.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Wednesday, October 21
East Lansing, Mich.
4:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
at
Michigan State
Michigan State, Hartwick on Tap for Falcons This Week
October 20, 2009 | Men's Soccer
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, coming off the highest-scoring performance in nearly two seasons, faces a pair of stingy defensive foes this week ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols will travel to East Lansing to face Michigan State University in Wednesday action (Oct. 21) ... kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at MSU's DeMartin Stadium ... then, the Brown and Orange will return home for a Mid-American Conference match vs. Hartwick College on Sunday (Oct. 25) ... the Hawks are a MAC affiliate member for men's soccer ... the Hartwick contest, which starts at 1:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field, begins a stretch in which the Falcons play four of five matches at home to end the regular season.
STUFF TO CLICK
BGSU NOTES & STATS (PDF) | MAC NOTES & STATS (PDF)
Michigan State men's soccer home page
Hartwick men's soccer home page
Live Stats Link for BGSU-MSU
Live Stats Link for BGSU-Hartwick (link will be active on Sunday morning)
LAST WEEK
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Cameron Hepple scored two goals apiece, lifting the Falcons to a 4-3 win at Buffalo Friday night (Oct. 16), in the team's lone match of the week ... Hepple scored two times in a second-half span of just over seven minutes, giving the Falcons a 3-2 lead ... after UB tied the contest, Lawrence scored his second goal, on a penalty kick with just 4:27 left in the match, to give BGSU the win ... freshman Dylan Schoettley, making his first collegiate start in goal, had five saves to pick up his first win as a Falcon.
SNAPPING SOME STREAKS
BG's game at Buffalo saw the Falcons snap several streaks ... for example ...
• The win snapped a 10-match losing streak for the Falcons ... BGSU's other win in 2009 came in the season opener, as the Falcons picked up a 2-0 win over Marshall on Sept. 1.
• The win also snapped a 10-match losing streak to MAC teams, dating to the 2007 season ... BGSU's last win over a conference foe had come on Nov. 2, 2007, a 3-1 triumph over Northern Illinois at Cochrane Field ... believe it or not, the Falcons had been outscored, 24-1, in those 10 losses.
• The victory was BG's first on the road against a MAC team in nearly three years, since a 2-1 victory at Western Michigan in league tournament play on Oct. 31, 2006.
• The Falcons had not won a regular-season conference road game in over six years, since a 1-0, double-overtime win at UB on Oct. 3, 2003.
CAMERON CAN CONVERT
At Buffalo, senior Cameron Hepple played in his first game in nearly four weeks, after suffering an injury in the IPFW game of Sept. 20 ... all Hepple did was score a pair of goals, giving him seven goals in just eight games this year to date ... he now has a three-game point-scoring streak, having scored a hat trick at Dayton (Sept. 18) and adding an assist in the IPFW game (Sept. 20).
SEVEN MORE NOTES (1 FOR EACH GOAL) ON CAMERON HEPPLE
• Falcon senior Cameron Hepple has a team-leading total of seven goals in just eight games this year to date ... he also leads BG with 15 points.
• He has scored over 50 percent of BGSU's goals this season to date, despite missing one-third of the team's matches.
• Hepple currently has a three-game point-scoring streak, with no fewer than 11 points in those three games (vs. Dayton, IPFW and Buffalo).
• He now has two multiple-goal games in his Falcon career, with both coming in that three-game span ... Hepple had a hat trick at Dayton before scoring the two goals at UB.
• In games in which he has played, Hepple has been involved in the scoring of seven of the Falcons' last nine goals.
• Hepple's totals of seven goals and 15 points are the highest by a BGSU player in four years, since Omari Aldridge had 11 goals and 25 points in 2005.
• Hepple now has career totals of 14 goals, nine assists and 37 points at BG ... he is the Falcons' active career leader in all three categories.
CAPTAINS STEP UP AT BUFFALO
BGSU's two senior co-captains, Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten, each had solid games in Friday's win at Buffalo ... Lawrence scored his first two goals of the year, including the game winner on a penalty kick with 4:27 to go ... Van Houten assisted on two of the Falcons' goals, assisting on BG's first goals of the night (one by Lawrence, one by Cameron Hepple).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will take a 2-8-2 record into Wednesday's Michigan State match, and BG is 1-2-0 in MAC action ... BGSU is 1-2-1 in home matches, 1-4-1 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 15 points on the year ... Hepple, who missed four matches due to injury, has a team-high seven goals and one assist ... senior Jacob Lawrence has five points, on a pair of goals and an 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, has two assists and ranks third on the club with four points ... Ebling and Evwaraye have three points each, as does senior Hunter Van Houten ... Van Houten has a team-leading total of three assists ... in goal, redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker has started 11 of this season's 12 matches ... Smoker has a MAC-leading total of 56 saves and a goals-against average of 2.41 ... true freshman Dylan Schoettley has played in four games this year to date, making one start ... his initial collegiate start (and first win as a Falcon) came Friday night at Buffalo ... Schoettley has 10 saves and a 3.20 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 Lawrence combined for 11 goals last fall ... Evwaraye led BG 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, and picked up his first MAC victory at Buffalo ... Nichols has a 2-8-2 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 61-30-3 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 OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Michigan State enters Wednesday's match against BGSU with an overall record of 7-4-1, and the Spartans are 1-3-0 in Big Ten action ... MSU is coming off a road win over then-#23 Indiana, as the Spartans scored in the second overtime for a 1-0 victory on Sunday (Oct. 18) ... State is 3-2-0 in home games this year to date, with the wins coming over Duquesne, Valparaiso and Western Michigan and the losses coming against Ohio State and Penn State ... individually, Rubin Bega leads the Spartans in scoring, with his 17 points including a total of seven goals ... Jeff Ricondo, named the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, has 12 points on four goals and four assists ... he is tied for the team lead in the latter category ... in goal, Avery Steinlage has played in all 12 games ... he has six shutouts, 36 saves and a goals-against average of just 0.49 ... Steinlage had an NCAA-record shutout streak of 1318:26 come to an end on Sept. 20 ... the Spartans have scored 18 goals and allowed only seven this season ... Damon Rensing is in his first season as head coach of the Spartans, after serving as an assistant coach for 10 seasons at his alma mater ... last season, the Spartans went 13-5-2 overall and 5-1-0 in Big Ten play, and won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles ... the school's athletics web site is www.msuspartans.com.
The Falcons lead Michigan State, 16-15-5, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Spartans have won seven consecutive meetings ... BGSU's last series win came eight years ago (Sept. 17, 2001) in East Lansing ... last season (Oct. 29, 2008), the Spartans scored a pair of early goals en route to a 4-0 win at Cochrane Field ... MSU had posted 1-0 wins in each of the two prior meetings, including two years ago (Oct. 2, 2007) in the teams' last meeting in Michigan ... overall, MSU is 8-6-3 in home games vs. the Falcons.
Hartwick will bring an overall record of 8-2-2 to Cochrane Field this weekend, and the Hawks are 3-0-0 in MAC play ... Hartwick has been idle since last Tuesday (Oct. 13) ... on that date, HC picked up a 2-1 win at Syracuse ... the Hawks are riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, having gone 7-0-1 since a loss to Bucknell on Sept. 11 ... included in that streak is a win over #15-ranked Dartmouth (2-0; Sept. 26) ... Hartwick is undefeated in road games, having gone 4-0-2 ... the Hawks have scored 15 goals and allowed just five this year to date ... Dan Summers leads the team with four goals and 11 points ... Nick Roydhouse has scored eight points, including a team-high four assists ... Jeremy Vuolo has played every second in goal, and has seven shutouts in 12 games ... he also has 43 saves and a GAA of only 0.40 ... Hartwick has not allowed more than one goal in any of this year's 12 games ... head coach Ian McIntyre is in his seventh year at HC ... he welcomed back 10 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team that went 7-5-7 overall and 2-2-2 in the MAC ... the school's athletics web site is www.hartwick.edu/athletics.
The Falcons and Hartwick are tied, 1-1-1, in that series ... last season, the Hawks posted a 2-0 win in New York (Oct. 4, 2008) ... in the lone prior meeting at Cochrane Field, the teams battled to a 2-2, double-overtime draw two seasons ago (Oct. 14, 2007) ... the only other matchup came in 1984, when the Falcons posted a 1-0 win in a neutral-site meeting.
A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES
• Friday's match at Buffalo was 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.
• The game marked the first MAC victory, as well as the first road win at BGSU, for first-year Falcon head coach Eric Nichols.
• The Falcons' four-goal total was the team's highest in almost two years, since a 4-1 home win over Western Michigan on Oct. 27, 2007 ... BGSU last scored as many as four goals on the road on Sept. 24, 2004, in a 7-4 loss at Ohio State.
• The Falcons now lead Buffalo, 8-6-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... Friday's win snapped a five-match losing streak to the Bulls ... BG is now 5-2-0 in road games vs. UB.
• Senior co-captain Jacob Lawrence, as mentioned, scored his first two goals of the season in Friday's win ... he now has eight goals and 20 points in his Falcon career.
• Lawrence now has three career game-winning goals, all coming in the last two seasons ... he scored winners in back-to-back games vs. Central Arkansas (Sept. 13) and IPFW (Sept. 19) in 2008.
• For Lawrence, Friday marked the second multiple-goal game of his Falcon career ... he also had two goals in last year's win over UCA.
• Fellow senior co-captain Hunter Van Houten had a two-point night at UB, with a pair of assists ... Van Houten now has 17 career points, on four goals and nine assists ... Van Houten is tied with senior Cameron Hepple for the career lead in assists among active Falcons.
• A total of 17 different players have started at least one match this year to date ... only two players – senior Tyler Deal and sophomore Tanner Fink – have started all 12 games.
• Fink leads the Falcons in minutes played ... unofficially, he has played 1099 of the 1120 total minutes this year ... Deal has played 982 minutes, while senior co-captains Hunter Van Houten and Jacob Lawrence have been on the field for 943 and 904 minutes, respectively.
• The Falcons have scored six first-half goals this year ... last season, the Falcons scored only three first-half goals in 19 matches.
FALCONS TABBED FOR FIFTH
The Falcons were predicted to finish fifth in the MAC's preseason poll ... the poll is the result of voting by the league's seven head coaches ... Akron was predicted to win the regular-season and tournament crowns in 2009 ... last year, the Zips captured both the regular-season and tourney titles ... Florida Atlantic and Hartwick are affiliate members of the MAC in men's soccer.
2009 MAC PRESEASON POLL
1-Akron; 2-Hartwick; 3-Buffalo; 4-Northern Illinois; 5-Bowling Green; 6-Western Michigan; 7-Florida Atlantic
MAC TOURNAMENT CHAMPION (votes): Akron (7)
2009 CAPTAINS
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten are the co-captains of the 2009 men's soccer Falcons.
STUFF TO CLICK
BGSU NOTES & STATS (PDF) | MAC NOTES & STATS (PDF)
Michigan State men's soccer home page
Hartwick men's soccer home page
Live Stats Link for BGSU-MSU
Live Stats Link for BGSU-Hartwick (link will be active on Sunday morning)
LAST WEEK
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Cameron Hepple scored two goals apiece, lifting the Falcons to a 4-3 win at Buffalo Friday night (Oct. 16), in the team's lone match of the week ... Hepple scored two times in a second-half span of just over seven minutes, giving the Falcons a 3-2 lead ... after UB tied the contest, Lawrence scored his second goal, on a penalty kick with just 4:27 left in the match, to give BGSU the win ... freshman Dylan Schoettley, making his first collegiate start in goal, had five saves to pick up his first win as a Falcon.
SNAPPING SOME STREAKS
BG's game at Buffalo saw the Falcons snap several streaks ... for example ...
• The win snapped a 10-match losing streak for the Falcons ... BGSU's other win in 2009 came in the season opener, as the Falcons picked up a 2-0 win over Marshall on Sept. 1.
• The win also snapped a 10-match losing streak to MAC teams, dating to the 2007 season ... BGSU's last win over a conference foe had come on Nov. 2, 2007, a 3-1 triumph over Northern Illinois at Cochrane Field ... believe it or not, the Falcons had been outscored, 24-1, in those 10 losses.
• The victory was BG's first on the road against a MAC team in nearly three years, since a 2-1 victory at Western Michigan in league tournament play on Oct. 31, 2006.
• The Falcons had not won a regular-season conference road game in over six years, since a 1-0, double-overtime win at UB on Oct. 3, 2003.
At Buffalo, senior Cameron Hepple played in his first game in nearly four weeks, after suffering an injury in the IPFW game of Sept. 20 ... all Hepple did was score a pair of goals, giving him seven goals in just eight games this year to date ... he now has a three-game point-scoring streak, having scored a hat trick at Dayton (Sept. 18) and adding an assist in the IPFW game (Sept. 20).
SEVEN MORE NOTES (1 FOR EACH GOAL) ON CAMERON HEPPLE
• Falcon senior Cameron Hepple has a team-leading total of seven goals in just eight games this year to date ... he also leads BG with 15 points.
• He has scored over 50 percent of BGSU's goals this season to date, despite missing one-third of the team's matches.
• Hepple currently has a three-game point-scoring streak, with no fewer than 11 points in those three games (vs. Dayton, IPFW and Buffalo).
• He now has two multiple-goal games in his Falcon career, with both coming in that three-game span ... Hepple had a hat trick at Dayton before scoring the two goals at UB.
• In games in which he has played, Hepple has been involved in the scoring of seven of the Falcons' last nine goals.
• Hepple's totals of seven goals and 15 points are the highest by a BGSU player in four years, since Omari Aldridge had 11 goals and 25 points in 2005.
• Hepple now has career totals of 14 goals, nine assists and 37 points at BG ... he is the Falcons' active career leader in all three categories.
BGSU's two senior co-captains, Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten, each had solid games in Friday's win at Buffalo ... Lawrence scored his first two goals of the year, including the game winner on a penalty kick with 4:27 to go ... Van Houten assisted on two of the Falcons' goals, assisting on BG's first goals of the night (one by Lawrence, one by Cameron Hepple).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will take a 2-8-2 record into Wednesday's Michigan State match, and BG is 1-2-0 in MAC action ... BGSU is 1-2-1 in home matches, 1-4-1 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 15 points on the year ... Hepple, who missed four matches due to injury, has a team-high seven goals and one assist ... senior Jacob Lawrence has five points, on a pair of goals and an 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, has two assists and ranks third on the club with four points ... Ebling and Evwaraye have three points each, as does senior Hunter Van Houten ... Van Houten has a team-leading total of three assists ... in goal, redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker has started 11 of this season's 12 matches ... Smoker has a MAC-leading total of 56 saves and a goals-against average of 2.41 ... true freshman Dylan Schoettley has played in four games this year to date, making one start ... his initial collegiate start (and first win as a Falcon) came Friday night at Buffalo ... Schoettley has 10 saves and a 3.20 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 Lawrence combined for 11 goals last fall ... Evwaraye led BG 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, and picked up his first MAC victory at Buffalo ... Nichols has a 2-8-2 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 61-30-3 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 OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Michigan State enters Wednesday's match against BGSU with an overall record of 7-4-1, and the Spartans are 1-3-0 in Big Ten action ... MSU is coming off a road win over then-#23 Indiana, as the Spartans scored in the second overtime for a 1-0 victory on Sunday (Oct. 18) ... State is 3-2-0 in home games this year to date, with the wins coming over Duquesne, Valparaiso and Western Michigan and the losses coming against Ohio State and Penn State ... individually, Rubin Bega leads the Spartans in scoring, with his 17 points including a total of seven goals ... Jeff Ricondo, named the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, has 12 points on four goals and four assists ... he is tied for the team lead in the latter category ... in goal, Avery Steinlage has played in all 12 games ... he has six shutouts, 36 saves and a goals-against average of just 0.49 ... Steinlage had an NCAA-record shutout streak of 1318:26 come to an end on Sept. 20 ... the Spartans have scored 18 goals and allowed only seven this season ... Damon Rensing is in his first season as head coach of the Spartans, after serving as an assistant coach for 10 seasons at his alma mater ... last season, the Spartans went 13-5-2 overall and 5-1-0 in Big Ten play, and won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles ... the school's athletics web site is www.msuspartans.com.
The Falcons lead Michigan State, 16-15-5, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Spartans have won seven consecutive meetings ... BGSU's last series win came eight years ago (Sept. 17, 2001) in East Lansing ... last season (Oct. 29, 2008), the Spartans scored a pair of early goals en route to a 4-0 win at Cochrane Field ... MSU had posted 1-0 wins in each of the two prior meetings, including two years ago (Oct. 2, 2007) in the teams' last meeting in Michigan ... overall, MSU is 8-6-3 in home games vs. the Falcons.
Hartwick will bring an overall record of 8-2-2 to Cochrane Field this weekend, and the Hawks are 3-0-0 in MAC play ... Hartwick has been idle since last Tuesday (Oct. 13) ... on that date, HC picked up a 2-1 win at Syracuse ... the Hawks are riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, having gone 7-0-1 since a loss to Bucknell on Sept. 11 ... included in that streak is a win over #15-ranked Dartmouth (2-0; Sept. 26) ... Hartwick is undefeated in road games, having gone 4-0-2 ... the Hawks have scored 15 goals and allowed just five this year to date ... Dan Summers leads the team with four goals and 11 points ... Nick Roydhouse has scored eight points, including a team-high four assists ... Jeremy Vuolo has played every second in goal, and has seven shutouts in 12 games ... he also has 43 saves and a GAA of only 0.40 ... Hartwick has not allowed more than one goal in any of this year's 12 games ... head coach Ian McIntyre is in his seventh year at HC ... he welcomed back 10 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team that went 7-5-7 overall and 2-2-2 in the MAC ... the school's athletics web site is www.hartwick.edu/athletics.
The Falcons and Hartwick are tied, 1-1-1, in that series ... last season, the Hawks posted a 2-0 win in New York (Oct. 4, 2008) ... in the lone prior meeting at Cochrane Field, the teams battled to a 2-2, double-overtime draw two seasons ago (Oct. 14, 2007) ... the only other matchup came in 1984, when the Falcons posted a 1-0 win in a neutral-site meeting.
• Friday's match at Buffalo was 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.
• The game marked the first MAC victory, as well as the first road win at BGSU, for first-year Falcon head coach Eric Nichols.
• The Falcons' four-goal total was the team's highest in almost two years, since a 4-1 home win over Western Michigan on Oct. 27, 2007 ... BGSU last scored as many as four goals on the road on Sept. 24, 2004, in a 7-4 loss at Ohio State.
• The Falcons now lead Buffalo, 8-6-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... Friday's win snapped a five-match losing streak to the Bulls ... BG is now 5-2-0 in road games vs. UB.
• Senior co-captain Jacob Lawrence, as mentioned, scored his first two goals of the season in Friday's win ... he now has eight goals and 20 points in his Falcon career.
• Lawrence now has three career game-winning goals, all coming in the last two seasons ... he scored winners in back-to-back games vs. Central Arkansas (Sept. 13) and IPFW (Sept. 19) in 2008.
• For Lawrence, Friday marked the second multiple-goal game of his Falcon career ... he also had two goals in last year's win over UCA.
• Fellow senior co-captain Hunter Van Houten had a two-point night at UB, with a pair of assists ... Van Houten now has 17 career points, on four goals and nine assists ... Van Houten is tied with senior Cameron Hepple for the career lead in assists among active Falcons.
• A total of 17 different players have started at least one match this year to date ... only two players – senior Tyler Deal and sophomore Tanner Fink – have started all 12 games.
• Fink leads the Falcons in minutes played ... unofficially, he has played 1099 of the 1120 total minutes this year ... Deal has played 982 minutes, while senior co-captains Hunter Van Houten and Jacob Lawrence have been on the field for 943 and 904 minutes, respectively.
• The Falcons have scored six first-half goals this year ... last season, the Falcons scored only three first-half goals in 19 matches.
FALCONS TABBED FOR FIFTH
The Falcons were predicted to finish fifth in the MAC's preseason poll ... the poll is the result of voting by the league's seven head coaches ... Akron was predicted to win the regular-season and tournament crowns in 2009 ... last year, the Zips captured both the regular-season and tourney titles ... Florida Atlantic and Hartwick are affiliate members of the MAC in men's soccer.
2009 MAC PRESEASON POLL
1-Akron; 2-Hartwick; 3-Buffalo; 4-Northern Illinois; 5-Bowling Green; 6-Western Michigan; 7-Florida Atlantic
MAC TOURNAMENT CHAMPION (votes): Akron (7)
2009 CAPTAINS
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten are the co-captains of the 2009 men's soccer Falcons.
Off The Pitch: Jack Bennett (Oct. 22, 2025)
Thursday, October 23
Off The Pitch: Ryko Bodurov (Oct. 16, 2025)
Friday, October 17
Eric Nichols Post-Match Interview (Oct. 10, 2025)
Saturday, October 11
Trace Terry Post-Match Interview (Oct. 10, 2025)
Saturday, October 11