Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Set to Kick Off 2003 Season
August 29, 2003 | Men's Soccer
Aug. 29, 2003
Bowling Green, Ohio -
2003 Season Kicks Off With Home Match vs. Cincinnati (Aug. 30)
Bowling Green kicks off its 2003 season at home against visiting Cincinnati on Saturday, Aug. 30. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Mickey Cochrane Field. The Falcons have dropped three-straight season openers on the road, with the last season-opening win coming on Sept. 1, 1999, against Dayton (3-1) at Cochrane Field. It is the season-opener for Cincinnati.
Series History
BGSU leads the series vs. Cincinnati, 6-0-0. In those six games the Falcons have outscored the Bearcats 15-4. The first meeting between the two schools was in 1972.
About Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a member of Conference-USA. They finished 2002 with a with an 11-8-2 overall record and 5-4-1 C-USA record, good enough for a 5th-place finish. However, the Bearcats advanced all the way to the C-USA Tournament Championship, losing to eventual NCAA participant Saint Louis, 3-2. UC returns 10 starters and 16 lettermen from that team for 2003.
UC is coached by Hylton Dayes (Wright State '88) who is in his 15th season as head of the Bearcats.
BGSU Coach Mel Mahler
Mel Mahler enters his 17th year with the Falcon Soccer program and 10th as head coach. He was named full-time head coach in March 1995 after serving as interim coach following the death of long-time Falcon coach Gary Palmisano in December 1994. Mahler has a career coaching record of 121-99-10 (.548) in 12 years and a 103-67-8 (.601) record at Bowling Green in nine seasons.
Falcon Midseason Turnaround in 2002
Bowling Green is coming off a share of its third Mid-American Conference Regular Season Title and its seventh appearance in the MAC Tournament Championship in nine years. However, the Falcons began the 2002 season 0-8 while their 12 newcomers blended in with six returners. With the continuity solidified, the Falcons won five of their last nine games and four of their five league contests. Three of the four losses during that span were by just one goal.
BGSU scored just five goals and were shut out four times in those first eight games. But, the Falcon offense rebounded to net 12 goals in the final nine regular-season contests. BGSU defeated Kentucky, 2-1, in the first round of the MAC Tournament before losing to Akron, 4-1, in the championship.
Senior Goalkeeper David DeGraff
Bowling Green's David DeGraff will be playing his final collegiate season for the Falcons in 2003. DeGraff has started every match for the Falcons over the past three seasons, totalling 4,919:17 minutes of action out of a possible 5,035:44 minutes.
Falcons Picked 3rd in MAC Preseason Poll
BGSU was picked to finish third in the 2003 MAC Preseason Coaches Poll, released in early August by the conference office. Voting was conducted by the league's seven coaches. Akron was picked to finish first while Kentucky was tabbed to come in second, but to win the MAC Tournament. Following BGSU were Marshall, Western Michigan, Buffalo and Northern Illinois.
New Face On the Sideline
Head Coach Mel Mahler announced the hiring of Tony Economopoulos as assistant coach on August 5, 2003. Economopoulos comes to Bowling Green after spending the past two years as an assistant coach at Western Illinois University. Prior to coaching at WIU he coached the Royals Football Club (10-18 years old) in Oklahoma City, Okla., from 1998-2001. Economopoulos earned a degree in communications from Oklahoma City University in 1997.
