Bowling Green State University Athletics
Akron Defeats BGSU for MAC Championship, 4-1
November 17, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 17, 2002
Bowling Green, Ohio - The University of Akron scored two goals in each the first and second halves, and went on to post a 4-1 victory over Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference Men's Soccer Championship at Mickey Cochrane Field.
Akron, the tournament's No. 2 seed, receives the MAC's automatic bid into the NCAA 48-team tournament. BGSU, the No. 1 seed of the league tournament, ends its season at 6-13-0 overall.
The Zips broke into the scoring column first when Cameron Knowles knocked in a header past BGSU goalie David DeGraff at 8:33. It was his first of the season. Chris Gnandt assisted on the goal for the Zips.
Bowling Green knotted the score at 1-1 when Eric Duda headed in an assist from a free kick by Paul Seip (25:39). It was Duda's second goal of the season and against Akron.
Less than three minutes later, UA's Amico DiFranco fired a shot from near the 12-yard line. The shot attempt was high, but Falcon defender Matt Martinka was whistled for a yellow card on the play. Akron's Matt Boswell attempted the penalty kick and was good to the left-side of the net for a 2-1 Zips lead at 28:28.
The score stayed that way until 58:03 when Alex Odwell scored his first of two goals, with an assist from Chris Gnandt, for a 3-1 Akron lead. Odwell added another open-field goal at 82:09 with an assist from Pat Beattie for the final 4-1 verdict.
BGSU played a man down after Martinka received his second yellow card of the match at 62:43. Overall, the Falcons were whistled for seven yellow cards and Akron for two. There were 58 fouls called in the game, 30 for BGSU and 28 for Akron.
Akron goalie Dan Pinho had just one save in 90:00 minutes while BGSU's DeGraff had four saves. UA held an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks, four in each half.
Akron advanced to the MAC Championship after tying Marshall in a semifinal match on Friday (2-2) and winning 4-3 on penalty kicks. BGSU won its semifinal match on Friday over Kentucky (2-1) to advance to its sixth MAC Championship match in the nine-year history of the tournament. BGSU's all-time MAC Tournament record now stands at 14-6-0. The match marked the fourth time that Akron and BGSU met in the championship. The Falcons won the first two meetings (1995, 1997), but Akron has captured the last two meetings (1998, 2002) in the title match.
BGSU coach Mel Mahler was named 2002 MAC Coach of the Year after leading his team to a second-half 5-4-0 finish and a share of its third MAC regular-season championship.
All-Tournament Team Chris Austin - Kentucky Dani Kamras - Kentucky Paul Dirov - Marshall Dennis Ahebwa - Marshall David DeGraff - BGSU Eric Duda - BGSU Matt Leardini - BGSU Chris Gnandt - Akron Will Kletzien - Akron Michael Marich - Akron Dan Pinho - Akron
