Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Soccer Tames The Herd, 1-0
October 14, 2000 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 14, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team took a big step toward the top of the Mid-American Conference standings, posting a 1-0 win over visiting Marshall Saturday (Oct. 14) at Cochrane Field.
Senior Gene Braxton's first goal of the season, which came at the 32:05 mark, held up as the match winner, and freshman David DeGraff made four saves on the day to earn his second consecutive shutout and his third of the season.
Seniors Zac Olson and Adam Erhard drew assists on Braxton's goal. Olson lofted a cross into the box from the right side. Erhard, on the left side of the goal, headed the ball back across the box. The ball came to Braxton, who blasted a shot past Thundering Herd goalkeeper Taly Goode into the lower left-hand corner of the net.
Braxton's goal came less than two minutes after he had entered the match as a substitute. Braxton had been on the field for 1:54 before netting the winner.
Both teams had several scoring chances, but no one could get another ball past Goode or DeGraff. The Falcon 'keeper made a nice stop of a hard shot by MU's Steve Spaulding midway through the second half, but the Herd kept applying pressure.
The victory was not sealed until the very end. Marshall played a free kick into the box in the waning seconds, and when Jeremy Albrecht's header sailed over the crossbar, the Falcons had the victory.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 5-6-0 overall and 2-1-0 in MAC action. The Falcons end weekend play just a half-game behind Akron and Kentucky (each 3-1-0) in the MAC standings.
Marshall drops to 10-3-1 overall and 3-2-0 in league play.
The Falcons outshot the visitors by a slim 17-16 margin, and each team had four shots on goal. Goode made three saves in the contest.
The Brown and Orange had a 6-5 edge in corner kicks, while Marshall had 14 fouls to BGSU's eight.
The conference standings through Saturday's match follow. There are no additional MAC matches until Friday (Oct. 20).
BGSU will return to action Tuesday (Oct. 17), heading to Oakland University for a non-conference match. The Falcons will venture back into MAC action Friday with a trip to Kentucky.
MAC STANDINGS (League matches only)
Team Record Pts. 1. Akron 3-1-0 9 Kentucky 3-1-0 9 3. Marshall 3-2-0 9 4. Bowling Green 2-1-0 6 5. Northern Ill. 2-2-0 6 6. Western Mich. 0-3-0 0 Buffalo 0-3-0 0
