Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Finish 3rd in MAC
December 29, 1999 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 1, 1999
Upcoming Games ....
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team will be facing the Northern Illinois Huskies in the Mid-American Conference Quarterfinal round this Friday, Nov. 5, in DeKalb, Illinois. All four quarterfinal matches plus both semifinal contests will be played on NIU's campus.
The semifinal matches will be played on Sunday, Nov. 7. The MAC Championship game will take place the following weekend at the site of the highest remaining seed.
The Mid-American Conference tournament champion will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
THE SERIES ...
Adam Erhard, Gene Braxton, Fred Degand and Detrick Matthews all scored for BG in this year's earlier meeting, with Chris Dore adding a pair of assists. Senior goalkeeper Ty Fowler stopped eight of nine Huskie shots on goal.
PREVIEWING UPCOMING OPPONENT..
The Huskies are led offensively by junior forward Dan Parisi who recorded 33 points on 14 goals and five assists. Parisi had hat tricks against Oral Roberts and Western Michigan this year. Senior forward Jason Ryder had a team-leading nine assists and four goals for 17 points.
NIU knocked Kentucky out of a possible first-place tie with Akron by defeating the Wildcats, 4-2 in DeKalb, last Friday. Sophomore Robby Berkley had two goals including the game- winner in the triumph over UK.
Freshman Rasih Pala has seen the majority of time between the pipes for Northern Illinois. He has an 8-5-0 record with a 1.38 goals against-average.
LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEK ...
All three BG shots on goal were stopped by OU goalkeeper Mike Skolnik. Falcon goalkeeper Ty Fowler made four saves, while allowing only a breakaway goal to Inge Pedersen.
Bowling Green ended the regular-season in dramatic fashion winning 3-2 in overtime at Eastern Michigan.
Falcon junior Matt Lyons scored his first goal of the campaign at the 20:44 mark off an assist from Chris Dore, while BG goalkeeper Ty Fowler stopped all six Eagle shots in the first half giving the Falcons a 1-0 advantage at the half.
EMU had second half goals from Chris King (49:54) and Dan Trosper (63:27), but senior Bobby Biggs netted his sixth of the year with 2:35 left in regulation to tie the game.
Lyons, who had only scored one goal in his previous 43 collegiate games, scored his second of the match 12:20 into sudden-death overtime.
Fowler ended the match with seven saves, while EMU goalkeeper George Tomasso was credited with 11 saves.
NOTES ...
Senior Chris Dore moved into sole possession of ninth place on the BGSU all-time assist chart with his two helpers in Sunday's win at Eastern Michigan. His current total of 23 places him one behind Tom Kinney (1990-93) and Bob Theophilus (1979-82), who are currently tied for seventh. Dore also moved into sole possession of sixth place on the BGSU all- time points list. His current total of 73 places him seven behind Joe Burch (1993-96), who had 80 point in his Falcon career.
Bowling Green senior goalkeeper Ty Fowler had one career start prior to this season, a 4-1 Mid-American Conference tournament win over Northern Illinois in the first round of the 1997 championships.
MAC Tournament Information ...
No. 1 seed Akron will face No. 8 seed Western Michigan at 11:30 a.m. on the Huskie Soccer Field, while No. 2 seed Kentucky will tangle with No. 7 seed Eastern Michigan at 11:30 a.m. on Field #2.
Bowling Green, the No. 3 seed, will face Northern Illinois, the No. 6 seed, at 1:30 p.m. on Huskie Soccer Field, while Marshall, the No. 4 seed will square-off against Buffalo, the No. 5 seed, at 1:30 p.m. on Field #2.
Friday's four winners will be re-seeded with the highest remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed on Sunday, Nov. 7 at 11:30 a.m. The second highest remaining seed and the second lowest remaining seed will meet at 1:30 p.m., also on Sunday. Both Sunday matches will be played on Huskie Soccer Field.
All times are local to site.
The following weekend, date to be determined, the two semifinal winners will meet to determine the MAC's automatic representative to the NCAA tournament.
Bowling Green evened the all-time series against Northern Illinois at 4-4-0 with a 4-1 home victory over the Huskies on Oct. 17. The Falcons have never beaten NIU in DeKalb (0-3-0 having been outscored 8-4.
Northern Illinois enters the Mid-American Conference tournament after posting a 10-8-0 regular-season mark and a 3-4-0 MAC record to tie Buffalo for fifth place. NIU is the No. 6 seed because the Bulls won the head-to-head meeting, 2-1.
Without three regulars in the lineup (one red card and two players received their fifth yellow cards), the BGSU Falcons played a strong defensive game against Oakland University but fell to the Golden Grizzlies by a 1-0 score on Wednesday (Oct. 27) at Cochrane Field in the regular-season home finale.
BG can assure itself of its ninth consecutive .500 or better record should it advance to the MAC Championship game. The Falcons are the only school to have participated in all five MAC title games. Bowling Green claimed the tournament title in 1995-96-97 while finishing second in 1994 and 1998.
The sixth annual Mid-American Conference Men's Soccer Tournament will begin with quarterfinal action this Friday, Nov. 5 in DeKalb, Illinois.
