Buffalo State College) swept a left-footed cross to the back post and Bauld nodded inside the near post for his second goal in as many games.

Cleveland made it 2-1 after halftime, a 55th minute marker from Vinny Bell’s redirection of a teammate’s shot.

FCB looked to have restored its lead when Akean Shackleford spied Cleveland goalkeeper Mikal Outcalt losing sight of a ball and out leapt him to head home, but the referee saw a foul.

The hosts fought hard to level the score, and earned their equalizer via a penalty kick in the 87th.

The referee called for five minutes of stoppage time, and FCB was fortunate to score seven minutes after the clock first read 90. Keane McIvor and Stout combined to set up Berardi, and the Clarence product’s shot was saved onto the path of Shackleford.

But the Jamaican’s team-leading fifth goal of the season was not enough, as Figler’s outstanding 99th minute save was pushed onto the path of Cleveland’s Declan McGivern for the equalizer.

 FCB’s next home match comes Friday, June 22 against Rochester Lancers. Admission is $8 at the door, $7 presale.

Contributor: FC Buffalo
Photo Credit: RJZphotography.com