Bowling Green State University Athletics
Friday, October 16
Buffalo, N.Y.
7:30 PM
Bowling Green State University
at
Buffalo
Falcons Return to MAC Action with Friday Match at Buffalo
October 15, 2009 | Men's Soccer
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after having a week and a half off from competition, returns to Mid-American Conference action this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols will travel to New York to face the University at Buffalo on Friday evening (Oct. 16) ... kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at UB Stadium ... following the UB match, the Falcons will step outside of conference play for a match at Michigan State University on Wednesday (Oct. 21), before returning home to host Hartwick College a week from Sunday (Oct. 25) ... the Hawks are a MAC affiliate member for men's soccer ... the Hartwick contest begins a stretch in which the Falcons play four of five matches at home to end the regular season.
BGSU NOTES & STATS | MAC NOTES & STATS
LAST WEEK
Visiting Valparaiso scored a pair of second-half goals to post a 2-0 victory over the Falcons at Cochrane Field Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 6) ... the Crusaders got a header off a corner kick early in the second half to take the lead, then added some insurance with a penalty-kick goal with just over 11 minutes left ... redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker made a total of four saves in the match, and could hardly be faulted for either of the two goals he surrendered ... Valpo held a 19-11 margin in shot attempts, including a 6-5 edge in shots on goal.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will take a 1-8-2 record into Friday's Buffalo match, and BG is 0-2-0 in MAC action to date ... BGSU is 1-2-1 in home matches, 0-4-1 in road games and 0-2 in neutral-site contests ... for head coach Eric Nichols and Company, three of the eight losses this season have come at the hands of nationally-ranked opponents ... senior Cameron Hepple leads the Falcons in scoring, with 11 points on the year ... Hepple, who has missed four matches due to injury, has a team-high five goals and one assist ... four other Falcons – senior Chuko Evwaraye, redshirt sophomores Chris Jurtovski and Max Weston and true soph Byard Ebling – have scored one goal apiece ... Weston, a transfer from Indiana, leads BG with two assists and ranks second on the club with four points ... Ebling and Evwaraye have three points each ... in goal, redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker has started all 11 matches this season ... Smoker has a MAC-leading total of 56 saves and a goals-against average of 2.41 ... true freshman Dylan Schoettley played the second half of each of the first three games this year ... he has five saves and a 3.33 GAA ... last fall, the Falcons finished with an overall mark of 4-13-2, and BGSU was 0-6-0 in MAC action ... Nichols inherited 15 returning letterwinners, including nine starters, from the 2008 club ... the Falcon returnees combined to score 17 of the team's 18 goals and register 11 of the 13 assists a year ago ... Evwaraye, Hepple and Jacob Lawrence – all seniors in '09 – combined for 11 goals a year ago ... Evwaraye led the team in both goals (5) and points (10), while Lawrence and Hepple had eight points apiece ... the Falcons had a 2-4-0 home record a season ago, and BGSU was 1-7-2 on the road and 1-2-0 at neutral sites in '08.
FALCON COACH ERIC NICHOLS
Eric Nichols is in his first season at the BGSU helm ... he was hired on Feb. 17, 2009, becoming just the fifth head coach in the 45-year history of the program ... Nichols came to BGSU after spending the 2008 season as assistant coach at Davidson College ... he had a successful debut to his BGSU head-coaching career, as the Falcons defeated Marshall, 2-0, in the regular-season opener ... Nichols has a 1-8-2 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 60-30-3 in his fifth season as a collegiate head coach ... prior to his stint at Davidson, Nichols was the head men's soccer coach at Ohio Dominican for four seasons (2004-07) ... under his guidance, the Panthers recorded a 59-22-1 (.728) record, including a final ranking of fourth in 2007 ... that team advanced all the way to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament ... Nichols served as an assistant coach at Ohio Wesleyan for four seasons ... he played collegiately at Ohio State, and also played five years of professional soccer for several teams, including the Columbus Xoggz and Indiana Blast of the USISL ... Nichols is joined on the BGSU staff by assistant coaches Paul Habrecht and Eric Pfeifer.
THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
Buffalo enters Friday's match against BGSU with an overall record of 5-7-0, and the Bulls are 0-2-0 in MAC action to date ... UB will be looking to snap a two-game losing streak ... last week, the Bulls suffered a pair of road losses, including a 3-1 loss at Detroit on Tuesday (Oct. 6) and a 1-0 setback vs. Northern Illinois on Sunday (Oct. 11) ... Buffalo has played just three home matches so far, with wins over Cleveland State (1-0; Sept. 18) and Niagara (3-0; Oct. 2) and a loss to Hartwick (1-3; Sept. 22) ... individually, Mike Unwin leads the Bulls in scoring, with six goals for 12 points ... Dan Bulley has seven points, including a team-leading three assists ... Bulley and Lucas Bassan have two goals each ... UB will be without Alex Mihal, one of three players to have started all 12 games to date ... Mihal will miss the BGSU match due to receiving a red card in Sunday's NIU game ... Nick Fetterman has started nine of UB's 12 matches in goal, and has four shutouts, 36 saves and a GAA of 1.70 ... Ryan Lewis has made three starts, and has a shutout and a 1.43 GAA to date ... head coach John Astudillo is in his 21st season with the Bulls ... he welcomed back 13 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that finished 12-4-4 overall and 3-1-2 in MAC action ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 7-6-0, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Bulls have won five consecutive meetings ... BG has scored a total of 18 goals and allowed 17 in the series ... UB captured the teams' first-ever matchup in 1998, and the Falcons then reeled off seven-straight wins over the Bulls from 1999 to 2003, prior to the Bulls' current streak ... BGSU has a record of 4-2-0 in road games vs. Buffalo, but UB has won the last two matchups in New York ... last year, the Bulls won a 2-0 decision at Cochrane Field (Nov. 1, 2008) ... two years ago, in the last meeting at UB, the hosts rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 3-2 overtime verdict vs. the Falcons (Sept. 28, 2007) ... Thomas McLean and Cameron Hepple scored first-half goals for the Brown and Orange in that match ... seven of the 13 series meetings, including four of the six matches in New York, have required overtime.
TOUGH CROWD
The Falcons began the season by playing seven of the first nine games away from home ... four of those seven games were against teams that have spent time in the national polls ... Louisville, Michigan and Akron all were ranked in at least one poll at the time of the match ... a fourth loss came to a team, Kentucky, that was receiving votes at the time of the BGSU match ... UK later moved into the national rankings ... as of Wednesday morning, Oct. 14, those four Falcon opponents currently have a combined record of 36-8-3 on the season.
A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES
• Friday's match at Buffalo is the Falcons' final MAC away contest of the season ... each of BGSU's remaining conference matches – vs. Hartwick (Oct. 25), Northern Illinois (Oct. 31) and Florida Atlantic (Nov. 7) – will be played at Cochrane Field.
• BGSU's first 11 games of the season were played against opponents who currently have a combined record of 63-44-10 (.581) ... the Falcons' remaining seven foes have an aggregate mark of 34-38-8 (.475).
• A total of 17 different players have started at least one match this year to date ... only three players – senior Tyler Deal, sophomore Tanner Fink and redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker – have started all 11 games.
• Fink leads the Falcons in minutes played ... unofficially, he has played 1009 of the 1030 total minutes this year ... Deal has played 893 minutes, while senior co-captains Hunter Van Houten and Jacob Lawrence have been on the field for 853 and 814 minutes, respectively.
• Redshirt sophomore Max Weston's goal in the Michigan match was BG's earliest in a game in nearly two years ... Weston scored 9:34 into the first half in Ann Arbor ... the Falcons had not scored in the first 10 minutes of a game since Nov. 2, 2007 ... on that date, both Thomas McLean (1:33) and Chuko Evwaraye (5:11) scored in the first five-plus minutes of a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois at Cochrane Field.
• BGSU has scored five first-half goals this year ... last season, the Falcons scored only three first-half goals in 19 matches.
2009 CAPTAINS
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten are the co-captains of the 2009 men's soccer Falcons.
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