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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Fall 1-0 on Spartan's PK
September 20, 2006 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 20, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - While the Falcon defensive unit, led by keeper Mark Scholz's five saves, did not allow the visiting Spartans to score off a clean offensive set, MSU's penalty kick proved to be the deciding factor in the non-conference match today at Mickey Cochrane Field.
With the win Michigan State improves to 6-2-0 and tabs their first road win; the Orange and Brown fall to 1-3-0 at home and 1-7-1 on the year.
The PK was forced when freshman Dana Veth made contact with the Spartans ball handler about a yard inside of the Bowling Green box just under 19 minutes into regulation play.
Spartan Matt Kreikemeier scored with a shot that landed on the far side of the goal as Scholz dove to the right.
"I thought this was a good college game. It was exciting to watch and both teams had their chances because it was very competitive and fast paced," said coach Fred Thompson. "It is disappointing that [the penalty kick] gave MSU their score, just because a foul that close to the box is always questionable. We had a dodgy opportunity as well but we did not take advantage of the situation."
Bowling Green fell into their own questionable foul situation, depending upon the angle the play was seen from, as Abiola Sandy was tackled from behind on a defensive run down later in the same half. Bowling Green was not awarded what might have been a PK. On the ensuing freekick Hunter Van Houten fired a shot that soared shy of the top of the goal structure.
The Falcons defense stopped Michigan State from taking a two goal lead when freshman Jacob Lawrence blocked a Spartan scoring attempt covering Scholz's back who was challenging Zac Sacffidi.
The Spartans were held below their 14.1 shots per game average to 13 shots with only five in the second half. Bowling Green pulled the trigger 11 times in the match; the MSU defense allowed an average of 9.3 shots per game entering into the contest.
"To prove we could play kick for kick with a very good Michigan State team is good for us," said Thompson. "Overall this has been one of our best performances."
Bowling Green will open double header action on Sunday with their 11:00 kick-off against Evansville. The women's team will be the second act as they take on conference foe Western Michigan with a scheduled 2:00 start.
