.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons To Open MAC Season at Buffalo
September 26, 2007 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 26, 2007
Complete BGSU and MAC Release (15 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - In their first Mid-American Conference game of the season the Bowling Green State University Falcons will travel north to Buffalo, N.Y. to face the Bulls of the University at Buffalo ... game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at the UB Stadium ... the match will be the lone game for the Falcons over the homecoming weekend.
New Season, New Beginnings
Since joining the MAC as a soccer participant in 1993, BGSU is 5-8-1 in the
first MAC match of the season ... each of their five wins have been shutouts ... Bowling Green won their first ever MAC opener [and first ever MAC match] (9-12-93) by shutting out Central Michigan on the road, 4-0 ... the following year they once again beat Central (9-23-94) at Mickey Cochrane Stadium, 6-1 ... the Falcons lost their first MAC opener in 1995, 1-0 to Akron after the match at Kentucky was postponed .... 2002's opener at Kentucky (9-27) was also canceled, the Falcons went on to beat Buffalo at home, 3-0, two days later ... Bowling Green has not won a MAC opener since beating UB in 2002 ... the Falcons are 2-4 when opening the MAC on the road.
Senior Sandy = Scoring Sensation
Senior captain Abiola Sandy leads the Orange and Brown with three goals on
the season and has sunk one in three of the last four games ... scored first PK on Sunday, September 23 at Wright State ... he also leads the team with six career goals, two GWG's, and 15 points.
Van Houten Named MAC Male Scholar Athlete
Hunter Van Houten was named the MAC Male Scholar Athlete of the Week on
September 20, 2006 as announced by the Mid-American Conference offices ...
in two weekend starts, Van Houten anchored the Bowling Green defense as the
Falcons posted their second shutout of the season in a 1-0 double overtime win over Central Arkansas ... he then led Bowling Green as they held Canisius scoreless for 68 minutes before losing 2-1 in second overtime match of the weekend ... Thursday, Van Houten helped the Falcons become just the third program to hold then-No. 19 Ohio State scoreless for more than an hour of play ... Van Houten, a sophomore, has made 20 starts in 26 matches played since joining the Falcons last season ... the Valparaiso, Ind. native is a health sciences major who maintains a 3.85 cumulative GPA ... the MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor is presented to a MAC male and female student-athlete who has a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better and performs well during that week's competition ... the winners are selected by a group of the conference's faculty athletic representatives ... Eastern Michigan's Becky Reenders (volleyball) was the female selection.
Shoemaker Named MAC Player of the Week
After posting one of the best weekends in goal since becoming a Falcon, junior Paul Shoemaker was rewarded by the Mid-American Conference as the men's soccer Player of the Week ... the decision from the conference office was announced Monday, September 24 ... in earning POW status, Shoemaker becomes the first BGSU goal keeper to have his performance recognized by the MAC since David DeGraff on October 13, 2003 ... from November 10, 1997 through October 16, 2000 three of the four Falcon student-athletes that were named POW were goal keepers ... two-time All-American Scott Vallow began the run on Nov. 10 and was followed by Academic All-American Ty Fowler (Sept. 7, 1999) ... Chris Dore, an All-American mid-fielder, broke the streak on October 18, 1999 prior to DeGraff earning the distinction in October of the 2000 season ... as a matter of fact, since Vallow's 1997
acknowledgment five of BGSU's eight players of the week have been goal keepers with DeGraff winning the award in 2000 and again in 2003 ... Shoemaker has four career shut outs in 3545:28 minutes in goal ... he has a 2.00 career GAA and 1.05 GAA in 2007... he recorded six saves on the week.
The Mid-American Conference
Bowling Green will mark its 15th season with the Mid-American Conference since joining in 1993 ... the Falcons have played in eight tournament championship matches winning three tournament titles (1995-96-97) and an addition trio of regular season titles (1996-t00-t02) ... Bowling Green will begin MAC play on September 28 at the University at Buffalo.
About the Bulls
(September 28, 2007 - UB Stadium)
Under 19th year head coach John Astudillo, the Bulls enter the match with a 5-3-1 non-conference record ... UB is one of two MAC schools to have a handful of non-conference wins ... Akron is the other (5-2-0) ... Buffalo
leads the MAC with 12 assists on nine goals thus far this season ... Alex Marrello is one of three MAC leaders with three assists ... the team also leads the conference with the fewest goals against (.84/game) ... in 673:00, Robert Shuttleworth is posting the lowest GAA (0.67) ... according to the UB Sports Info department, the University at Buffalo men's soccer team has turned UB Stadium into a difficult place for visitors to try to get a victory ... the last time an opponent came to Buffalo and won was over a year ago, on September 22, 2006 when Duquesne defeated Buffalo 2-1 ... since then, the Bulls are a perfect 6-0 on the turf at UB Stadium ... Bowling Green leads the all-time series between the Falcons and the Bulls 7-4 but UB has won the last three meetings ... six of the 11 matches between the two schools have gone to overtime, but each of those games has had a winner ... Bowling Green leads the series in games played in Buffalo 4-1 ... Friday's meeting will be the first time Bowling Green travel's to New York to open the MAC season.
Obvious Statement of the Week: Don't Let Them Score
Bowling Green leads the all-time series over the Bulls 7-4 ... in six of thoes seven outings, BGSU had held the Bulls scoreless ... in the remaining five games that Buffalo has scored at least one goal in, BGSU is 1-4 ... overall, the Falcons have outscore the Bulls 15-12.
BGSU VS. BUFFALO 7-4-0
10-4-98 at Bowling Green (L 2-1 OT)
10-24-99 at Buffalo (W 3-2 OT)
10-27-00 at Bowling Green (W 3-0)
11-5-00 at Buffalo* (W 1-0)
9-30-01 at Buffalo (W 1-0 OT)
11-9-01 at Akron* (W 1-0 3OT)
9-29-02 at Bowling Green (W 3-0)
10-3-03 at Buffalo (W 1-0 2OT)
10-10-04 at Bowling Green (L 2-1 OT)
10-14-05 at No. 21 Buffalo (L 4-0)
10-6-06 at Bowling Green (L 2-1)
* denotes MAC tournament
BGSU VS. UB - MAC Season Openers 1-0-0
9-28-02 Buffalo (W 3-0)
Quoting Head Coach Fred Thompson
"It is a true testament to the work these young men have put into this season that they are being recognized at the conference level. Hunter has had an outstanding year both on the field and in the classroom even though. Paul has also had a tremendous year and I am proud of both players for their efforts throughout the season.
"The first MAC game is always exciting. Up to this point, we have played in physical games and fought for our wins, but now each game out will matter that much more. Buffalo is an excellent team who recently had their six game win streak ended - I am positive they will come out with fire in the hopes to begin a new streak.
"We have played well to this point, but we have to play that much better now that league play is beginning. "
No. 19 Buckeyes Squeak Past Falcons
Roger Espinoza capped off Geoff Marsh's nearly coast-to-coast dash with the lone goal of Thursday afternoon's match as the visiting then-No. 19 Ohio State Buckeyes narrowly edged the Bowling Green State University Falcons, 1-0 ... junior keeper Paul Shoemaker made four saves in the match while the Falcons forced OSU's Casey Latchem to make three stops of his own ... the Bowling Green defense held Ohio State, a team that entered the match averaging 19 shots per game, to a pair of shots in the first half and just 13 on the day ... in doing so, the Falcons are one of three teams to control the OSU attack in the first 45:00 of play allowing five or less shots ... Old Dominion gave up five shots on Sept. 7 while OSU got off four against West Virginia in the season opener on Aug. 31 ... additionally, the Buckeyes did not fire their first shot until the 24th minute of the match; the drought is believed to be the longest offensive hold over the nationally ranked squad to date ... furthermore, the score was held at 0-0 until the 61st minute of the match ... Bowling Green joins then-No. 13 UCLA and Syracuse (RV) as the third defense to restrain the high scoring Buckeye offense with out a goal for more than one hour of play ... the Buckeyes did not score on the Bruins until the 62nd minute of the match, while the Orange shutout the Scarlet and Grey through two overtime periods.
Shoemaker, Falcons Shut Out Raiders
Junior Paul Shoemaker and the Falcon defense recorded their third shut-out of the season as Bowling Green State University beat the Wright State Raiders 2-0 at WSU's Alumni Field on Sunday afternoon ... the Falcons are 3-4-2 all-time when competing with the Raiders and have shut out WSU each of their triumphant outings (1982, W 2-0; 1983, W 3-0; 2007, W 2-0) ... for the third time this season, the Falcon defense did not allow a shot to be taken directly on the goal in the first half of regulation ... Bowling
Green is now 2-1 when Shoemaker does not have a stat recorded in the opening 45:00 of the match ... the Bowling Green offense placed eight of their sixteen shots on target ... in the seventh minute of the match, Cameron Hepple took advantage of a throw-in in front of the Wright State bench and beat Mason one-on-one from ten yards out giving BGSU the 1-0 lead ... the goal was Hepple's second career score ... Hepple went on to record a game high four shots with two on goal ... later, Thomas McLean's free kick contributed to Abiola Sandy's penalty kick and the second and final Falcon score (29:43) ... the chain of events began as McLean lifted a free kick
over the Wright State wall of defenders which was picked up by Hunter Van Houten in the box ... Van Houten's defender was caught using his hands to deflect the ball and BGSU was awarded the PK which Sandy converted.
Barely Children of the 80's But Still Cracking the Starting Line-Up
Though most of the Falcon's starting line-up may not be old enough to remember the Saturday morning cartoon that inspired this summer's blockbuster movie Transformers, they are making an immediate impact for BGSU on the field ... four underclassmen have started all eight BGSU matches ... r-sophomore Chuko Evawara, true sophomores Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten and rookie Dusko Topolic have started all games to date ... sophomore Tyler Deal and freshman Thomas McLean have earned seven
starts, while freshman Matt Klancic has started in six of eight played
... sophomores Gavin Dozier, Cameron Hepple, Ahmad Smith and freshmen Garrett Bireline, and Sean Misick also contributed time as key reserves.
#BGSU SOCCER#
