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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Top Pittsburgh, 1-0
September 13, 2002 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 13, 2002
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Jill Conover had been held off the scoresheet for 13 matches, by far the longest scoreless streak of her collegiate career.
Friday evening (Sept. 13), the Bowling Green State University senior forward found the back of the net to end that streak, and the goal proved to be all her team would need.
Conover's goal gave the Falcon women's soccer team a 1-0 victory over the University of Pittsburgh in the opening match of the 2002 Ohio State Tournament at OSU's Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
With the win, the Falcons improved to 3-1-1 on the year, and BGSU increased its current unbeaten streak to four matches. Pitt drops to 3-2-0.
In a defensive struggle, neither team had a single shot on goal in the first half. In fact, the Falcons and Panthers combined for just four total shot attempts over the opening 45 minutes.
Bowling Green wasted no time picking up the offensive pace in the second half, however, as Conover snapped the scoreless tie in the first minute of the stanza. BGSU's career scoring leader got her team on the board, sliding a shot past UP goalkeeper Jamie Pellusi from just outside the six-yard box. Freshman Leslie Dawley assisted on the play.
BGSU continued the onslaught of the Pittsburgh goal over the next three minutes, firing three more shots at Pellusi, but could not solve the freshman again.
The Panthers put together their best attack of the night between the 65th and 67th minutes striking two shots at the BGSU goal, but were unable to get the ball past Falcon senior Erika Flanders. Pitt was blanked for the first time in the 2002 season.
"This was a very good result for us against a tough Pittsburgh team," said Falcon coach Andy Richards. "The game was hard fought, a real nail-biter at the end, and I thought we played very well.
"As often happens in the game of soccer, you play for 90 minutes, and sometimes it's the events that happen in just a couple seconds that are the difference. And, today, the difference was a piece of determination and great effort by Leslie Dawley to beat her defender and get to the end line, and a superb piece of timing on the run from Jill Conover which led to a simple finish.
"The goal looked very easy, but in fact it was a lot of hard work from Leslie and Jill.
"We played much better in the second half. We came out fired up and determined to play hard, after a bit of a sloppy first half where we gave away possession too many times and didn't really connect very well. But, the second half was pleasing.
"We talked a little bit at the end of the game about how we need to be tougher mentally as a team. Hopefully, that's something we can improve upon as the season progresses.
"Some notable performances... Leah Eggleton was excellent in the center of midfield. She was a real workhorse and helped us win the game through her passion and her heart.
"I thought we got very good performances from Leslie Dawley and, also, Natalie Sampiller, who got a good amount of minutes today. She played very well, tired a little bit toward the end, but played with a lot of conviction, a lot of heart and did a nice job for us. Molly Bremen also stepped in and did a real nice job as a defensive midfield player.
"Overall, I felt we played very well, and it was nice to see Erika Flanders get another shutout. Also, we take particular pleasure in seeing Jill Conover get another match-winning goal and earn her first points of the season. Hopefully, that will lead her on to even bigger and better things this year.
"We're very pleased, and now we look forward to Sunday."
The Falcons will continue action in the OSU Tournament with a Sunday (Sept. 15) match vs. the University of Missouri. That contest is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m.
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