Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Opens Home Schedule this Weekend
September 17, 2008 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 17, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after playing matches in the states of Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas, finally gets to play a few games in Northwest Ohio ... the Falcons of head coach Fred Thompson will open the home portion of the schedule with this weekend's BGSU Invitational ... BGSU will face IPFW in Friday (Sept. 19) action, with kickoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ... then, the Brown and Orange will meet Saint Francis University on Sunday (Sept. 21) in a 1:00 p.m. kickoff ... the three-team round-robin invitational also includes a Saturday (Sept. 20) game between the Mastodons and Red Flash, with kickoff at 2:00 p.m. ... all three matches will be held at Cochrane Field.
BGSU Men's Soccer Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
All three of this weekend's men's soccer matches at Cochrane Field are scheduled to have live stats on the web ... for up-to-the-minute statistical information during all home matches again in 2008, 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.
FALCONS CAPTURE TOURNEY TITLE
BGSU posted a pair of wins to capture the UCA Tournament title last weekend ... the Falcons defeated Centenary, 3-2, on Friday (Sept. 12), and downed host Central Arkansas by a 2-1 count Saturday (Sept. 13), with the latter match decided in double OT ... a few notes on the Falcons' feat ...
• Four Falcons - senior Paul Shoemaker and juniors Chuko Evwaraye, Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten - were named to the all-tournament team ... Lawrence likely would have been named the tourney's Most Valuable Player, had an MVP been selected.
• The UCA Tournament marked the first time in over nine years that the Falcons posted a 2-0-0 record in an in-season tourney ... BG defeated Western Kentucky and DePaul to win the BGSU Invitational on Sept. 4-5, 1999.
• BGSU had not gone 2-0-0 in a tournament away from home since 1997 ... on Sept. 6-7 of that year, the Brown and Orange picked up wins over Memphis and South Alabama to win the Memphis Classic ... that '97 team went on to finish 18-6-0 overall and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
LAWRENCE NAMED MAC PLAYER OF WEEK
Falcon junior Jacob Lawrence was named the MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced on Monday (Sept. 15) ... a native of Brandon, Miss., Lawrence earned the honor for the first time in his BGSU career ... he was named to the all-tournament team at the UCA Tournament, after scoring both Falcon goals vs. the home team on a pair of headers ... the latter goal came in the second overtime, and was both the first game-winning goal and the first 'Golden Goal' of Lawrence's BGSU career.
COME-FROM-BEHIND WINS
The Falcons rallied from behind to win both matches at UCA last weekend ... on Friday (Sept. 12), BG surrendered a pair of second-half goals to Centenary, and the Falcons trailed with less than 30 minutes left ... but, juniors Chuko Evwaraye and Cameron Hepple scored to tie the game, and Evwaraye's second goal of the match, at the 81:04 mark, proved to be the winner ... the next day, the Falcons again allowed a goal early in the second half, and BG trailed with under 10 minutes to play ... but, junior Jacob Lawrence scored on a header at 81:29, then headed home another goal with 3:37 elapsed in the second overtime, for a second-straight come-from-behind victory.
IT'S BEEN A WHILE ...
Friday's win vs. Centenary marked the first time in nearly 12 years that the Falcons rallied from a two-goal deficit to win the match ... on Oct. 26, 1997, BGSU fell behind Northern Illinois by a 3-1 score on Senior Day at Cochrane Field ... as was the case on Friday, that '97 team scored three times in the last 30 minutes of regulation to pull out the win ... the winning goal that day came from Kevin Jackson with just 2:03 left in the match.
ROAD WARRIORS
For the Falcons, the UCA Tournament matches concluded a season-opening stretch of five-straight games away from home ... as mentioned, BGSU played contests in the states of Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas in the span of 15 days.
ROAD (AND NEUTRAL-SITE) WARRIORS
Just five games into the 2008 season, BGSU already has matched last year's total for wins away from home (road and neutral-site games combined) ... the Falcons are 2-3-0 away from Cochrane Field this year to date, after going 2-7-1 in such games in 2007.
LAST WEEKEND
As mentioned, the Falcons won the UCA Tournament with wins over Centenary (3-2; Sept. 12) and host Central Arkansas (2-1 [2-OT]; Sept. 13) ... junior Chuko Evwaraye scored the Falcons' first and third goals on Friday, helping BGSU overcome a two-goal deficit ... Cameron Hepple, who had an assist on Evwaraye's first goal, scored a goal of his own to tie the score with just over 15 minutes left in regulation ... senior goalkeeper Paul Shoemaker made two saves to pick up the win ... in the UCA match, Jacob Lawrence scored both goals on headers, as the Falcons again rallied from behind for a win ... Lawrence's latter goal came in the second overtime ... Shoemaker played the entire match, making five stops for the victory ... Evwaraye, Lawrence, Shoemaker and Hunter Van Houten all represented BGSU on the all-tournament team.
FALCON FIRSTS (AND OTHER FACTS)
• With two goals on Saturday vs. Central Arkansas, Jacob Lawrence matched his career total ... Lawrence had a pair of goals in his freshman season of 2006, against Western Michigan (one in the regular-season meeting, one in the MAC Tournament) ... his OT goal at UCA was the first game-winning goal of his career.
• Chuko Evwaraye's two-goal match vs. Centenary on Friday was the first of his Falcon career ... he entered the day with a career total of three goals, all coming last season (vs. Florida Atlantic, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois) ... four of Evwaraye's five career goals have been game winners.
• BGSU's total of 27 shot attempts vs. UCA was a season high ... in fact, Saturday's total nearly matched the amount of shots credited to the Falcons for the first four games combined (32).
• BG last had as many as 27 shot attempts on Oct. 7 of last season, in a scoreless tie vs. IPFW ... the Falcons' 12 shots on goal vs. UCA was the team's highest total since a 2003 game vs. the Mastodons (15 shots on goal in a 2-1 win on Oct. 10, 2003).
• Evwaraye's first goal vs. Centenary was also BGSU's first goal of the season ... the Falcons had gone 331:55 without a score to begin 2008 ... after that scoreless stretch, however, BG scored three times in a span of less than 20 minutes (19:09) to erase a two-goal deficit.
• The Falcons now lead Central Arkansas, 2-0-0, in the all-time series ... both matches went to double overtime, with Abiola Sandy's goal giving the Brown and Orange a 2007 win at Cochrane Field, and Lawrence's 'Golden Goal' ending Saturday's match in Conway, Ark.
• Junior Cameron Hepple had a goal and an assist in the Centenary match ... Hepple, BGSU's active career scoring leader, now has 17 points in just 32 collegiate games ... he has six goals and five assists as a Falcon.
• Junior Tyler Deal registered his first collegiate point with an assist on Evwaraye's winning goal vs. Centenary.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the IPFW game with a record of 2-3-0 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, the Brown and Orange posted a pair of come-from-behind wins to take the tourney title at Central Arkansas ... juniors Chuko Evwaraye and Jacob Lawrence are tied for the team scoring lead ... both Evwaraye and Lawrence have two goals and four points this year to date ... junior Cameron Hepple has a goal and an assist for three points ... two other juniors, Tyler Deal and Hunter Van Houten, have one assist apiece ... in goal, senior Paul Shoemaker has started all five matches ... he has 25 saves and a goals-against average of 1.94 ... 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 ... 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 ... Hepple, BGSU's top returning scorer from a year ago, scored 11 points in 2007, while Van Houten had 10 ... Evwaraye had six points on three goals last season, as did sophomore Thomas McLean.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
IPFW enters Friday's match with a record of 0-4-1 ... the Mastodons opened the season with a tie vs. St. Joseph's (Ind.), but have dropped matches to Butler, Eastern Illinois, SIU-Edwardsville and Wright State since that time ... Max Touloute leads the 'Dons offensively, having scored three of the team's five goals to date ... Michael Knitter has played all five matches in goal, and has 28 saves and a goals-against average of 2.24 ... last year, coach Mike Harper's club went 3-12-2 overall and 0-5-0 in Summit League play ... the school's athletics web site is gomastodons.com.
The Falcons and IPFW are tied, 3-3-1, in the all-time series between the teams ... the teams first met in 1982, and also have faced off every season since 2002 ... the Falcons are 1-2-1 in home matches vs. the Mastodons ... last year, the teams battled to a scoreless draw at Cochrane Field (Oct. 7, 2007) ... the 'Dons posted a 2-1 win in the 2006 meeting (Oct. 22) in Fort Wayne, after the Falcons had won by the identical score in '05 (Oct. 30) ... the '05 and '06 meetings were conference matches, as IPFW was an affiliate member of the MAC in men's soccer at that time.
Saint Francis (Pa.) brings a record of 0-4-1 into the weekend ... the Red Flash will meet IPFW at Cochrane Field on Saturday before facing the Falcons the following afternoon ... SFU opened the season with losses to Michigan State and Western Michigan, before battling Duquesne to a scoreless tie ... the Red Flash then suffered narrow 1-0 road losses to Penn State and West Virginia ... Kingsley McLeod and Patrick Fleming have scored goals for SFU to date ... in goal, Darius Motazed and Brad Williams had split time ... Motazed is 0-2-1 with 20 saves and a GAA of just 0.61 ... Williams is 0-2-0 with eight stops and a 3.50 GAA ... last year, Saint Francis posted a 9-9-2 overall record and a 6-2-1 Northeast Conference mark for coach Michael Casper ... the school's web site is www.francis.edu.
The Falcons trail Saint Francis, 1-0-0, in the all-time series ... the only prior meeting was a 4-1 win by the Red Flash on Sept. 7, 2002 at Cochrane Field ... that match was part of the Diadora Classic.
UP NEXT
The Falcons will play just one match next weekend, beginning a three-game road swing with a Saturday (Sept. 27) match at Marshall ... then, BGSU will face Ohio State on Wednesday, Oct. 1, before opening the MAC schedule at Hartwick on Saturday, Oct. 4.
