Falcons Pick Up 5-1 Win at Cleveland State

Friday, October 1

Strongsville, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

CLEVELAND STATE

October 01, 2004 | Women's Soccer

Oct. 1, 2004

Final Stats

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio - Senior Kristy Coppes scored a pair of goals as the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team built a three-goal halftime lead en route to a 5-1 win over Cleveland State University Friday night (Oct. 1). The non-conference match was held at Foltz Field.

With the win, the Falcons improve to 2-8-1 on the season, while the Vikings drop to 0-11-0.

Juniors Molly Bremen, Samantha Meister and Ashley Wentzel each scored goals for the Brown and Orange, while redshirt freshman Samantha Martinez picked up the complete-match win in net.

The Falcons dominated the early portions of the match, and got on the scoreboard at the 12:27 mark. Junior Keeley Dayton's pass sent Bremen down the right side of the field, and her cross was clinical, as was the finish by Coppes. Bremen put the ball right on the boot of Coppes, who one-timed it past CSU goalkeeper Allie Zajaros.

The Falcons took the first seven shots of the match before the Vikings got off a shot.

Coppes struck again with 8:23 left before the half, off a set piece. After a Cleveland State foul (the first Viking foul of the match), junior Julie Trundle lofted her free kick goalward, and a sliding Coppes reached it at the far post and poked it home.

BGSU's next goal also came off a set play, as Meister scored off a Wentzel corner kick with 2:48 left before the intermission.

The Falcons took that 3-0 lead into the half, and had a golden opportunity to take a four-goal advantage early in the second half. But, the Vikings picked up some momentum when Zajaros saved Trundle's penalty kick, then made a nice diving stop of a Bremen shot several minutes later.

The Vikings, a first-year program, got on the board for just the second time this season when Jennifer Wieand scored at the 60:57 mark. CSU's Amber Rasmussen played a ball from the midfield line, and an errant Falcon header sent the ball into space behind the BGSU defensive line. Wieand streaked past the defense and slid a shot into the lower left corner of the goal.

But, the Brown and Orange answered just 1:11 later, as Bremen and Gina Rossi worked a give-and-go deep in the Viking end of the field. That play culminated with Bremen's bringing the ball along the touch line and sliding it into the narrow gap between Zajaros and the near post.

The Falcons completed the scoring late in the match. BGSU possessed the ball for a lengthy period of time, with freshman Danielle Cygan, juniors Britt Anderson and Leah Eggleton, senior Katie Piening and Wentzel stringing passes together without a Viking player touching the ball.

Eggleton's pass sent Piening in on the left side, and Piening's cross found Wentzel on the far post for the final goal of the night. That score came with 2:47 left in the match.

The Falcons had a season-high 36 shots to the Vikings' six, and BGSU had a school-record 23 shots on goal to CSU's three. BG out-cornered the hosts by a 13-0 count. The Falcons' shot advantage included a 19-2 margin in the first half.

Zajaros made 18 saves, the most by a CSU goalie in that school's brief women's soccer history. Martinez made two stops for the Falcons in the first complete-match effort of her career.

The Falcons will return to Mid-American Conference play for the next eight matches, beginning with Sunday's (Oct. 3) contest at the University of Akron.

NOTES (and we've got a lot of 'em)

As is the case with many BGSU teams, the women's soccer Falcons sing "Ay Ziggy Zoomba" after each win ... it had been quite a while since the team had gotten to sing, however ... the CSU match marked BGSU's first win since the season opener on Aug. 27 ... Friday's victory snapped a nine-match winless streak for the Brown and Orange.

That Aug. 27 win, a 7-3 victory over Duquesne, probably seems like eons ago for Falcon followers ... but, the nine-match winless streak is not the school record ... BGSU went the final 12 matches of the 1999 season without a win, going 0-9-3 in that time.

Senior Kristy Coppes had her second multiple-goal match of the season and the school-record ninth of her career ... Coppes, the Falcons' career scoring leader, became the first BGSU player and just the seventh player in MAC history to surpass the 90-point mark ... Coppes now has 43 goals and 91 points in the Brown and Orange ... she ranks fourth in MAC history in goals.

Coppes had the match-winning goal Friday at CSU ... she has both of the Falcons' MWGs this year, and extended her own school career record to 10 ... Coppes moved three ahead of Jill Conover (1999-2002), who ranks second on that list with seven.

As mentioned, BGSU set a school single-match record with 23 shots on goal ... the old record was 20, set in last year's Northern Illinois contest (Oct. 12, 2003) ... the Falcons' total of 36 shot attempts at CSU fell 10 shy of that school mark (46 vs. Niagara on Sept. 12, 1999).

The Falcons had 13 more corner kicks, to the Vikings' zero ... BGSU has now had more corners than the opponent in 10 of the 11 matches this year, and BG has taken 83 corner kicks to the foes' 34 this season ... the Falcons had 100 corners during all of last season.

BGSU has had difficulty converting those corner kicks this season, but finally got a goal off of a CK Friday ... on Ashley Wentzel's corner kick late in the first half -- BG's eighth CK of the match and the 78th of the season -- Samantha Meister converted the Falcons' first corner kick goal of the 2004 campaign.

Molly Bremen, after going over two years without scoring a goal, now has found the back of the net in each of the last two matches ... Bremen has six points on the season, tying her for second on the team.

Samantha Meister also has a two-match goal-scoring streak ... Meister has three goals this fall to rank second on the Falcons ... she now has 19 goals and 49 points in her career ... she moved past Michelle Lisy (1997-2000) into sole possession of fourth place on BGSU's career goals list ... Meister passed Lisy and Tracy Gleixner (1998-2002) to assume third place on the Falcon career points chart.

QUOTING BGSU COACH Andy Richards
"We are all delighted to get a win. It was a tough game against a pretty good Cleveland State team. Even though they are a first-year program, I thought they had some admirable qualities, particularly their work rate and their tenacity. So, they weren't an easy team to play against, but I thought we did a great job of taking our chances tonight."

"We had dominated the game, just like we have dominated so many other games or parts of games. The difference tonight was that we actually put some balls into the net. It was nice to get goals from four different goal-scorers. But, overall, the important thing was the fact that this was a team performance, and we all worked very hard to get the result."

"This gives us a lot of much-needed confidence heading into the second half of the season. We have set some goals for ourselves as a team, in terms of the amount of wins we need to get. So, to get the first one, and get the team rolling a little bit, is fantastic for us."

"Overall, we were pleased and a little relieved with this win, and we look to hopefully keep the momentum going on Sunday."