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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Soccer Looks For Successful 2001 Campaign
August 22, 2001 | Men's Soccer
Aug. 22, 2001
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - There's going to be plenty of new faces on the Bowling Green men's soccer team this fall.
The Falcons tied for the Mid-American Conference regular-season title last fall and dropped a 1-0 decision to Kentucky in the championship game of the MAC tournament, finishing the season 9-8-1. BG was 6-2-1 down the stretch with both losses by one goal to Kentucky.
Even with a double-digit number of new players, Mel Mahler said the Falcons can be competitive this fall. Mahler will be starting his eighth season as Bowling Green's head coach.
"We can compete for a MAC title this fall without a doubt," Mahler said. "We had a good spring with the players we have returning. The players who did not play a lot in the fall made some great strides in their improvement."
Gone from last year's team are seven seniors, including Fred Degand, a first-team All-MAC, all-state and all-region selection.
"You don't replace a Fred Degand because of his versatility," Mahler said. Degand is playing with Hershey in the A-League, one step below Major League Soccer.
With the loss of so many veterans, Mahler is bringing in three transfers and seven freshmen. Included in the transfers are two players from Herkimer County (N.Y.) Community College, a school which has won back-to-back junior college national championships in 1999 and 2000.
"It's just a matter of waiting until they get here, getting through pre-season and then make adjustments from there," Mahler said about the transfers. "The freshman class, they all have the ability to play. It's just a wait-and-see approach."
Also in the mix are three redshirt freshmen, making 13 Falcons who have not seen action on the Division I level.
"We have a lot of new faces, so it's going to take some time to sort out the team chemistry issues," Mahler said, "and how well they mesh and match up with the returning players."
The Falcons have not gone to junior colleges in their recruiting in past years, but Mahler felt it was necessary this season.
"We needed to get a little bit more experience right away," Mahler said. "To bring in 11 freshmen, that's tough. We decided to try to bring in two or three guys who have collegiate experience.
"I would say the last time we had this many new faces was in 1993. We brought in nine guys that year. It turned out pretty well in the end," Mahler said. The 1993 recruits helped lay the foundation for three straight NCAA appearances by the Falcons.
This year's newcomers will blend with 12 returning players, including sophomore goalkeeper David DeGraff, who started every match last season, senior back Tony Malik, who played every minute of every match in 2000, senior forward Detrick Matthews, who had three match-winning goals, senior midfielder Ben Vaccaro, and senior midfielder Kevin Wisniewski.
"With the leadership we have returning with our seniors and some of the other underclassmen, we can make up ground in a hurry," Mahler said. "Long-term, we are going to have, potentially, half of the team together for the next four years. We'll probably red shirt some of the freshmen coming in this year."
The Falcons allowed only 20 goals last season as DeGraff and BG's defense, led by Malik, played well. DeGraff had five shutouts in 2000 and allowed only one goal in seven other games. The opposition scored only six goals in BG's final nine games of the season. DeGraff had a 1.10 goals-against-average last season.
"Dave has found a real niche for himself," Mahler said. "He has won the confidence of his teammates and that's crucial for a goalkeeper."
This fall, Mahler will be looking for someone to take Matt Lyons' spot as the schemer, who distributes the ball, and also for improved goal-scoring from this team. In 18 games last season, the Falcons scored only 25 goals. Of those, 18 were scored by the departing seniors.
BG was only shut out twice, but scored one goal in nine other games, going 1-7-1 in those contests.
"We need to have a more balanced attack," Mahler said. "A lot of our goals came on restarts (last fall) ... We need to be a little more unpredictable in that regard."
The Falcons start this season with non-conference play, including an appearance in the James Madison Invitational and matches against Canisius and UW-Milwaukee in the Diadora Classic at Cochrane Field. BG starts MAC play at Akron on Sept. 28.
"The month of September will be crucial with all the non-conference games," Mahler said. "We need to establish our top 15 or 16 players to get ready for the MAC season."
