Watch party at Barley & Vine (Flint Twp) will carry game live from Valley Stadium, Iowa

Three years ago, your Flint City Bucks made magic in Des Moines, then brought it home to complete the job on a legendary August night at Kettering’s Atwood Stadium.

Is it coming home again in 2022?

The Bucks are in Iowa, just one victory away from playing for a fifth national championship. Tonight’s USL League Two semifinal is set for 8 p.m. ET in Des Moines.

Flint City won the Central Conference by toppling division champions South Bend Lions, Chicago FC United, and previously undefeated No. 1 seed Des Moines Menace. Next taker: Western Conference champions Ventura County Fusion of California.

Watch party: Barley & Vine on Elms Road in Flint Township will host tonight’s official watch party, showing the match live and offering food and drink specials for Bucks supporters. The match is also available to stream for free on the CISN YouTube page.

Meet the enemy: Ventura County Fusion

With a record-breaking 113 teams, USL2 has plenty of newcomers. Ventura County is not one: 13 years ago, the Fusion won the Premier Development League national title. The 2006-born club from SoCal is back in the league’s final four for the first time since.

Ventura County placed second in this year’s nine-team Southwest Division. They went 8-2-2 in the regular season, scoring 24 goals and conceding 15. Nothing came particularly easy for the Fusion, with just two victories coming by multiple goals. The nail-biting trend has continued in the playoffs, which have featured results of 3-2, then 2-1, and finally 1-0.

Striker Logan Farrington scored his team-leading eighth goal Friday, drawing and converting a penalty that would make the difference against Ballard FC. Farrington was Horizon League Freshman of the Year with the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He was named to the Horizon First-Team again in 2021.

Speedy winger Nathaniel Opoku is another threat, having scored four goals on the season. Opoku is set to play for Syracuse University in the fall after scoring 19 goals for Lindsey Wilson College in 2021 and earning second-team NAIA All-American honors.

Tetsuya Kadono has started all three postseason matches in net for the Fusion. Over three seasons at San Diego State University, he has two clean sheets in 14 starts.

Other key players include holding midfielder Bastien Oberli, who finished his college eligibility in 2021 with Loyola Marymount University, and Marley Edwards, who appeared in 15 matches and connected on four assists as a freshman at Fresno Pacific University.

To keep up with the Flint City Bucks, please visit the team website at www.flintcitybucks.com. Additionally, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.