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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green Begins Post-Season Play Against Western Michigan
November 07, 2005 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 7, 2005
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University will open their post-season play with the Broncos of Western Michigan for the Mid-American Conference quarterfinal...the Falcons will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. for a 1:00 p.m. kick-off...the winner will advance to the Final Four.
Scouting the Falcons
The Falcons, coming off their first win in the MAC over IPFW, enter the match with a 4-12-2 overall record and a 1-4-0 MAC record...head coach Fred Thompson's Falcons have won their last two outings...senior Omari Aldridge leads the Orange and Brown with 11g and 3a...Justin Kim has recorded 4a with three connecting to Aldridge...Kim also has two goals...Thompson has shaken things up a bit utilizing three keepers in 2005...Paul Shoemaker has seen the majority of the time in goal...the keeper unit has seen 39 goals against but have saved 98...Bowling Green is more likely to score in the second half...the Falcons finished the home season at 4-3...they have only seen three losing seasons at home in the history of Mickey Cochrane Field.
Breaking into the Record Books
Aldridge etched his name in the storied Bowling Green history books with his game winning goal against IPFW... Aldridge has connected on 11 goals this season and tied three former Falcons for 8th place in the Single Season Goal Top Ten list... he is the first player since 1996 to break into the category.
Scouting the Broncos
The fourth seeded Broncos of Western Michigan enter the post-season with a 8-8-2 overall record and 2-2-1 record in the MAC...head coach Chris Karwoski led his Broncos to a 1-0 victory to close the regular season against Oakland on the road...forward Tom Oatley led the Broncos in scoring with 11g and 2a...Nashir Caraballi gives WMU an even offensive attack with 6g and 7a...Brent Miller has been the only keeper in goal for the Broncos...Miller recorded four shutouts and 94 saves with 31 goals against...the Broncos have been out scored 31-25 this season...WMU is more likely to score before the first intermission.
Earlier this season
WMU narrowly escaped Cochrane Field with a 3-2 victory over the Falcons in early October... each of the Falcons' seniors had a hand in the scoring effort... Omari Aldridge and Dave Belfort each had one goal...Matt Yanick recorded the assist to Belfort.
BGSU in the MAC Tournament
The last time these programs met in the MAC Tournament was in 2003 for the championship match...WMU shutout the Falcons 5-0...the Orange and Brown have three regular season titles...competed in eight of 12 MAC Tournament Championship games with three titles and four runner-up finishes.
Tournament Hopefuls
Other MAC play-in action will pit the sixth seed Mastodons of IPFW against the third seed Bulls of the University at Buffalo...the University of Akron, ranked first, and second seeded Northern Illinois University have earned byes into the Final Four...the winners of the quarterfinal play-in games will advance to semifinals which will be held on the campus of the University of Akron on Nov. 11 with matches beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m...the MAC Championship is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 13 with the time to be determined...the winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA National Tournament.
Leading the Flock
Fred Thompson is in his second year as BGSU head coach after serving two seasons as assistant at the University of Evansville and two years at Bellevue Community College...named 2001 NWAACC Coach of the Year...became only the fourth head coach in the 40-year history of the BGSU program after accepting the job in April, 2004...played professionally for eight years...assistant coach Tony Economopoulos is in his third season with the Falcons...served two seasons as assistant coach at Western Illinois University...2002 AFLAC Insurance National Assistant Coach of the Year nominee...the coaching duo got their first win over then No.11 Ohio State University in a 3-2 double overtime.
