Falcons Down Buffalo, 4-0, on Senior Day, Increase School-Record Win Streak to Five

Sunday, October 16

Bowling Green, Ohio

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

BUFFALO

Falcons Down Buffalo, 4-0, on Senior Day, Increase School-Record Win Streak to Five

October 16, 2005 | Women's Soccer

Oct. 16, 2005

Final Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer machine was clicking on all cylinders Sunday afternoon (Oct. 16) at Cochrane Field. On 'Senior Day,' with a number of alumnae in the stands, the Falcons exploded for four first-half goals en route to a 4-0 win over the University at Buffalo.

With the win, the Falcons improve to 10-6-0 on the season, and 6-2-0 in Mid-American Conference play, and BGSU increased a number of school records with the win. The Bulls drop to 4-10-1 and 2-6-0, respectively.

The win, combined with Sunday's other results around the MAC, clinched a berth in the MAC Tournament for the Falcons. The Falcons are currently in second place, three points behind league-leading Western Michigan.

Junior Lindsay Carter, freshman Kristin McDonald and senior Leah Eggleton all scored goals, and the Falcons benefitted from an 'own goal' as well. At the other end of the field, senior Ali Shingler and freshman Christy Zabek combined on the shutout, needing to make just one save between them.

The win completed the most successful homestand in school history for the Falcons, as BG has gone 4-0-0 with four shutout wins over the last two weekends at Cochrane. In those four matches, the Falcons outscored the opponents by a combined 9-0 count.

BGSU, as mentioned, increased a number of school records with the win, including ...

Most consecutive wins (5),

Most consecutive shutouts (4),

Home wins in a season (6),

Most consecutive home wins (6), and

Most consecutive home shutouts (5)

The four-goal margin of victory was BGSU's largest in a MAC match in nearly three years, since a 7-0 win over Western Michigan on Oct. 25, 2002.

Buffalo entered the match coming off a 3-0 loss at Toledo on Friday. And, sometimes when things are not going your way, they really are not going your way. The Falcons took the lead, just 3:30 into the match, thanks to a miscue by the Bulls.

There are so many seniors on the 2005 squad that we had to turn this photo on its side. BG's nine seniors were honored in pregame festivities Sunday afternoon

Falcon senior Julie Trundle lofted a cross into the penalty box from the left side of the field. The ball was over the head of classmate Britt Anderson, and bounced once. UB goalie Anna-Lesa Calvert attempted to punch the ball away, but it hit off the back of a teammate's head and bounded over Calvert and into the net. The 'own goal' gave the Falcons the lead for good.

With less than 10 minutes gone in the match, the Falcons struck again. Again, the play began with Trundle playing a ball from the left side of the field. This time, the ball found Anderson at the top of the box. Anderson redirected it over a UB defender with one of her patented backwards headers, and both Calvert and the UB defenders seemed to hesitate for a split-second. That instant was all that Carter needed.

The junior came racing into the box from the right side, beat everyone to the ball and hit a one-timer into the net from approximately 12 yards out. Carter's hustle resulted in a two-goal lead at the 9:57 mark.

Trundle and Anderson teamed up again midway through the half, as a Trundle diagonal ball found her teammate at the top of the penalty box once again. Anderson chested the ball down to her feet and fired, but the hard shot was right at Calvert.

BG's third goal of the day came with 5:32 left before halftime. Freshman Susan Hunter cleared the ball out of BG's own end, playing it forward to soph Tiernay Tilford near midfield. Tilford took a few dribbles before playing a nifty through-ball to a streaking McDonald. Calvert was forced to come out of her net, but McDonald was able to get to the ball first and slide it under the UB 'keeper. The ball slowly rolled into the net, just inside the left post.

BG struck again before intermission. Senior Samantha Meister's pass sent freshman Amanda Campbell down the right side of the field. Campbell eluded a defender, took the ball along the end line and directed a pass to Eggleton, who was camped on the doorstep. Eggleton stopped the ball and quickly directed it into the net with just 23 seconds remaining in the half.

Falcon head coach Andy Richards used every available player on his roster, with a total of 20 players seeing action. That group included freshman walk-on Lisa Chalupa, who played in her first collegiate match.

"Senior Day is always an exciting event, and one we look forward to every season," said Richards. "It is a day for the players, it is a day for families, and it's a day for the alumnae. It was wonderful to see so many alums spend the weekend in Bowling Green and be a part of our Senior Day celebration on the field.

"I was also delighted and very honored to see Greg and Wendy Dawley there. It was fantastic for them to be with us to share in the day, and I know that everyone connected with the program was as happy to see them as I was.

"It was another vital three points in the race to play in the post-season tournament. It was effectively over, I think, at halftime at 4-nil. We had a little bit of fortune with Buffalo scoring an own goal so early on, but I thought that we did enough throughout the game to prove that we were the better team.

"We are very satisfied with our results during today's match and during this homestand. It was great to be able to get everyone on the field today who was fit and able to play, and it shows the strength of our squad. We now have three road games in the MAC (to end the regular season), and we look to get as many positive results as we possibly can, and get ourselves ready for postseason play."

BGSU outshot Buffalo by a 17-6 count, and the Falcons held a 10-1 advantage in shots on goal. Calvert made five saves in net for the visitors, who also were credited with one team save.

At the other end of the field, Shingler was called upon to make just one save in 77:16 of shutout ball, while Zabek did not face a shot on goal in nearly 13 minutes of work.

BGSU also had a total of 10 corner kicks to the Bulls' one.

The Falcons will go on the road for the remaining three matches of the regular season, beginning with a Friday (Oct. 21) contest at Central Michigan. BG also has matches vs. Eastern Michigan (Oct. 23) and Toledo (Oct. 28) remaining.

NOTES APLENTY

As mentioned, Sunday was Senior Day at Cochrane Field, with BGSU's nine seniors recognized in ceremonies prior to the match ... the senior class includes Britt Anderson, Molly Bremen, Leah Eggleton, Samantha Meister, Megan Rapp, Natalie Sampiller, Ali Shingler, Julie Trundle and Ashley Wentzel.

That senior class already can make a claim to being the most successful group in school history ... the win over Buffalo was the Falcons' 40th since the start of the 2002 season, BGSU's most total wins over a four-year span in history.

Additionally, the Falcons' 2005 class has become the first group in BG history to qualify for the MAC Tournament in all four seasons ... BG had never made the league tourney in back-to-back seasons prior to the current run.

As mentioned, the Falcons currently stand in second place in the MAC ... Western Michigan defeated Central Michigan on Sunday afternoon to remain in first place, three points ahead of the Falcons (teams earn three points for a win and one for a tie) ... WMU has 21 points and BGSU 18 ... the Falcons entered the day tied for third, but moved past Ball State and CMU ... BSU tied with Akron on Sunday, and both BSU and CMU currently have 16 points ... the complete MAC standings through Sunday ...

TEAM               MAC   Pts.
Western Michigan  7-1-0   21
Bowling Green     6-2-0   18
Central Michigan  5-2-1   16
Ball State        5-2-1   16
Toledo            5-3-0   15
Miami             4-4-0   12
Eastern Michigan  4-4-0   12
Kent State        3-4-1   10
Northern Illinois 3-5-0    9
Buffalo           2-6-0    6
Akron             1-6-1    4
Ohio              1-7-0    3

The Falcons have set a school record for home wins in a season ... BGSU wraps up the regular-season portion of the home slate with a record of 6-2-0 ... the 2005 team also is the first in school history to have a winning record at home ... the 2002 team held the old mark for home wins in a season, having gone 5-5-0 ... the 1997 (4-4-0) and 2001 (4-4-1) teams joined that '02 squad with .500 marks at Cochrane.

The Falcons' Sunday win was the sixth in a row at Cochrane, a school record ... the old record of four consecutive home wins was set in 1999 (Aug. 27-Sept. 15).

As mentioned, the Falcons have won five consecutive overall matches ... that previous school mark had been three-straight wins, set eight times over the years.

The Falcons had never posted more than two consecutive shutouts over the first eight-plus years of the program ... now, however, BG has blanked four consecutive opponents, having last allowed a goal late in the Miami match of Oct. 2 ... BGSU's current shutout streak of 363:50 is a new school mark (old record: 340:24, Sept. 27 to Oct. 6, 2002).

Shingler has a personal shutout streak of 351:06, setting a new BGSU record ... the old mark was 340:24, by Erika Flanders during that 2002 streak (Sept. 27-Oct. 6) ... Shingler now has two of the three longest individual shutout streaks in BG annals.

BGSU has not allowed a goal at home in a span of 504:44, since late in the first half of the Eastern Illinois match way back on Sept. 11 ... Shingler has not had to fish a ball out of the back of the net in exactly 447 minutes at Cochrane.

BG scored four times in the firs thalf Sunday, tying a season high ... the Falcons also had four goals in the first half of the home win over Cleveland State on Sept. 16.

On Senior Day, senior Julie Trundle broke the school record for career matches started ... the Buffalo match marked the 80th start of Trundle's career, breaking the record of 79 set by Beth Rieman (2001-04) ... Rieman, the captain of last year's MAC Tournament championship team, was in attendance Sunday.

Rieman was far from the only BGSU women's soccer alumna on hand Sunday ... other former Falcons that helped with the pregame ceremonies included Ashley Enser, Jamie Eshleman, Kasey Freeman, Autumn Harris, Michelle Lisy, Janice Mentrup, Kylene Newell and Nikki Pucillo ... other alums at the match included Leslie Hepfinger, Michelle Hoyng, Katie Piening and Beth Wechsler.

The Falcons also honored Leslie Dawley, who entered BGSU in the fall of 2002 with the current senior class ... Dawley, a freshman in 2002, collapsed during a game against Buffalo and later passed away ... on Sunday, Leslie's parents, Greg and Wendy Dawley, were on hand for the match and the ceremonies ... BG also honored Leslie's memory by starting the match with only 10 players on the field.

Freshman Brianne Eisenhard made the first start of her collegiate career ... classmates Susan Hunter (15th start) and Corbie Yee (sixth start) also were in Sunday's starting lineup, marking the first time this season that the starting 11 included three frosh.

Another frosh, Amanda Campbell, picked up her first collegiate point on an assist ... still another freshman, Lisa Chalupa, made her collegiate debut ... Chalupa, a walk-on, is a graduate of Bowling Green H.S.

Nine different players found the scoresheet in Sunday's win ... three different Falcons had a goal, while six other BG players recorded one assist apiece.