.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
BG Enters Final Week Of Regular Season In Third Place In The MAC
December 30, 1999 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 25, 1999
UPCOMING GAMES ...
The final regular-season match will be played on Sunday, Oct. 31 at Eastern Michigan with start time slated for 2 p.m.
The Mid-American Conference Quarterfinal round will be played on Friday, Nov. 5 in DeKalb, Illinois.
THE SERIES ...
The Falcons have never lost to Eastern Michigan, 21-0-0, in an all-time series dating back to 1981. BG has won all nine previous meetings in Ypsilanti. Bowling Green has outscored the Eagles 68-14 while recording 10 shutouts.
SCANNING THE POLLS...
PREVIEWING UPCOMING OPPONENTS...
The Golden Grizzlies are led offensively by junior forward Paul Snape, who has 25 points on nine goals and seven assists, and sophomore forward Inge Pedersen, who has six goals and five assists for 17 points. Sophomore goalkeeper Mike Skolnik has played every minute this season compiling a 0.77 goals-against average with 10 shutouts. He had a string of six consecutive shutouts earlier this season from Sept. 18 through Oct. 4.
This past week Oakland blanked Marquette, 3-0, at home and lost in overtime, 2-1, at Missouri-Kansas City.
Eastern Michigan will host Valparaiso in a non-conference match on Tuesday before entertaining the Falcons on Sunday. The Eagles have compiled a 6-10 overall mark with a 1-5 record in MAC play.
Daniel Kitching leads EMU with four goals, while Drew Drummond leads the squad with eight assists. Goalkeeper George Tomasso has played nearly every minute compiling a 1.71 goals-against average and three shutouts.
LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEK ...
Akron outshot BG 3-1 in the first half, but the Falcons outshot the Zips 7-1 in the second half as they tried to get the equalizer.
Birkeland's goal was the only shot on net allowed by the Falcon defense. Senior Chris Dore led BG with four shot attempts, while Akron goalkeeper Kyle Milligan was forced to make four saves.
After having its four-game unbeaten streak snapped with a 1-0 loss at Akron on Friday, the Bowling Green State University men's soccer team rebounded with a 3-2 overtime win at Buffalo on Sunday afternoon.
The win improved BG's overall record to 7-8-1, while pushing the Falcons Mid-American Conference record to 3-2-1 with one game remaining. The Bulls fall to 10-5-1 overall and 3-3-0 in the MAC.
BG sophomore Tony Malik opened the scoring at 14:15. Malik's third of the campaign was assisted by senior Bobby Biggs. MAC leading goal scorer Steve Butcher tied the game at one with a penalty kick goal at 19:22. The Falcons regained the lead at 54:43 as Detrick Matthews scored for the second time in the last three matches.
Buffalo's Tim Songer scored on a penalty kick 68:59 to send the game into sudden-death overtime where BG's Bobby Biggs scored at the 101:47 mark. Biggs' fifth of the year was assisted by Gene Braxton. It was Biggs' first match-winning goal this season.
Bowling Green played the final 21:29 of regulation and all 11:47 of overtime down a man after Jason Bryant was issued a red card at 68:31.
Falcon goalkeeper Ty Fowler made four saves, while Buffalo's Justin Denning (two saves on four shots) and Brian Wozniak (one save on two shots) combined for three saves. One of Fowler's two first half saves came when he made a kick save off a Steve Butcher breakaway shot.
NOTES ...
The Falcons have never finished below fourth in the seven year history of MAC soccer.
The red card issued to Jason Bryant in Sunday's match at Buffalo was only the fifth card, first red, he has received in 79 matches.
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team enters the final week of the regular season having compiled a 4-1-1 record in its last six matches. The home finale is this Wednesday (Oct. 27) vs. Oakland. Kickoff at Cochrane Field is set for 3:30 p.m.
Bowling Green trails Oakland 1-2-1 in the all-time series with the last meeting being played in 1984. The Golden Grizzlies have won two of the three matches played at Cochrane Field (2-0 in 1980 and 1-0 in 1984), while BG's lone triumph came in the first ever meeting, 4-0 in 1978 at Cochrane Field.
Bowling Green was picked second in the 1999 Mid-American Conference Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll. Defending regular-season and tournament champion Akron was a unanimous first-place selection, while Eastern Michigan was selected seventh.
Oakland University, the unofficial 1998 champion of the Mid-Continent Conference, has compiled a 10-4-2 mark this season, including an 8-0-0 record at home. OU has recorded home wins over Akron (3-0) and Eastern Michigan (4-0).
Bowling Green played No. 19-ranked Akron nearly even for 90 minutes with the lone zip goal being scored by Torbjorn Birkeland at the 28:11 mark.
A Bowling Green victory at Eastern Michigan on Sunday would guarantee the Falcons at least a third-place seeding in the Mid-American Conference tournament. BG currently leads Buffalo by one point and Marshall by three points with the Falcons holding the tiebreaker over both schools. Marshall visits Akron on Friday and Buffalo on Sunday, while the Bulls lone league match is Sunday against the Thundering Herd.
