Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Soccer Falcons Complete Five-Match Road Swing
September 10, 2008 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 10, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team hits the road for the third consecutive weekend to begin the 2008 season ... the Falcons of head coach Fred Thompson, after trips to Tampa, Fla., and Greenville, S.C., now travel to Conway, Ark., for this weekend's UCA Tournament ... BGSU will face Centenary College in Friday (Sept. 12) action, with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. locally (3:30 p.m. Eastern) ... then, the Brown and Orange will meet the host school, the University of Central Arkansas, on Saturday (Sept. 13), in a match slated for a 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. Eastern) kickoff ... Belmont University is the fourth team in the tourney, and will meet UCA Friday and Centenary the following day ... all four matches will be held at UCA's Farris Field.
BGSU Release & Statistics in PDF Format
all matches at Farris Field; Conway, Ark.
Friday, Sept. 12
Bowling Green vs. Centenary, 2:30 p.m. CT
Belmont at Central Arkansas, 5:00 p.m. CT
Saturday, Sept. 13
Belmont vs. Centenary, 1:00 p.m. CT
Bowling Green at Central Arkansas, 3:30 p.m. CT
ROAD WARRIORS
For the Falcons, this weekend's matches conclude a season-opening stretch of five-straight games away from home ... BGSU's first regular-season appearance at Cochrane Field will be a week from Friday - Sept. 19 - vs. IPFW.
LIVE STATS
There will not be live stats for either of BGSU's matches at Central Arkansas this weekend ... all of the Falcons' home matches, however, are scheduled to have live statistics available on the web, through the magic of Gametracker ... for up-to-the-minute statistical information during all home matches again in '08, log on to BGSUFalcons.com ... the Gametracker link(s) can be found by accessing the men's soccer schedule, and clicking on that day's game.
LAST WEEKEND
The Falcons dropped a pair of matches at the Diadora/Spinx Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C., by identical 2-0 scores ... BGSU fell to host Furman on Friday (Sept. 5) and to the College of Charleston Sunday (Sept. 7) ... the Falcons battled the nationally-ranked Paladins to a scoreless draw on their own field for over 80 minutes, before Furman broke through ... the Paladins scored again in the final moments ... BG played the final 36-plus minutes of the match a man down, after a red card (double-yellow) ... Falcon senior goalkeeper Paul Shoemaker made six saves in the match ... against the College of Charleston, Shoemaker had four stops, and the Falcons outshot the Cougars by a 12-9 count ... Charleston, however, scored on the first shot of the match, and added a late insurance goal ... Shoemaker and Jacob Lawrence represented the Falcons on the all-tournament team.
GOOD BEHAVIOR
The Falcons were whistled for a total of just four fouls in Sunday's (Sept. 7) match vs. the College of Charleston ... that total is BGSU's lowest in a game since at least the 1993 season ... over the last 14 years (plus two games), BG's lowest foul count had been five, in a match vs. Xavier on Sept. 22, 2002.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the UCA Tournament with a record of 0-3-0 on the young season ... BGSU suffered a 3-0 road loss to nationally-ranked USF to open the 2008 campaign, and dropped 2-0 decisions to Furman and the College of Charleston last weekend ... BGSU returned 15 letterwinners, including eight starters, from 2007 ... a total of five Falcons have started all three games this year to date ... that list includes senior goalkeeper Paul Shoemaker and four field players, juniors Tyler Deal and Hunter Van Houten and sophomores Thomas McLean and Dusko Topolic ... a total of 16 different Falcons have started at least one match this year ... Shoemaker has played all 270 minutes in the net to date, and has 18 saves and a 2.33 goals-against average ... 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 ... goalkeepers Shoemaker and Brent Petkus return after combining to play every second of every match last fall ... Petkus had a record of 3-2-1 and a 1.45 GAA ... Shoemaker was 3-8-2 with a team-high 54 saves and a GAA of 1.75 ... BGSU's top returning scorer from a year ago is Cameron Hepple ... Hepple scored 11 points in 2007, while Van Houten had 10 ... Chuko Evwaraye had six points on three goals last season, as did McLean ... all three of Evwaraye's goals proved to be game winners ... the Falcons had a 4-3-2 home record in 2007, and BGSU was 2-7-1 on the road ... Hepple and McLean both were named to the All-MAC Second Team a year ago.
TOUGH CROWD
The Falcons' 2008 schedule is a challenging one, to say the very least ... BGSU's season-opening opponent, USF, is currently listed among the national rankings ... the Bulls are now 19th in the College Soccer News poll and 21st in the NSCAA/adidas rankings ... BG's second opponent of the year, Furman, was listed in each preseason poll ... two other future BGSU opponents, Akron and Ohio State, are currently ranked, with the Zips ranked second in the entire nation in the NSCAA/adidas poll.
FALCONS TABBED FOR FIFTH
The MAC office released the preseason poll on Aug. 26, and the Falcons have been predicted to finish fifth ... the poll is the result of voting by the league's seven head coaches ... nationally-ranked Akron was predicted to win the regular-season and tournament crowns in 2008 ... last year, the Zips captured both the regular-season and tourney titles ... the Falcons finished fourth in the regular-season standings a year ago ... Florida Atlantic joins the MAC as an affiliate member in men's soccer for the 2008 season.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Centenary enters Friday's match with a 1-1-0 record ... the Gents split a pair of 1-0 games last weekend at Missouri State's tournament, losing to Drake before downing the host school ... Brian Hurlburt scored CC's lone goal on the weekend ... goalkeeper Rennie Walker played both matches, and has 14 saves and a goals-against average of just 0.50 ... coach David Orr is in his first year with the Gents ... last year, the team was 3-12-0 overall and 2-4-0 in Summit League play ... 10 letterwinners, including just three starters, are back from that team ... the school's athletics web site is GoCentenary.com.
The Falcons and Centenary have never met in men's soccer.
Central Arkansas brings a 1-3-0 record into the weekend ... the Bears will host Belmont on Friday before meeting the Falcons the following day ... last weekend, UCA picked up a 1-0 win over Rider, but dropped a 2-0 decision to Binghamton ... the Bears have also played Kentucky (0-6) and Evansville (0-3) this season to date ... the Belmont game will be UCA's home opener ... Donny Martinez has the team's lone goal to date ... in goal, Greg Brooks has 12 saves, one shutout and a 2.75 GAA ... coach Chad Flanders and the Bears entered the season with just six returners and 25 players in their first year with the program ... the school's athletics web site is UCAsports.com.
The Falcons lead Central Arkansas, 1-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the only prior meeting was an overtime affair, last season at Cochrane Field ... in the Falcons' 2007 home opener (Sept. 14, 2007), Abiola Sandy's goal at 109:11 gave the Brown and Orange a 1-0, double-OT victory in the Falcon Invitational ... Paul Shoemaker made three saves to earn the shutout win.
UP NEXT
The Falcons will open the home schedule with next weekend's BGSU Invitational at Cochrane Field ... the three-team event sees BG facing IPFW in Friday (Sept. 19) action, beginning at 2:00 p.m., and the Falcons will host Saint Francis (Pa.) on Sunday (Sept. 21) at 1:00 p.m. ... the Mastodons and Red Flash will meet in a Saturday (Sept. 20) neutral-site match while in Bowling Green.
