Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Defeat Northern Illinois, 2-1
October 12, 2003 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 12, 2003
Bowling Green, Ohio - Sophomore Cory Stevens scored his second goal of the season and senior Matt Martinka drilled a penalty kick late in the game to give Bowling Green a 2-1 Mid-American Conference victory over visiting Northern Illinois.
The win moves the Falcons back to .500 both overall (5-5-2) and in the league (2-2-0) with one MAC game left at Marshall (Oct. 24).
BGSU began the game with good momentum that turned into an early 1-0 lead. Redshirt-junior P.J. Behan was able to steal the ball away from an NIU defender deep in the zone and get a pass to Stevens who was in the box. Stevens then touched the ball from only 10 yards out past Huskie goalkeeper Matt Corcoran at 5:53 for the 1-0 Falcon advantage.
The Falcons maintained decent pressure on NIU but failed to get another goal for the remainder of the first half. That allowed the Huskies to knot the game at 1-1 thanks to a Bruce Conrad goal at 43:01. NIU actually held a 7-6 shot advantage in the first half.
Both teams played evenly early in the second half before a cross into the NIU box by BGSU was ruled a handball by the referee at 69:11. The ensuing penalty kick was scored by Martinka to the left side of the net for the 2-1 advantage.
BGSU ended with a 13-10 shot advantage and 10-4 nod in corner kicks. David DeGraff had three saves while NIU's Corcoran had four saves.
Bowling Green plays two non-conference opponents this week when it travels to Cleveland State for a night game on Thursday, Oct. 16 (7 p.m.) and then hosts Birmingham Southern at Cochrane Field on Sunday, Oct. 19 (11:30 a.m.).
