By Harold C. Ford
The Flint City Bucks, Flint’s men’s semi-professional soccer team, began the 2025 season undefeated through their first three matches, besting opponents six goals to none. The Bucks then suffered their first defeat in a 2-0 shutout loss to Midwest United FC on June 4.
The Flint City AFC women’s team also started the 2025 campaign with three wins and no losses while outscoring their opposition 12 goals to one.
Flint City Bucks
May 21: The Bucks started the season with a 4-0 win over Oakland County FC at Atwood Stadium in downtown Flint. Stephan Moreira (Colchester, England; Southern Illinois University) led the way offensively with two goals in the first half. Dominic Ayala (Gulu, Uganda; Lindsey Wilson College) and Bart Muns (Amsterdam, Netherlands; University of Wisconsin) added goals to complete the victory.
May 24: The Bucks earned a 1-0 victory over Kalamazoo FC on a goal by Ashton Kamdem (Cincinnati, OH; University of Akron) at the 56th minute of the match.
May 31: The Bucks’ home-opener at Kettering University’s Atwood Stadium in downtown Flint featured a tight, back-and-forth, defensive contest with no discernible advantage for either team until Donovan Phillips (Castries, Saint Lucia; North Carolina State University) scored the match’s only goal at the 52nd minute of the second half with an assist from Muns.
June 4: The Bucks suffered their first loss of the 2025 campaign when Midwest United FC, a southwest Michigan-based franchise, bested them 2-0 in a match played at Aquinas College Athletic Field in Grand Rapids.
Flint City AFC
May 17: Flint City AFC started the new season with a win on May 17, a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over FC Pontiac at Atwood Stadium. Pontiac took a 1-0 first-half lead into the second half until Flint’s Lauren Moylan (Grand Rapids, MI; Kansas State University) scored the equalizer with an assist from Randie Foor (Fenton, MI; University of Notre Dame). The winning goal, a header by Kailey Shannon (Grosse Pointe, MI; University of Cincinnati), was assisted by Moylan who delivered a lovely looping kick 30 yards out from the opponent’s goal.
May 30: AFC elevated its record to two wins with a 3-0 victory over Capital City Athletic on AFC’s home turf at Atwood Stadium. The shutout score was indicative of Flint’s dominant play over the club from Lansing. AFC got two goals from Ivy Wilhelm (Ann Arbor, MI; Grand Valley State University) unassisted on the first score and then assisted on the second by Serena Hua (Troy, MI; Michigan Hawks ECHL). AFC completed the scoring with a goal from Kylie Worthing (Davison, MI; Niagara University) assisted by Rachel Jackson (Royal Oak, MI; Central Michigan University).
June 4: AFC upped its record to three wins with a resounding 7-0 victory over Troy City WFC in a contest at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. No other statistics regarding the match were available by press time.
Rosters
Flint City Bucks
The 2025 Flint men’s side includes players from eight states: two each from Ohio, Minnesota, and Texas; one each from California, Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
The remainder of the squad hails from 15 foreign nations: two each from Uganda, Ghana, France, and England; and one each from Saint Lucia, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, and Poland.
Every male player is, or was, a member of a U.S. college team: University of Wisconsin (four players); University of Akron (three); Oral Roberts University (three); Mercer University (three); Lindsey Wilson College (two); and one each from Southern Illinois University, Niagara University, Cornell University, Utah Valley University, University of Akron, North Carolina State University, University of Dayton, University of New Hampshire, University of St. Thomas, and Wright State University.
“They [the Bucks] are bringing players in from all over the country,” observed analyst Dan Stickradt during the National Soccer Network telecast of the Bucks-Oakland County match on May 21. “They’ve added some speed and goal scorers.”
Flint City AFC
The Bucks franchise added a women’s team in the 2022 season. The women’s squad has struggled to match the men’s squad in terms of success on the field and building a fan base. However, they’re off to a solid start this season and continue to see gains. That said, AFC will play only five matches this season, meaning only two remain at the posting of this article.
All of the AFC players on the 2025 squad are Michiganders, save two: Arden Holden hails from Las Vegas, NV and Keaton Mitchell from Franklin, TN.
Two players, Grace Cameron and Natalie Vance, call Flint their hometown. Vance is the daughter of Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Vance who is also the announcer at the Bucks’ home games at Atwood Stadium.
Two members of the AFC squad are from Troy, MI. Remaining AFC players are one each from Davison, Fenton, Linden, Brighton, Northville; Grosse Pointe, Grand Rapids, Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, Clarkston, and Jackson.
Flint City AFC’s Rachel Jackson (#16) points toward the goal as Lansing goalie stretches to make save. (Photo by Harold C. Ford)
Kickoff celebration of “a good job”
The Bucks hosted a kickoff celebration of the 2025 season at Huntington Bank in downtown Flint on May 22. The few hundred gathered there included club officials, fans, and a large group of gifted athletes from across the nation and around the globe that will represent Flint’s soccer hopes this summer.
Bucks’ founder Dan Duggan said that, in 2019 during an exploratory conversation with Flint’s then-mayor, the mayor told him, “Dan, you’re going to have to earn the trust of the people of Flint because the people here have been basically shit on for years.” The former mayor’s comment referenced area challenges such as the departure of General Motors and the water crisis.
“All we want is an opportunity,” was Duggan’s response. “We’ll do our best.”
At the celebration, Duggan recalled his two goals for the Flint-based franchise.
“Bringing young soccer players here to chase their dreams and become professionals … was always the number one goal,” Duggan said. “The second goal was to win,” he added.
Franchise history
2025 marks the fifth season that the Bucks’ franchise has been headquartered in Flint.
Founded in 1995, the team began play as the Mid-Michigan Bucks based in Saginaw. In 1996, the team changed its name to Michigan Bucks, moved to Plymouth in 2004, then to Pontiac in 2008. They began play as the Flint City Bucks in May 2019.
The Bucks have made the postseason playoffs in 26 of 29 seasons, a league record. Since their arrival in Flint – not counting the 2020 season disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic – the Bucks have never missed the playoffs. Their record of four league championships is unrivaled.
The Bucks last won the league championship in 2019 before more than 7,000 fans at Flint’s historic Atwood Stadium on a second-overtime period goal by Ayuk Tombe.
2025 schedule, tickets
The following matches remain on the Bucks’ home schedule:
- June 14; 4:30; vs. Northern Indiana FC
- June 21; 7:00; vs Inter Detroit FC; to be played at Grand Blanc’s Don Batchelor Stadium
- June 25; 7:00; vs Atlas FC, an international friendly*
- June 28; 7:00; vs. Kalamazoo FC
- July 2; 7:00; vs. Midwest United FC
- July 12; 7:00; vs. Lansing City Football
- July 18; TBD; round 1 of the playoffs begin
- July 20; TBD; round 2 of the playoffs
*The June 25 match features the reserve squad of Atlas FC of Mexico’s top league, Liga MX. A “friendly” means that the match results do not count in the league standings of either team.
Remaining AFC home matches are on June 7 at 7 p.m. versus Michigan Jaguars and June 13, also at 7 p.m. versus Michigan Stars.
Information about tickets and parking passes is available at the Bucks’ website or at Atwood Stadium on the night of a match.
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