Is there a way to make sure an autocomplete field as an actual match?
Per the comments above, this is a bug with Entity Reference Fields and is being engaged per the Issue Queue at: 

https://drupal.org/project/issues/entityreference?text=autocomplete&amp;status=All

Patches for the Simple batch seem to work from this thread:
https://drupal.org/node/1974202

Patches for the Views reference seem to work from this thread:
https://drupal.org/node/1702172