Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Soccer Falls In MAC Championship, 1-0 To Kentucky
November 12, 2000 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 12, 2000
Bowling Green, Ohio -
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team had its 2000 season end with a 1-0 loss to Kentucky in the Mid-American Conference tournament championship match Sunday afternoon at BG's Mickey Cochrane Field.
A crowd of 608 saw the Wildcats score at the 23:48 mark when Chris Austin's longball found Brook Pearse down the right side. Pearse dribbled in on BG goalkeeper David DeGraff and his shot beat DeGraff low to his right side.
BG had a chance for the equalizer at the 40:32 mark when a Wildcat was called for an unintentional handball in the box, but UK goalkeeper Brian O'Leary made a diving save on Adam Erhard's penalty kick to keep the Falcons off the board. It was O'Leary's only save of the opening 45 minutes.
Erhard and Tommy Thomas each had shots on goal in the second half stopped by O'Leary. BG's DeGraff made four saves in the first half and one in the second half. Falcon Tony Malik was also credited with a "team save" on a shot on goal by Austin.
Kentucky attempted 11 shots to BG's 8, with the Wildcats holding a 7-3 advantage in shots on goal. The Falcons had eight corner kicks to UK's two. BG committed 14 fouls to Kentucky's 21. UK was whistled for two offsides, to BG's one. Each team also received one yellow card.
BG finishes the 2000 campaign with a 9-8-1 overall record, while Kentucky will take an 11-8-1 record into the NCAA Tournament.
The 2000 MAC All-Tournament team consisted of Marshall's Taly Goode and Wayne Bennett, Buffalo's Joe Peplinski and Mike Peplinski, Bowling Green's P.J. Behan, Fred Degand and Gene Braxton, and Kentucky's Ilkka Jantti, Greg Bironas, Brian O'Leary and J.D. Stephenson.
