Bowling Green State University
TOLEDO
Eisenhard is Golden as Falcons Down Toledo, 1-0, in Double-OT Thriller
October 26, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 26, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Sophomore Brianne Eisenhard's goal in the second overtime gave the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team a 1-0 win over the University of Toledo Thursday afternoon (Oct. 26). The game, the final Mid-American Conference contest for both teams, was held at Cochrane Field.
With the win, the Falcons earn a top-four seed and a home berth for the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament. BGSU, seeded fourth for the tournament, will face Toledo once again, with that game scheduled for Sunday (Oct. 29) at 1:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field.
BGSU improves to 10-9-0 on the season, and the Falcons end the regular season with a MAC record of 7-4-0. Toledo is now 6-8-4 and 5-3-2, respectively.
Junior co-captain Janie Babich and freshman Samantha Bland assisted on the winning goal, which came at the 106:48 mark. The winning play began with a corner kick by senior Lindsay Carter, who was trying to avoid making Thursday's game be her last at Cochrane Field (the Falcons had entered the day having clinched a MAC Tournament berth, but needed a win to clinch a home game for the quarterfinal round).
Carter's kick wound up on the foot of Eisenhard in the penalty area, and the sophomore took a shot that was blocked by a UT defender. The rebound caromed to Bland, who redirected it toward Babich. Babich quickly found Eisenhard with a pass, and Eisenhard settled the ball and shot, seemingly all in one motion. Her low shot eluded Rocket goalkeeper Jen Whipple, giving the Falcons the win.
The goal was by far the Falcons' best scoring opportunity of the day. In an entertaining, back-and-forth game, it was the Rockets who had the better of the scoring opportunities during regulation.
The visitors' first such chance came three minutes into the match, a header by Kirsty Wilson was blocked by a BG defender, and a follow-up shot by Laura Mecklenborg sailed wide. With approximately 14 minutes elapsed, UT's Molly Cornwell slid a ball across the left side of the box, but it was slightly off target.
With about 11 minutes left before halftime, Falcon soph Corbie Yee made a long run down the right side. As a light rain fell, Yee sent a pass to junior Danielle Cygan on the left side of the penalty area. Cygan cut the ball back to her right, eluded one defender and fired a shot, but it was blocked and cleared out of danger.
The rain, which had begun with approximately 17 minutes gone in the first half, never increased dramatically, but also never stopped for the rest of the game.
With just over six minutes remaining in the half, Yee made another run down the right side of the field and uncorked a cross, but the ball sailed just high, over the heads of several players from each team.
At the other end of the field, UT's Tara Witt took a shot that Zabek bobbled, but was able to eventually corral just inside the near (right) post. For the third consecutive match, the Falcons went to the half tied at 0-0.
Early in the second half, Witt took a long shot that glanced off the top of the crossbar. The Falcons countered as, less than two minutes later, junior Rachael Ross found Yee with a pass in traffic. Yee's turnaround shot from the 18-yard line was on target, but Whipple was able to make the save.
With just under 30 minutes left in regulation, the Rockets had their best chance of the game to that point. A through-ball found Sarah Schulte streaking down the right side of the field. Schulte entered the penalty area and blasted a shot toward the left side of the goal. Zabek, however, made a diving stop, knocking the ball out of the danger area.
The Rockets, as mentioned, had the better of the play for much of the second half. Midway through that half, a free kick by Suzi Siwinski found the head of Diana Ginley, who was lurking near the left post. Her shot, however, was saved by Zabek to keep the game scoreless.
The Falcons had a chance with 12 minutes left in regulation, on a Carter crossing ball from the right side. Whipple, however, was able to deflect the ball away just before a leaping Eisenhard could get there. The Falcons had several shots in the final six minutes of regulation, but no grade-A scoring chances, and the teams went to overtime.
Neither team had a shot attempt in the first OT period. The closest thing to a threat came on a UT cross that bounced in the six-yard box. Cygan, however, was able to deflect the ball to Zabek.
In the second overtime, Ali Leak took an entry pass from a UT teammate and fired a shot that sailed just over the crossbar. That came four minutes before Eisenhard's heroics.
"At halftime of today's game, again after 90 minutes, and for a third time between the overtime periods, we talked to the team about the need for perseverance," said Falcon head coach Andy Richards. "We said that we just had to keep going and going, defending as hard as we possibly could and taking our chance when we finally got it. And, that's exactly how the game turned out.
"We recognize that Toledo is a very strong team. We know that we were the underdog today, just as we shall be on Sunday. They are a very experienced and mature team with great quality. As I mentioned, our goal was to strive to defend as hard as we possibly could, while taking advantage of our opportunities at the offensive end, so from a coaching perspective, it was extremely pleasing that we were able to do so.
"I was delighted for Bree (Eisenhard) to get the winning goal in double overtime. She is having a fantastic season, as are many of her teammates. We are a very young team, and many of our players are experiencing things for the first time. We are delighted to get the win today, and we are very excited to be one of the teams playing in the MAC Tournament on Sunday."
The Rockets held a narrow 13-11 advantage in shot attempts, and each team had just four shots on goal. Both Whipple and Zabek made three stops, and the Falcons were credited with one 'team save.'
Yee (six) and Eisenhard (four) combined for 10 of BGSU's 11 shots. In a physical game where the foul count did not quite tell the whole story, UT was whistled for 12 fouls to BGSU's nine.
The Falcons and Rockets will do battle on Sunday at 1:00 p.m., as mentioned. The survivor of that match will advance to the MAC Tournament's semifinal round on Friday, Nov. 3. The semifinal-round matches will be held at the site of the highest-remaining seed after Sunday's games.
NOTES
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MAC STANDINGS
(through end of regular season) Team MAC Pct. Ball St. 8-2-1 .773 Ohio 7-3-1 .682 CMU 6-3-2 .636 BGSU 7-4-0 .636 Toledo 5-3-2 .600 Kent St. 6-5-0 .545 NIU 5-6-0 .455 Miami 4-5-2 .455 Buffalo 4-6-0 .400 Akron 4-7-0 .364 EMU 3-8-0 .273 WMU 2-9-0 .182 (standings determined by winning pct. due to cancellation of Oct. 13 Toledo@Buffalo game)
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* The Falcons now lead the all-time series with Toledo by a 6-3-2 count, and BGSU is undefeated in the last four meetings with the Rockets ... Thursday's match, however, marked the first time in program history that the Falcons won a home game vs. UT ... BGSU is now 1-2-2 in games vs. the Rockets at Cochrane Field.
* Believe it or not, all five BGSU-UT meetings at Cochrane Field have gone to overtime ... the Rockets won regular-season meetings in 1999 and 2003, and the teams played to a 2-2 draw in 2001 ... last year, the Falcons and Rockets battled through 110 minutes of scoreless soccer at Cochrane (Nov. 1, 2005).
* Last year's home game vs. Toledo came in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament ... 2006 marks the second-straight year that the teams will play twice in the span of less than a week ... last season, BGSU won the final regular-season match, 3-2 in the Glass City (Oct. 28, 2005), before the scoreless draw four days later ... BGSU advanced via penalty kicks in that '05 league tourney matchup.
* Thursday's game marked only the second time in 11 series meetings that the home team emerged victorious ... as mentioned, BGSU is now 1-2-2 in home games vs. Toledo ... in games played at UT, however, the Falcons are 5-1-0 through the years.
* Thursday's win marked the Falcons' 10th shutout of the season, a new school record ... the old mark was nine, set by last year's club ... sophomore Christy Zabek and junior Tiffany Hansen each have five complete-game shutouts this fall.
* Zabek went the first 544:48 of her career without giving up a goal, before finally seeing that streak come to an end in Friday's (Oct. 20) loss to Central Michigan ... now, though, Zabek has put together another streak ... the sophomore has gone the last 204:30 without having to fish a ball out of the back of the net.
* Zabek now has five complete-game shutouts in six career starts ... she has a career record of 5-1-0, and has a goals-against average of 0.38 this season and 0.35 in her career.
* Sophomore Brianne Eisenhard's goal was her second game-winning goal this season, and her first career 'Golden Goal' ... she also scored the match-winner in the win over Miami (Oct. 1) ... Eisenhard now has three goals this season to tie for the team lead, and is second on the Falcons with eight points in 2006.
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BGSU'S ALL-TIME OT GOALS
Kerry McKee (8/29/97 at Kent) Michelle Lisy (8/27/99 vs. Michigan St.) Susan Wallace (8/27/00 vs. Bucknell) * Tracy Gleixner (9/24/00 at EMU) Jill Conover (10/13/00 vs. Marshall) Samantha Meister (10/20/02 at UB) Julie Trundle (11/6/02 vs. UB) Meister (10/12/03 at NIU) Meister (10/26/03 at Marshall) Britt Anderson (11/2/04 at KSU) Leah Eggleton (9/11/05 vs. Eastern Ill.) Kayleigh Zajaros (9/1/06 vs. Xavier) Corbie Yee (10/13/06 at KSU) Brianne Eisenhard (10/26/06 vs. Toledo) * at Kent, Ohio
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* BGSU is now a perfect 3-0-0 in overtime matches this season ... all three games (vs. Xavier on Sept. 1, at Kent State on Oct. 13 and vs. Toledo) ended with a 1-0 score.
* Junior co-captain Janie Babich picked up her first career point with the primary assist on Eisenhard's goal.
* The Falcons have tied the school record for home wins in a season ... last year's club went 7-2-2 at Cochrane ... BGSU is 7-4-0 in home games this fall, heading into Sunday's contest vs. the Rockets.
* Freshman Samantha Bland now has a two-game point streak ... after netting her first collegiate points with Sunday's (Oct. 22) last-minute goal vs. Eastern Michigan, Bland picked up an assist on Thursday's lone goal.
* The Falcons have finished with a winning record in MAC play for just the third time in the 10-year history of the program ... after going 9-2-0 in league action last year, the Falcons have posted back-to-back winning MAC records for the first time ever ... in addition to 2005 and '06, BGSU's only other winning league ledger came in 2002, when the Falcons finished at 7-4-1 ... BGSU has finished among the top-four teams in the MAC for only the third time (fourth in 2002, first in '05, tied for third in '06).
