Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Drop MAC Matchup Against Visiting Northern Illinois, 1-0
October 07, 2001 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 7, 2001
Bowling Green - Northern Illinois University used a penalty kick in the 69th minute to score the lone goal of Sunday's match at Cochrane Field and defeat the Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, 1-0.
NIU's Peter Agrimson took the penalty kick and shot left as BGSU goalie David DeGraff dove to the right, giving the visitors the 1-0 advantage at 68:46. However, the Falcons had opportunities to tie during the remainder of the match.
The best chance came at 77:53 when Detrick Matthews passed in a corner kick to a sprinting Tony Malik. His header sailed towards the opposite end of where NIU goalie Rasih Pala stood, but a Huskie defender was there to make the block. It was then Tim Butler's turn for the shot off of the block by NIU, but his attempt was high.
Two more shots were attempted by BGSU's Ricky Harper in the final 10 minutes, but neither were on the mark.
"We can't beat teams by shutting them out," said BGSU coach Mel Mahler. "We need to score goals. We can't win games 1-0. Our achilles heal is scoring goals."
The Falcons outshot the Huskies 13-8, but only three were on goal. BGSU had four corner kicks to NIU's one and committed four more fouls, 16-12. Brandon Smick and Doug Whitesel each received yellow cards for Northern Illinois.
DeGraff finished with just one save on the day for BGSU while Pala had three for the Huskies.
Bowling Green (3-4-1 overall, 1-3 in the MAC) plays a non-conference match at the University of Michigan on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. BGSU then travels to Marshall on Sunday, Oct. 14 for its lone MAC match of the weekend.
1 2 Final NIU 0 1 1 BGSU 0 0 0Shots BGSU 13 NIU 8
Corner Kicks BGSU 4 NIU 1
Saves NIU 3 BGSU 1
