Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
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Second-Half Explosion Leads Falcons Past Western and into Championship
November 05, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 5, 2004
ATHENS, Ohio - Three second-half goals by the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team broke a halftime deadlock and propelled the Falcons to a 4-1 victory over Western Michigan University Friday (Nov. 5). The Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinal-round win moved the Falcons into the championship match.
Senior Kristy Coppes, already the Falcons' single-season and career goal-scoring leader, exploded for BGSU's first-ever hat trick in the MAC Tournament, while classmate Katie Piening netted her first goal of the season.
With the victory, the Falcons improve to 9-11-2 on the season. BGSU, seeded eighth in the eight-team tourney for the second consecutive year, has advanced to the final for the second-straight season and the third time in the five-year tenure of head coach Andy Richards.
Western Michigan, the defending MAC Tournament champion and the fourth seed for this year's tourney, drops to 11-6-4 on the season.
The Falcons will play in Sunday's (Nov. 7) championship contest, which will begin at noon. BGSU will face #3 seed Central Michigan University, a 1-0 winner over host and second-seeded Ohio University in Friday's second semifinal. The championship match will begin at noon at Ohio's Chessa Field.
In a rematch of last year's MAC Championship contest, the Falcons broke out on top quickly, with a goal on the first shot of the day for either team. Junior Natalie Sampiller played a ball forward to Coppes, who freed herself behind the WMU defense. Coppes was all alone as WMU goalkeeper Jenna Schrumpf tried to come out and cut down the angle. Before Schrumpf could get to the ball, however, Coppes calmly put it past the 'keeper and into the right side of the net. BGSU was ahead with just 4:15 elapsed.
The Broncos nearly got on the board midway through the half, but Falcon goalie Ali Shingler thwarted Stephanie Johnson on a turnaround shot attempt. But, Western would get on the board moments later.
The scoring play started with a shot by Chelsea McNally that was blocked by a Falcon defender. The rebound went to Mandi Marsh, who directed the ball to Andrea Tyler near the left goalpost. Tyler was able to convert, tying the match at the 21:52 mark.
After the tying goal, the Broncos seemed to have the Falcons back on their heels for the remainder of the first half, as the ball was in the BG end for much of the remaining 23 minutes. But, the Brown and Orange kept the match deadlocked heading into the intermission, aided by a nice Shingler save on another try by Tyler.
Each team had a solid scoring chance in the first three minutes of the second half. Coppes had a chance off a Piening entry pass, but Schrumpf was able to make the save. Then, Shingler was able to get to a hard shot off the foot of Marsh.
The teams played through nearly 16 minutes of the second half before Coppes broke the tie with what would prove to be the winning goal. On that play, junior Megan Rapp challenged a WMU would-be attacker, roughly 35 yards away from the BG net, and Rapp came away with the ball.
Rapp made a long run down the center of the field, and played a perfect through-ball to Coppes. Schrumpf came out to contest Coppes, and actually slid and deflected the Falcon senior's first touch. But, Coppes kept possession of the ball, and had only the open net in front of her. She took one more dribble and rolled the ball into the center of the goal, putting BG ahead to stay at 61:46.
The Falcons had several chances to increase the lead. With approximately 17 minutes left in the contest, BG controlled the ball in the WMU 18-yard box, but could not get off any shots. Then, a minute-and-a-half later, a corner kick off the foot of junior Julie Trundle actually went into the net, but the goal was waved off due to a foul.
With just over seven minutes left, freshman Gina Rossi uncorked what was probably the hardest shot of the match, blasting a volley off of the crossbar. But, the Falcons' persistence would soon pay off.
Less than 30 seconds after Rossi's shot rang off the bar, Coppes would strike again. This time, she took an entry pass from junior Britt Anderson and one-timed a shot past Schrumpf, completing the first hat trick in BGSU's MAC Tournament history. Anderson drew the lone assist on the goal, which came with 6:48 remaining.
Piening provided some insurance less than two minutes later. Trundle played a ball down the left side of the field. With Western's defenders pulled forward in an attempt to cut into the BG lead, Piening was all alone as she converged on the ball. She made a run down the left side of the field, headed into the penalty area, and tried to slide a pass to a charging teammate.
The ball was blocked by a Bronco defender, but it bounded toward the left goalpost. Piening beat several Western players to the spot and slid the ball just inside the post into the net. The unassisted goal came at the 85:08 mark, completing the scoring.
The Broncos held a slim 16-15 advantage in shot attempts, but BGSU had the edge in shots on goal, 10-8. Shingler made seven saves to earn the win, while Schrumpf had six stops for the Broncos.
BGSU TEAM NOTES
BGSU PLAYER NOTES
QUOTING BGSU COACH ANDY RICHARDS
"We had a good start to the game. When we went ahead, one-nil, after Kristy's early goal, I felt we kind of let Western back into the game by not taking care of the ball. We didn't take care of the ball in the middle of the field, gave it away too much, and we were defending too deep. We addressed that issue at halftime, and in the second half we did a much better job of being proactive in the central midfield. We increased the quality of our passing, and the end result was that we scored three goals. The offensive side of our game was much better in the second half."
"Big players rise to the occasion on the big stage, and that is exactly what Kristy did today. We needed some goals, we needed to get a victory, and she stepped up and got a hat trick. That is a very impressive performance. Now, she didn't do it all on her own; she got some great work from her teammates. She had assists from Natalie Sampiller, Megan Rapp and Britt Anderson. And, when you consider that two of the players I just mentioned (Sampiller and Rapp) played as central defenders, that tells you a lot about the strengths we have on our team."
"Kristy is a tremendous player, but she is very humble as well.She will always point to her teammates and say, 'I can't do it without them.' That's a great quality for her to have."
"We are doing a nice job of putting other teams under pressure right now, and obviously, you've got to take your chances when they come. Early in the season, we were not doing that to any kind of degree of efficiency. But, in the second half of the season, we have done a much better job of finishing our chances. We have to make sure we continue to do that, because Sunday is the most important game of the whole season now."
