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Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU to Battle for In-State Bragging Rights
September 18, 2007 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 18, 2007
Complete Release and MAC Release in PDF Format (17 pages)
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Fred Thompson's Falcons are scheduled to host their first nationally ranked opponent in almost two years as the No. 19 Ohio State Buckeyes invade Mickey Cochrane Stadium on Thursday (Sept. 20) afternoon ... kick-off is set for 4:00 p.m. and can be seen live both on Toledo's BCSN network and via Gametracker ... Sunday afternoon, the Falcons will look to avenge last season's home loss by repaying their debt to the Wright State Raiders in ... kick-off in Dayton, Ohio, will occur at 2:00 p.m. ... live coverage can be seen through Gametracker via the Raiders website, www.wsuraiders.com.
When Double-OT Becomes a Habit...
Friday's extra-minute thriller was the third consecutive home opening match which has been forced into double overtime dating back to 2005 ... head coach Fred Thompson's Falcons have now beat then-nationally ranked Ohio State (3-2, 2OT), Western Illinois (2-1, 2OT) and the University of Central Arkansas (1-0, 2OT) as they usher in the home portion of their schedule.
Veteran Scoring
Friday and Sunday's goals by Abiola Sandy are the only two to be scored by a veteran in 2007 ... of the Falcons six goals, four have been the first of a the scorers collegiate career.
Hanging With the National Field
Since the 2005 season, Bowling Green has played three opponents who were recognized on the national Top 25 rankings by the National Soccer Coaches Association of American (NSCAA)/Adidas at the time of play ... the Falcons hosted and defeated then No. 11 Ohio State in double overtime (3-2) on September 23, 2005 ... on the road, they faced back-to-back ranked opponents over the weekend of October 14-16, 2005 ... first, BGSU faced then No. 21 Buffalo on the University at Buffalo campus in a Mid-American Conference competition ... Buffalo took the match, 4-0 ... next, the Falcons traveled to Akron for another late season conference match ... at the time the University of Akron was the top ranked program in the nation ... Akron went on to win 3-0 ... at game time last season, no BGSU opponent was nationally ranked ... throughout the years, the Falcons have faced numerous regionally ranked teams ... this season, American University became the first regionally ranked team to challenge BGSU ... in the Sept. 4 rankings, American was fifth in the Mid-Atlantic region ... the Eagles beat the Falcons 2-1 ... for full national and Great Lakes regional polls see PDF gamenotes.
Sandy's Late Goal Lifts Falcons
Abiola Sandy's goal in the 109th minute pushed the Bowling Green State University Falcons to a 1-0 win over the visiting University of Central Arkansas Bears in game two of the 2007 Falcon Invitational on Friday afternoon at Mickey Cochrane Stadium ... the game-winner, a three-on-two break away goal with less than a minute remaining, was Sandy's second as a Falcon ... his first came in regulation play against Cleveland State on Oct. 26, 2005 during his sophomore campaign ... in fact, his three goals in 2005 were his latest before Friday's netter ... last season, Sandy fired just seven shots in his 12 games played ... the Orange and Brown's defense held the Bears to three shots in the first period and allowed an additional three throughout the remainder of the match ... keeper Paul Shoemaker made three saves in the win ... the shutout was the second of the Falcon's 2007 season and the third of Shoemaker's BGSU career in goal ... the match also doubled as the first home shutout since the 1-0 win over Kentucky (Nov. 9) in the second round of the 2003 Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Sandy's Second Goal Not Enough for Falcon Victory
Entering the match, if the Falcons were to win this weekend's tournament, not only would they need to beat Canisius, the squad would need to pound in at least five goals to match Detroit's 6-1 two-match goal differentiation ... it seemed as if BGSU was on their way to chipping away at the lofty Detroit advantage when Ryan Davis converted his own rebound giving the Falcons a 1-0 lead for just a split second ... the goal was immediately negated as a result of Davis' offside positioning on Chuko Evwaraye's initial serve into the middle which created the scoring chance. After trailing 1-0 for a small portion of Sunday afternoon's match, senior Abiola Sandy sunk the equalizing goal in the 76th minute for Bowling Green State University (2-3-1), but the Falcons were unable to overcome visiting Canisius College (1-3-0) in the final match of the 2007 Falcon Invitational ... Canisius' Alan McGreal scored his second goal of the afternoon in the 96th minute, earning the Griffins Sunday's sudden death overtime victory, 2-1. ... the late scoring surge was not unusual for the visiting squad seeing as each of their prior goals this season had been scored in the final 10:00 of regulation play.
2007 Falcon Invitational Wrap-up
With a perfect 2-0 record, Detroit was crowned champions of the tournament, while Canisius was named the runner-up due to Sunday's head-to-head ... BGSU and the University of Central Arkansas followed suit in third and fourth, respectively ... Detroit's Christian King was named the tournament MVP with Renato Susnja, Mateusz Szwed, Simon Zahra and Ken Simon earning All-Tournament honors ... Canisius' McGreal, Simba Aberdeen and Adam Cately represented the Griffins on the All-Tournament squad, while BGSU's Abiola Sandy and Paul Shoemaker and UCA's Matt Marlin were also recognized ... in 206:31, Shoemaker made eight saves and posted a .800 save percentage with a shutout while Sandy translated four shots on goal into two points (2g).
Quoting Head Coach Fred Thompson
"We are not only looking forward to Thursday's game with Ohio State as a team, but I understand the excitement it brings to the community as well. Each year this contest delivers plenty of competitive soccer, leading to goals for our teams and fans. I do not expect this year to be any different.
"Wright State continues to be a tough game for us each year. Mike Tracy has done a great job with the program and continues to put competitive teams on the field. WSU plays a 4-3-3 and they press all over the field. They are also a very physical team so we have to be prepared to handle the pressure. They have quite a few players that can change a game and make the team very dangerous.
"Both of these matches have larger implications than just wins and losses on the season. As we recruit potential players, we must beat out the other Ohio schools and must come prepared to play well and represent our program to the best of our ability."
About the Buckeyes
(September 20 - Mickey Cochrane Stadium)
John Bluem's squad will enter the match ranked No. 19 nationally and will carry a 4-1-1 record ... Only loss of the season came at the hands of No. 13 UCLA (3-1) and was held to a stalemate with Syracuse ... gave No. 5 WVU sinlge loss of the season (1-0) ... Xavier Balc is the scoring catalyst of the OSU offense ... since the middle of his sophomore season in 2005, Balc is responsible for 33 of the Buckeyes' 46 goals, either by goal, assist or forcing an own goal ... not surprisingly, Balc is the career record holder with 29 assists and recently set the Ohio State single-game record with four against Cal State Fullerton ... Ohio State has won two games by five goals this season (6-1, Cal State Fullerton, 9/16/07 and 5-0, the College of William and Mary, 9/9/07) ... since 2000 the series between BGSU and OSU has seen two games decided by one goal, a game decided by two goals, one by three goals and one four goal decision ... the high scoring battle has seen as many as 11 goals scored (9/24/04), but has also seen as little as two goals scored (9/14/2006) ... Bowling Green leads the all-time series 25-10-2.
About the Raiders
(September 23, 2007 - Alumni Field)
Mike Tracy's team has built a 2-3-0 record to date and will take on Cal Poly on Wednesday night prior to meeting with the Falcons on Sunday afternoon ... thus far, both of the Raiders wins have been 2OT victories (Western Kentucky 1,0 / Pittsburgh , 2-1) ... of their three losses, WSU has been shut-out twice ... the home opener with Bowling Green will be the first of five straight home matches for the Raiders ... WSU goals have come in the second period and second overtime .... Tony Labudovski two goals leads team scoring ... both goals have been GWGs ... Tebias Mason has allowed six goals in five games played (481:32) ... WSU leads the all-time series 4-2-2 ... Bowling Green has not beat Wright State since their 1982 and 1983 meetings ... took 1984 and 1990 matches to OT tie.
Countdown to MAC Play
Bowling Green will jump into Mid-American Conference play on September 28 when they travel to Buffalo, N.Y. ... at the start of the Wright State match, Bowling Green will have 120 hours until kick-off with the Bulls.
# BGSU SOCCER #
