Falcons Face Dayton, IPFW this Weekend

The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team faces an intra-state foe and a former conference affiliate this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols conclude a stretch of five-straight matches away from home with a Friday (Sept. 18) night game against the University of Dayton ... kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at UD's Baujan Field ... on Sunday (Sept. 20), the Brown and Orange will play a home game for the first time in nearly three weeks, meeting IPFW in a 2:00 p.m. start at Cochrane Field ... BGSU's brutal September schedule sees the Falcons play only two of nine matches at home.

* BGSU Notes & Stats - PDF
* MAC Notes & Stats - PDF

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
As mentioned, the Falcons play only two games at Cochrane Field during a difficult nine-game stretch that spans the entire month of September ... following this weekend's two matches, in fact, BGSU will hit the road next week to face a pair of teams – Michigan and Akron – that have spent time in the national rankings ... currently, UA is ranked #1 in the country in several national polls ... once September ends, the Falcons will play six of the final nine matches of the regular season at home.

LAST WEEK
The Falcons played a pair of games at the Duquesne Invitational in Pittsburgh, Pa. ... on Friday (Sept. 11), Richmond scored early in each half en route to a 3-1 win over BG ... senior Cameron Hepple's goal late in the first half tied the match at 1-all, but the Spiders scored just 4:51 after halftime to take the lead for good ... redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker made two saves in goal ... the following night (Sept. 12), Smoker and the Falcon defense recorded a shutout as BGSU battled host Duquesne to a 0-0 tie ... Smoker faced a total of 24 shot attempts by the Dukes, but made six saves to keep DU off the scoreboard and earn his first collegiate complete-game shutout.

FINK, SMOKER EARN ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
A pair of Falcons were named to the all-tournament team at the Duquesne Invitational over the weekend ... sophomore Tanner Fink and redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker were chosen to the squad.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will take a 1-3-1 record into Friday's match at Dayton ... BGSU is 1-0 in home matches, 0-1-1 in road games and 0-2 in neutral-site contests ... head coach Eric Nichols and Company picked up a 2-0 home win over Marshall before dropping a pair of matches at the Kentucky Invitational ... last weekend, BG lost to Richmond before earning a scoreless tie with Duquesne at the DU Invite ... senior Cameron Hepple leads the Falcons in scoring, with four points on a pair of goals ... he found the back of the net vs. both Marshall and Richmond ... redshirt sophomore Chris Jurtovski and true soph Byard Ebling have scored one goal apiece this season to date ... in goal, redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker has started all five matches this season to date ... Smoker has a MAC-leading total of 20 saves and a goals-against average of 1.34 ... 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 ... the only departed player that scored any points was goalie Paul Shoemaker, who had a goal and two assists last fall ... Chuko Evwaraye, Jacob Lawrence and Hepple – all seniors in '09 – combined for 11 goals a year ago ... Evwaraye led the team in both goals (5) and points (10) ... Lawrence and Hepple had eight points apiece ... Lawrence was second on the club with four goals, while Hepple scored twice and had a team-leading four assists ... both Evwaraye and Lawrence had two game-winning goals ... 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.

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 1-3-1 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 60-25-2 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 the Columbus Xoggz and Indiana Blast of the USISL and the Columbus Invaders of the NPSL ... Nichols is joined on the BGSU staff by assistant coaches Paul Habrecht and Eric Pfeifer.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Dayton has a record of 0-3-1, heading into Friday's match against BGSU ... the Flyers have played a pair of overtime games in the first four contests, tying at Oakland (0-0; Sept. 6) and falling at Denver (2-1; Sept. 11) ... UD's other losses have come to Cincinnati (5-2; Sept. 1) and Air Force (3-0; Sept. 13) ... the Flyers are 0-1-0 at home entering Friday's action, having played UC in the lone prior game at Baujan Field ... Isaac Kissi, Jeff Popella and Tommy Watkins each have scored a goal for UD this year ... Josh Lavallee and Tyler Picard have split time in goal ... Lavallee has 15 saves, one shutout and a GAA of just 0.87 ... Picard has 11 saves and a 4.08 GAA ... a year ago, the Flyers went 15-4-3 overall and 6-2-1 in Atlantic 10 Conference play ... fifth-year head coach Dennis Currier welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including eight starters, from that team ... the school's athletics web site is www.DaytonFlyers.com.

The Falcons lead Dayton, 16-8-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU holds a 6-5-0 advantage in road games in the series ... the teams have not met since the 2000 season ... UD captured the last meeting, a 3-1 decision at Baujan Field on Sept. 20, 2000 ... that snapped a two-game BGSU series win streak ... the series meetings include a 4-1 UD win in Dayton in 1965, in BGSU's first match as a varsity program.

IPFW will enter the weekend with a 3-3-0 overall record ... the Mastodons will host Saint Francis (Pa.) on Friday night before heading to BGSU two days later ... IPFW has posted shutout wins over Western Michigan, Huntington and Gardner-Webb, with losses to Butler, Detroit and Winthrop ... the Winthrop game, a 5-3 setback on Sunday, was the team's most recent game ... that contest also is the team's only road game to date ... Colin Helmrich and Casey Bowman are tied for the team scoring lead ... each player has five points on two goals and an assist ... in goal, Donovan Downing has played all 540 minutes ... he has 28 saves, three shutouts and a 1.33 GAA ... last year, the 'Dons finished 3-11-3 overall and 1-3-2 in Summit League play ... third-year head coach Mike Harper had 17 letterwinners, including 10 starters, return from that club ... the school's athletics web site is www.gomastodons.com.

The Falcons hold a 4-3-1 lead over IPFW in that series, and Sunday's game will mark the eighth consecutive year the schools have played ... the teams are 2-2-1 in games played in BG, including a 2-0 Falcon win last season (Sept. 19, 2008) at Cochrane Field ... that game was scoreless for more than 80 minutes, before Jacob Lawrence gave BG a 1-0 lead ... Thomas McLean also scored in that win ... the teams battled to a scoreless tie two years ago (Oct. 7, 2007) in Northwest Ohio ... the 'Dons were a MAC affiliate member for men's soccer in the 2005 and 2006 season.

A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES
• Redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker's complete-game shutout against Duquesne was the first of his career ... Smoker now has a goals-against average of 1.34 in 335 minutes of action this season to date ... he has started all five matches.

• Smoker's total of six saves in that game tied his season – and career – best ... he also made six stops in the previous weekend's Louisville match ... his total in the UL game came in just one half of play ... Smoker has a total of 20 saves this year.

• The scoreless tie vs. Duquesne was the Falcons' third in seven total matches this year, but the first during the regular season ... the other two nil-nil draws came in BGSU's two exhibitions, vs. Ohio Wesleyan (Aug. 22) and Cleveland State (Aug. 26) ... overtime was not played in either of the exhibitions.

• Sophomore Colin Armstrong made his first start of the season in that DU game ... a total of 14 different players have started at least one game this year to date.

• Senior Cameron Hepple's goal in Friday's Richmond match was his team-leading second of the season ... he has matched his total for all of last year ... Hepple had eight points in 2008, on a pair of goals and four assists ... he is BGSU's active career leader in goals (nine), assists (eight) and points (26).

• Redshirt sophomore Max Weston picked up his first collegiate point with an assist on Hepple's goal vs. the Spiders ... Weston, a transfer from Indiana University, in his first season at BGSU.

• A total of five Falcons have started all five games this year ... that list includes Smoker, Hepple, senior Tyler Deal and sophomores Garrett Bireline and Tanner Fink.

• Unofficially, Fink leads the team with a total of 449 minutes played, while Hepple has played 423 of the 470 minutes in 2009.

FALCON FIRST-HALF GOALS
Senior Cameron Hepple scored late in the first half of the Richmond game ... that marked the Falcons' second first-half goal this season, just one shy of the total for all of last year ... in 2008, BG scored just three first-half goals in 19 matches.

FALCONS TABBED FOR FIFTH
The MAC office released the preseason poll on Aug. 19, 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 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 CAPTAINS
Seniors Jacob Lawrence and Hunter Van Houten are the co-captains of the 2009 men's soccer Falcons.

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