Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Faces Marshall Saturday Night
September 25, 2008 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 25, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after winning a second-straight in-season tournament title, returns to the road this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Fred Thompson will begin a three-game road swing with a Saturday (Sept. 27) trip to Huntington, W.Va., to face Marshall University ... the Falcons and the Thundering Herd will meet in a 7:00 p.m. kickoff at Sam Hood Field ... the road swing will continue with trips to Ohio State (Oct. 1) and Hartwick (Oct. 4) ... BG's next home game will be Saturday, Oct. 11, against Akron.
BGSU Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Saturday's Marshall match is scheduled to have live stats on the web ... for up-to-the-minute statistical information during all home matches again in 2008 (as well as Saturday's game), log on to BGSUFalcons.com ... the Gametracker link can be found by accessing the men's soccer schedule, and clicking on that day's game.
FALCONS CAPTURE ANOTHER TOURNEY TITLE
BGSU posted a tournament title for the second-straight weekend ... the Falcons split a pair of weekend matches, downing IPFW, 2-0, on Friday (Sept. 19), before falling to Saint Francis (Pa.) by a 2-1 count two days later ... IPFW downed SFU, 1-0, in the middle game of the three-day, three-game, three-team tourney, meaning that all three teams had identical 1-1-0 weekend records ... the Falcons were declared the tourney champions, however, based on goal differential ... BGSU had a +1 goal differential, while SFU ended the weekend even and IPFW was -1 ... five Falcons - senior Paul Shoemaker, juniors Cameron Hepple, Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten and sophomore Thomas McLean - were named to the all-tournament team, with Lawrence being named the tourney MVP.
LAWRENCE COLLECTING SOME HARDWARE
Junior Jacob Lawrence is adding to his awards collection this season ... Lawrence has been named to the all-tournament team in each of the Falcons' three tourneys in 2008 ... he was chosen to the squads at the Diadora/Spinx Furman Invitational and the Central Arkansas Touornament, before being named the MVP of last weekend's BGSU Invitational ... Lawrence would have been MVP of the UCA Tournament as well, had one been named that weekend ... Lawrence also was named the MAC's Player of the Week last Monday (Sept. 15).
SHOEMAKER HONORED FOR THIRD-STRAIGHT WEEKEND, TOO
In addition to Lawrence, senior Paul Shoemaker also has earned all-tourney honors in each of three consecutive weekends, having earned the honor at Furman, UCA and in the Falcons' own BGSU Invitational ... additionally, junior Hunter Van Houten had a tourney honor bestowed upon him for the second-straight weekend ... classmate Cameron Hepple and sophomore Thomas McLean each were named to an all-tournament team for the first time this year.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons opened the 2008 season with five consecutive games away from BG ... after playing two home games over the weekend, BGSU now returns to the road for the next three games, beginning Saturday (Sept. 27) at Marshall ... following that three-game swing, the Brown and Orange will have played eight of 10 games away from home to begin the season ... in fact, 10 of BGSU's first 13 contests will be played away from Cochrane Field, before the Falcons close the regular season with three of the final six games in Northwest Ohio.
ROAD (AND NEUTRAL-SITE) WARRIORS
After just five games in 2008, BGSU already had matched last year's total for wins away from home (road and neutral-site games combined) ... entering the Marshall game, 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
The Falcons won the BGSU Invitational ... BGSU picked up a 2-0 win over IPFW in Friday's (Sept. 19) home opener ... the Brown and Orange fell to Saint Francis (Pa.) by a 2-1 count on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 21) ... all three teams in the tourney posted 1-1-0 records, but the Falcons won the title by virtue of goal differential ... junior Jacob Lawrence scored a goal in each game ... he found the back of the net after over 80 minutes of scoreless soccer in the IPFW match, with sophomore Thomas McLean doubling the lead several minutes later ... senior Paul Shoemaker and the Falcon defense picked up the first shutout of the season ... BG fell behind by two goals on Sunday against Saint Francis, before Lawrence scored midway through the second half ... the Falcons put a total of 11 shots on goal, including four in the final 3:29 of the match, but could not get the equalizer ... Shoemaker had five saves vs. SFU.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the Marshall game with a record of 3-4-0 on the season ... BGSU started the season with three shutout losses, then won the next three matches before falling to Saint Francis on Sunday (Sept. 21) ... the winning 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 Friday (Sept. 19) ... junior Jacob Lawrence leads the team in scoring, with eight points on four goals ... classmates Chuko Evwaraye and Cameron Hepple each have four points this year to date ... Evwaraye has a pair of goals, while Hepple has one goal and leads the team with two assists ... in goal, senior Paul Shoemaker has started all seven matches ... he has 30 saves and a goals-against average of 1.68 ... 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 Hunter Van Houten had 10 ... Evwaraye had six points on three goals last season, as did sophomore Thomas McLean.
LAWRENCE SCORES AGAIN
Junior Jacob Lawrence scored a goal in each of last weekend's games, giving him a team-high four this season ... all four have come in the last three contests ... he had entered the Sept. 13 game at Central Arkansas with a career total of two goals.
THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
Marshall enters Saturday's match with a record of 0-7-0 ... the Thundering Herd dropped a pair of one-goal games in a tournament at Dayton last weekend, losing to the host school (1-0) and Butler (3-2) ... seven different players have scored one goal apiece this season ... Sammy Boateng leads the team with four points on a goal and a pair of assists ... in goal, Greg Walter has played in all seven games, and has 26 saves and a goals-against average of 2.67 ... last year, coach Bob Gray's club went 10-9-1 overall and 3-5-0 in Conference USA action ... the school's athletics web site is www.herdzone.com.
The Falcons lead Marshall, 7-3-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU and MU first met in 1979, and matched up at least once in every season from 1997-2004, when Marshall was a MAC member ... the teams have split the previous four matches in Huntington ... MU has won the last two overall meetings, snapping a six-game Falcon series win streak ... the last meeting was a 5-2 Marshall victory at Cochrane Field in 2005 ... the previous fall, the Herd picked up a 1-0 win at home over the Brown and Orange.
FALCON NOTES
• Junior Jacob Lawrence, after scoring four goals in the last three games, now has a total of six goals in his career ... he is tied with classmate Cameron Hepple for the career lead among active Falcons.
• Lawrence now has 15 career points at BGSU, trailing only Hepple (18) among active players.
• Senior goalkeeper Paul Shoemaker had an assist in Sunday's game vs. Saint Francis ... his long free kick traveled nearly 50 yards and found the head of Lawrence in the penalty area.
• For Shoemaker, the assist was the second of his career ... he also had an assist in last year's Hartwick match.
• The Falcons have scored eight goals through seven games this year ... all of those goals have come in the second half or in overtime ... believe it or not, BG has not scored in the first 60 minutes of any match this year to date ... the team's earliest goal in a game came at the 61:55 mark, by Chuko Evwaraye in the Centenary match.
•Sunday's loss snapped a six-game home regular-season unbeaten streak for the Falcons ... BGSU's last regular-season loss had come a year and a day earlier, on Sept. 20, 2007, vs. Ohio State ... the '07 Falcons then tied both IPFW and Hartwick, before winning home games vs. Detroit, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois ... BGSU began the home portion of the 2008 season with Friday's win over IPFW.
• That IPFW game marked the fourth consecutive year that the Falcons have won the home opener ... each of the previous three had come in overtime, vs. Ohio State in 2005, Western Illinois in '06 and Central Arkansas last fall.
• In the IPFW match, Lawrence scored the game-winning goal for the second-straight contest ... those marked the first two GWGs of his Falcon career.
• Sophomore Thomas McLean's goal on Friday vs. IPFW was his first of the season and the fourth of his career ... Hepple had the primary assist on McLean's goal ... the helper was his second of the season and his sixth as a Falcon ... junior Gavin Dozier's assist on that goal was the first of his collegiate career.
