Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Ends Regular Season With 3-2 Win Over Cleveland State
November 03, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 3, 2002
Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green ended its 2002 regular season on a good note with a 3-2 decision over visiting Cleveland State at Cochrane Field on Sunday afternoon. The Falcons came-from-behind and scored three goals in the second half and then held off a Viking rally for the victory.
The win pushes BGSU's record over the second half of the 2002 season to 5-4-0 after an 0-8-0 start to the year. Three of those four second-half losses were by just one goal, including one in overtime.
"We're playing our best soccer of the year as we head into the MAC Tournament," said BGSU coach Mel Mahler. The Falcons are the No. 1 seed in the 2002 Mid-American Conference Tournament which begins Friday, Nov. 8, at Marshall University. BGSU has a bye in the first round and does not play until Sunday, Nov. 10, at 1 p.m.
As for Sunday's win, it was the first for BGSU over a non-conference foe in 2002. But, it didn't come easy. The Vikings struck first at just 16:08 with a goal from Adrian Balc for a 1-0 CSU lead.
The scored stayed that way until early in the second half. BGSU responded with two goals within the first five minutes of the second half. First, freshman Paul Dhaliwal stole an errant CSU pass inside the box and immediately fired on net to knot the score at 1-1 (46:49). The unassisted goal was Dhaliwal's fourth goal of the season, tops among the Falcons.
Just over three minutes later fellow freshman Ben Monnette got into the action with his first collegiate goal. Francisco Sanchez passed from the top of the box to Monnette on the left side, who then shot to the right corner to give BGSU a 2-1 lead (49:55).
Later in the match, junior Deryck Freudeman scored his first collegiate goal and what proved to be the game-winner. This time Dhaliwal passed to freshman Paul Seip who found Freudeman just several yards away from the net. His goal came at 69:26.
CSU cut the lead to one with a goal at 86:23 by Barry McGuire. However, BGSU goalkeeper David DeGraff had all three of his saves late in the game to preserve the Falcon victory.
"I was pleased with the second half," said Mahler. "We came out and played as well as we had versus Akron (1-0 win) and Michigan State (1-0 overtime loss). I thought we played championship-style of soccer in the second half. However, I was a little disappointed in the final 10 minutes, but credit Cleveland State."
BGSU outshot its opponent for just the second time this season with a 14-7 advantage over CSU. The seven shots allowed tied a season-low by the Falcon defense. The 14 Falcon shots were the most since 16 attempts against Buffalo (3-0 BGSU win) on Sept. 29.
BGSU concludes the regular season with a 5-12-0 overall record. The Falcons had a 4-1-0 MAC record and earned a share of the MAC title with Akron. The No. 1-seeded Falcons will play the winner of No. 4-seed Buffalo and No. 5-seed Kentucky at 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 10, at Marshall University. The MAC Championship game will be played Saturday, Nov. 16, at the highest remaining seed at a time to be determined.
Score 1 2 Total CSU 1 1 2 BGSU 0 3 3
Shots 1 2 Total CSU 3 4 7 BGSU 5 9 14
