Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Down UK, 2-1; Advance To MAC Championship
November 15, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 15, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green men's soccer team built a two-goal lead, then held off a late Kentucky rally en route to a 2-1 victory in Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinal-round action Friday afternoon (Nov. 15) at a snowy Cochrane Field.
With the win, the Falcons, 6-12-0 overall this season, are one victory away from the NCAA Tournament. BGSU, the tournament's top seed, advances to Sunday's (Nov. 17) MAC Championship match and will host second-seeded Akron in a 1:00 p.m. kickoff at Cochrane Field.
Fifth-seeded UK, winner of the last three MAC Tournament crowns, ends the season at 10-9-0. The Falcon win snapped the Wildcats' league-tourney winning streak at nine matches.
The teams played through nearly 34 scoreless minutes before the Falcons got on the board. Redshirt junior Matt Martinka played a free kick forward, finding junior transfer Eric Duda on the left side of the penalty box, near the end line. Duda slid a pass across the goal line to an open Matt Leardini, and the Falcon senior one-timed a shot low into the net.
For Leardini, the goal was his first of the season and fourth of his career. Both Duda and Martinka drew assists on the score, at the 33:56 mark. The assists were Duda's second of the year and Martinka's first of the season.
About a third of the way through the second half, Falcon senior Damion Bennett blasted a dangerous shot, firing a spinning, twisting shot from the left side that seemed ticketed for the upper right corner of the net. But, UK goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum got his fingertips on just enough of the ball to deflect it off of the crossbar.
Fifteen minutes later, however, freshman Cory Stevens fired a similar shot, and Gruenebaum was unable to keep it out of the net. Freshman Paul Seip played the ball down the left side of the field to Stevens. Stevens cut inside and hit a spinning ball that looked much like Bennett's try. The UK 'keeper again got his fingertips on the shot, but this shot hit the bottom of the crossbar, bounced off the goal-line and nestled into the upper part of the netting, just behind the bar.
For Stevens, the goal (at 75:27) was his first collegiate marker. Seip drew the lone assist, his team-leading fifth of the season. Of the 19 goals scored this season by the Falcons, 15 have come from a player in his first season at BGSU.
The Wildcats cut the lead in half with just under two minutes left. John Monebrake's crossing attempt was deflected high into the air, and Anthony Peters headed it home from the center of the box, about six yards out.
The visitors applied pressure in the final minutes, but could not get another ball past BGSU junior David DeGraff, and the Falcons had the win. BGSU is now 6-4-0 in the last 10 matches, after beginning the season with eight consecutive losses.
UK held a 20-9 advantage in shot attempts and a 7-4 edge in shots on goal. DeGraff earned the win with six saves for the hosts, while Gruenebaum made two stops for the 'Cats. UK had 10 corner kicks -- including eight in a span of less than four minutes late in the second half -- to the Falcons' one.
Both of Friday's semifinal matches -- BGSU-UK and Akron-Marshall -- were the first time the teams had met in 2002. The teams' scheduled regular-season meetings, both set for Sept. 27, were cancelled due to inclement weather and field conditions.
The Falcons advance to the championship match for the seventh time (most of any MAC school) in the tournament's nine-year history. BGSU won the tourney title in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and the Falcons posted runner-up finishes in 1994 (the inaugural tournament), 1998 and 2000.
BGSU's Sunday opponent, Akron, will be making a fifth championship-match appearance, second only to the Falcons. UA won the title in 1998 and came in second in 1995, 1997 and 2001.
UK's three-year championship run, as mentioned, comes to an end. The last Wildcat loss in the MAC Tournament came to the Falcons, 2-0 in double-overtime, in the 1998 tournament.
BGSU and Akron have met on four previous occasions in conference tourney play, including three times in the championship match. The Falcons bested the Zips in both the 1995 (2-0) and 1997 (1-0) finals, but UA got some revenge with a 4-1 win in the 1998 title match. The teams also met in the semifinal round in 1994, with the Brown and Orange posting a 1-0 win.
The winner of Sunday's match earns the MAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.
