Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Men's Soccer Announces 2008 Competition Schedule
July 01, 2008 | Men's Soccer
July 1, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Head coach Fred Thompson and the Bowling Green State University athletic department have announced the 2008 season schedule which is headlined by six NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Tournament participants including national runner's up, Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, three of those squads finished the season ranking in the final NSCAA/Adidas Top 25 poll; Ohio State (2), USF (17), and Akron (23) whereas Furman was the top vote getter.
Click here for printable schedule
Of those six NCAA post-season tested match-ups, five will come in the non-conference portion of the schedule and two will be played before the month of August fades into September.
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2008 FALCON SOCCER SCHEDULE
August 19 at Oakland # 3:00 24 Cleveland State # 2:00 30 at South Florida 7:30 September 5 at Furman 7:00 7 vs. Coll. of Charleston 11:00 12 vs. Centenary 1:00 13 at Central Arkansas 3:30 19 Oral Roberts @ 2:00 21 IPFW @ 2:00 27 at Marshall 7:00 October 1 at Ohio State 7:00 4 at Hartwick * 7:00 11 Akron * 1:00 17 at Western Michigan * 3:00 22 Wright State 3:00 25 at Northern Illinois * TBA 29 Michigan State 3:00 November 1 Buffalo * 1:00 4 at Detroit 2:00 11 MAC Play-In TBA 14 MAC Semifinals TBA 16 MAC Championship TBA Unless denoted all games will be played at Mickey Cochrane Stadium // # denotes exhibition game // @ denotes BGSU Invitational match // * denotes MAC regular season
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Before opening the home season with the BGSU Invitational in late September (19-21), Bowling Green will take a tour of the South first by opening the regular season playing at #17 South Florida (Aug. 30). Last year, the Bulls finished with a 14-6-2 record with nine of those wins coming at home. The squad also reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament after picking off league foe Akron, 1-0 (2OT).
Bowling Green will then follow their Tampa, Florida flight with another to Greenville, South Carolina to face Furman (RV), another NCAA participant, and the College of Charleston. BGSU's first three opponents boast a 46-14-3 record in 2007.
Maintaining their road work, the Orange and Brown `Road Warriors' will move deeper in to September traveling to Conway, Arkansas to face Centenary College and Central Arkansas. Last season, BGSU beat UCA in their home opener on Sandy's last second goal. The Falcons 1-0 decision was the first home shutout dating back to 2003.
Home play will then begin as Oral Roberts makes their first ever trip to Bowling Green as the Golden Eagles join former MAC affiliate IPFW and St. Francis (PA) for the two day BGSU Invitational Tournament. Games will begin on Friday, September 19 and will conclude on Sunday (Sept. 21).
Thompson and Co. will then have six days to prepare for another former MAC team in the Thundering Herd of Marshall University on September 27. In league play BGSU posted a 5-4 record over the Huntington, WV team and are 1-0 in non-conference contests. The teams have not met on the soccer field since 2004.
October will begin with a trip to the state capital where the Falcons will challenge 2007 national runners-up, Ohio State University. The Buckeyes, who ended the season ranked second by the NSCAA, will be the first reigning national finalist to face the Falcons since Indiana in the 1995 season. Beginning with their 2-0 loss to Saint Louis in the 1972 NCAA Tournament's second round, BGSU is 1-3-1 when playing the defending national runners-up; in four tries, BG has never upset a team the season after the opponent won a national championship crown.
The non-conference schedule will continue through to the month of November as Wright State, Michigan State and Detroit provide a break-up in the Mid-American Conference calendar.
In the Mid-American Conference
On the conference slate, despite playing one road match in early September FAU, the majority of the season will be hammered out between October and November. Beginning on Oct. 4, the Falcons will take on the Hartwick Hawks in Oneonta, NY. Last season the Hawks finished just above the Falcons in the MAC at third overall with a 2-1-2 conference record. A year ago the squads were held to a 2-2 stalemate at Mickey Cochrane Stadium in their first ever conference meeting. To date, the Falcons lead the all-time series 1-0-1 and have outscored the Hawks 3-2.
One week later, perennial powerhouse Akron will invade for one of BG's two conference home matches. Though the Zips had fallen from the NSCAA rankings at the time of play, the squad did spend time in the nation polls and was a constant atop the regional rankings.
From there, the Falcons will visit Kalamazoo, Mich. for a road tussle at Western Michigan. Bowling Green, who was previously on a five game winless skid at the hands of the Broncos, has now beaten WMU on two consecutive occasions and have outscored the Michigan program 6-2 over those victories. Last season, BGSU defeated WMU 4-1 at Mickey Cochrane Stadium indicating their first outright win at home over the Broncos since the 2001 season.*(Note: BGSU played to an overtime draw in 2003)
After winning the MAC Championship in 2006, the Northern Illinois Huskies fell to a fifth place finish in the MAC by exhausting the season at 1-3-1 in conference play. One such loss came at the hands of the Falcons in early November to end the regular season, yet the Huskies made the most of their trip back to northwest Ohio taking the first round game of the postseason tournament. The two will next meet on October 25 in DeKalb, Illinois.
Though it will not be their final match of the season, BGSU will conclude the home portion of the schedule with a revenge match with Buffalo on Nov. 1. The Bulls, who finished second in the MAC last season, overcame a two goal deficit to go on to beat BGSU 3-2 in overtime in upstate New York in 2007; the Falcons have fallen at the hands of the regional contender by a single goal in each of the past two meetings.
The climax of the season, the MAC Tournament, is scheduled to be held between Nov. 13-16, but the times, opponents, and locations have yet to be determined.
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