Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Have Two Home Games this Week
October 28, 2008 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 28, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, having played 11 of the season's first 15 games away from Northwest Ohio, returns home for a pair of games this week ... the Falcons of head coach Fred Thompson step outside of Mid-American Conference play for a Wednesday (Oct. 22) match vs. nationally-ranked Michigan State University ... kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field ... then, the Brown and Orange will return to league action, hosting the University at Buffalo in a Saturday morning (Nov. 1) match ... starting time for the UB contest is 11:00 a.m. at Cochrane ... the UB match closes the home portion of the schedule for the Brown and Orange.
BGSU Release & Stats in a handy PDF Format
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Both of this week's matches are scheduled to have live stats on the web, through the magic of Gametracker ... again in 2008, all home games are available via GT ... for each of this week's games, come back here to BGSUFalcons.com, simply access the men's soccer schedule, and click on that day's game.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the Michigan State game with a record of 4-10-1 on the season ... BGSU is 0-5-0 in MAC play ... BG started the year with three shutout losses, then won the next three matches ... that win streak included a pair of come-from-behind victories at the Central Arkansas Tournament (over Centenary and the host school) and a home win over IPFW ... after a loss to Saint Francis (Pa.), BGSU battled Marshall to a 3-3 tie ... then, however, the Falcons suffered through a seven-game winless streak ... BG broke that streak in a big way, with a 3-0 home win over Wright State on Wednesday (Oct. 22), before falling at Northern Illinois by a 1-0 count three days later (Oct. 25) ... individually, junior Jacob Lawrence leads the team with four goals, and is tied with classmate Cameron Hepple in points ... both players have eight points this year to date ... Hepple has a pair of goals and a team-leading four assists this fall ... another junior, Chuko Evwaraye, has six points on three goals ... senior Paul Shoemaker, sophomore Thomas McLean and freshman Byard Ebling each have four points this year ... Ebling and McLean each have a pair of goals, while Shoemaker - a goalkeeper - has a goal and two assists ... at the defensive end, Shoemaker has started 13 of the 15 matches ... he has 58 saves and a goals-against average of 1.79 ... senior Brent Petkus made his season debut on Oct. 19 at Florida Atlantic, and also played against Wright State ... Petkus has 14 saves and a GAA of 0.99 ... head coach Fred Thompson and assistant Ken White returned 15 letterwinners, including eight starters, from 2007 ... last fall, the Falcons posted an overall mark of 6-10-3, and BG finished fourth of six MAC teams with a 2-2-1 conference record.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons scored early and often in a Wednesday (Oct. 22) win over Wright State ... BGSU picked up a 3-0 victory, getting goals from junior Chuko Evwaraye, sophomore Thomas McLean and freshman Byard Ebling in the win at Cochrane Field ... senior Brent Petkus made six saves to earn the shutout in goal ... the high-tempo game featured a total of 38 shot attempts, including 11 by each team in the opening half ... Evwaraye and Ebling staked the Falcons to a 2-0 halftime lead, while McLean provided some insurance with his second-half blast ... on Saturday (Oct. 25), BG fell by a narrow 1-0 count at Northern Illinois ... Brad Horton's goal in the 62nd minute held up for the home team ... senior Paul Shoemaker made four saves for the Brown and Orange.
TWO TOUGH TESTS THIS WEEK
The Falcons have a rarity this week - back-to-back home games ... but, the opponents will provide a pair of tough tests, to say the least ... Michigan State and Buffalo have a combined record of 19-8-4 this year to date ... MSU is ranked in several polls, and posted back-to-back wins over top-20 teams just over a week ago, while UB recently had a nine-game unbeaten streak.
GETTING OFF TO A QUICKER START
The Falcons scored a total of just one first-half goal in the season's first 13 games ... but, BGSU scored twice before halftime in Wednesday's (Oct. 22) win over Wright State, with junior Chuko Evwaraye and freshman Byard Ebling finding the back of the net ... BG has been outscored, 10-3, in the first half of 2008 games ... the Falcons have had 11 goals in the second half to the opponents' 15 this season to date, and BG has both scored and allowed one overtime goal ... Evwaraye's goal vs. WSU, at the 12:34 mark, was BG's earliest goal in a game this season.
START ME UP
Freshman Byard Ebling had had the Falcons' lone first-half goal of the year prior to Wednesday's Wright State game ... with a goal at the 29:04 mark vs. the Raiders, the Naperville, Ill., native now has two of BG's three first-half markers.
FALCON NOTES
• BGSU's total of three goals in the Wright State game tied a season high ... the Falcons also scored three times in both the Centenary (Sept. 12) and Marshall (Sept. 27) games.
• Junior Chuko Evwaraye's goal vs. the Raiders was his third of the year ... he is now second on the team behind classmate Jacob Lawrence (four).
• Evwaraye's goal also was his second game winner of the season, tying him for the team lead with Lawrence in that category.
• Evwaraye now has six career goals ... five of those six have been game winners ... his only career goal that was not a GWG came vs. Centenary, when he scored the Falcons' first goal of that game to start a comeback from a two-goal deficit ... Evwaraye completed that comeback with the GWG in that 3-2 victory.
• Junior Cameron Hepple had an assist on Evwaraye's goal ... Hepple now has eight points, and has moved into a tie with Lawrence for the team lead in that category ... Hepple leads the Falcons with four assists on the year.
• Hepple now has eight career assists ... he is BG's active career leader in goals (seven), assists and points (22).
• Freshman Byard Ebling and sophomore Thomas McLean each recorded their second goal of the season in Wednesday's win ... Ebling's first career goal had come at Marshall (Sept. 27), while McLean scored in the Falcons' home opener vs. IPFW (Sept. 19).
• Senior goalkeeper Brent Petkus picked up his first shutout of the year and the second of his career in the WSU game ... his other complete-game shutout came in a scoreless tie vs. IPFW last fall (Oct. 7, 2007) at Cochrane Field.
• BGSU's win over the Raiders evened the team's home record at 2-2-0 this year ... the Falcons enter the week having played just four home games in 15 outings this fall.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Michigan State enters Wednesday's match with an overall record of 9-5-1, and the Spartans are 4-1-0 in Big Ten Conference play ... MSU was ranked 24th in the nation in last week's NSCAA/adidas poll ... the Spartans are riding a five-game unbeaten streak, and MSU is 7-1-1 in the last nine games ... recently, State knocked off Indiana, #14 UIC and #18 Michigan in a seven-day span ... most recently, the Green and White battled Valparaiso to a scoreless tie on Sunday (Oct. 26) ... individually, Doug DeMartin leads the team in scoring, with 14 goals and 30 points ... Zac Scaffidi's 12 points include a team-leading six assists ... in goal, Avery Steinlage has seen the bulk of the playing time ... Steinlage has 70 saves, six shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.70 ... last year, coach Joe Baum's club posted an overall record of 11-6-4 and a Big Ten ledger of 2-3-1, and the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament ... Baum welcomed back 12 letterwinners, including five starters, from that team ... the school's athletics web site is www.msuspartans.com.
The Falcons lead Michigan State, 16-14-5, in the all-time series between the teams ... but, the Spartans have won the last six meetings, including 1-0 victories in each of the last two years ... MSU has won three consecutive games at Cochrane Field ... the teams tied in a 2000 game in BG ... the Falcons' last win over the Spartans came in 2001, and BG's most recent home victory over MSU was a 3-0 triumph in 1998 ... the Falcons have a 10-6-2 home record vs. the Spartans over the years, and had won 10 of 11 home meetings prior to MSU's current 3-0-1 run at Cochrane.
Buffalo has an overall record of 10-3-3, and the Bulls are 2-1-1 in MAC play ... by the time Saturday's game at BGSU rolls around, UB will have been idle for two weeks ... most recently, the Bulls lost a 2-0 decision at nationally-ranked Akron on Oct. 18 ... that setback snapped a nine-game unbeaten streak that lasted over a month ... that streak began with no fewer than seven consecutive shutouts (six wins and a scoreless tie during that time) ... Dan Gwyther leads the Bulls in scoring, with 11 points ... he has four goals and three assists ... Dominic Oppong has 10 points on a team-high five goals, while Alex Marrello's eight points include a team-leading six assists ... in net, Bobby Shuttleworth has started all 16 games, and has seven shutouts, 49 saves and a GAA of just 0.67 ... coach John Astudillo and the Bulls had an overall record of 10-7-2 last year, with a 3-2-0 in MAC action ... Astudillo returned 17 letterwinners, including nine starters, from that team ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
BGSU leads Buffalo, 7-5-0, in that series ... the Falcons are 2-3-0 in home games against the Bulls ... but, UB has won the last two games at Cochrane Field and the last four overall meetings ... after the Bulls won the teams' initial contest in 1998, the Falcons won seven-straight games in the series, before Buffalo's current streak ... last year, UB rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 3-2 overtime win in New York (Sept. 28, 2007) ... Thomas McLean and Cameron Hepple scored BG's goals ... in the last meeting at Cochrane, visiting UB picked up a 2-1 win (Oct. 6, 2006) ... seven of the team's 12 meetings have required OT ... Buffalo is 3-2-0 vs. the Falcons in games played in Northwest Ohio.
SHOEMAKER SIXTH IN SAVES
With four saves in the Northern Illinois game, senior goalkeeper Paul Shoemaker now has 58 saves this season to date ... the Commerce, Mich., native is only the fifth 'keeper in school history to have 50 or more saves in four seasons ... Shoemaker now has a total of 251 career saves at BGSU, ranking sixth in school history.
UP NEXT
Following this week's two matches, the Falcons will have just one more regular-season game ... BGSU will travel to the Motor City to face Detroit on Tuesday, Nov. 4 ... the MAC Tournament will be held the following week, with quarterfinal matches on Nov. 13, semifinal games on Nov. 14 and the championship match on Nov. 16 ... regular-season champion Akron will host the MAC Tournament.
