Bowling Green State University Athletics
Saturday, October 3
Bowling Green, Ohio
12:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
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Western Michigan
Falcons Face WMU Saturday to Begin Two-Game Homestand
September 30, 2009 | Men's Soccer
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after playing only two home games during the entire month of September, will begin October with back-to-back contests at Cochrane Field ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols return home to face Western Michigan University Saturday afternoon (Oct. 3), with kickoff set for 12:00 p.m. ... then, on Tuesday (Oct. 6), the Brown and Orange will meet Valparaiso University ... that game will begin at 3:00 p.m. at Cochrane ... beginning with the WMU match, the Falcons will close the regular season by playing six of the final nine contests at home.
BGSU notes & stats (PDF) | Mid-American Conference notes & stats (PDF)
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BGSU men's soccer live stats for home games
LAST WEEK
The Falcons played a pair of nationally-ranked teams on the road last week ... BGSU dropped a 5-1 decision to #18/24 Michigan in Ann Arbor on Wednesday night (Sept. 23) ... redshirt sophomore Max Weston picked up his first collegiate goal to give the Falcons an early lead, but the Wolverines tied the score late in the first half, then exploded for four second-half goals ... redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker made a total of four saves ... then, on Saturday (Sept. 26), the Brown and Orange dropped a 6-0 decision to Akron, the number-one ranked team in the nation ... Smoker made five saves vs. the Zips.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will take a 1-6-2 record into Saturday's Western Michigan match ... BGSU is 1-0-1 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 six losses this season have come at the hands of nationally-ranked opponents, including last week's matches at Michigan and Akron ... senior Cameron Hepple leads the Falcons in scoring, with 11 points on the year ... Hepple, who missed the U-M and UA 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 nine matches this season ... Smoker has a MAC-leading total of 46 saves and a goals-against average of 2.64 ... 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 1-6-2 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 60-28-3 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.
TOUGH CROWD
As mentioned earlier, the Falcons have played seven of the season's first nine games away from home ... three of the team's six losses – to Louisville, Michigan and Akron – came to teams that were ranked in at least one national 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 has since moved into the national rankings ... those four Falcon opponents currently have a combined record of 26-4-2 on the season.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Western Michigan enters Saturday's match against BGSU with a record of 2-6-0 ... the game at Cochrane Field will be the MAC opener for the Broncos ... Western lost six consecutive matches to begin the season, but won a pair of home games over the weekend, scoring a combined 11 goals ... WMU downed Canisius, 5-3, on Friday (Sept. 25) before notching a 6-2 victory over Centenary Sunday afternoon (Sept. 27) ... the Broncos are 0-2-0 in road games this year to date, having fallen at IPFW (0-2; Sept. 4) and Bradley (1-2; Sept. 11) ... Saeed Sulemana Baba, the reigning MAC Player of the Week, leads the team – and the conference – in scoring ... Sulemana Baba has 16 points on eight goals ... he has been named to several national teams of the week, after scoring the winning goal vs. Canisius and tying the school record with four goals vs. Centenary ... Cody Camp and Casey Aubil each have started four matches in goal ... Camp has 16 saves and a GAA of 2.61, while Aubil has 19 stops and a 3.00 GAA this year to date ... first-year head coach Stu Riddle inherited 14 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year's team that finished 3-15-1 overall and 2-4-0 in MAC action ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
The Falcons lead Western Michigan, 26-9-3, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Broncos won the most recent meeting ... last season (Oct. 15, 2008), WMU picked up a 3-0 win in Kalamazoo ... the Falcons have records of 14-2-2 at home, 11-7-1 on the road and 1-0-0 in neutral-site meetings with the Broncos ... the teams are 2-2-1 in the last five games at Cochrane Field ... but, in the most recent meeting in Northwest Ohio, the Falcons erupted for a 4-1 win over Western two years ago (Oct. 27, 2007) ... Chuko Evwaraye, Cameron Hepple and Hunter Van Houten were among the goalscorers that afternoon.
Valparaiso enters the week with an overall record of 4-3-1, and the Crusaders are 1-0-0 in Horizon League play ... VU plays at Michigan State Wednesday (Sept. 30) and at Wright State Sunday (Oct. 4) before heading to BGSU ... last weekend, Valpo opened league play with a 1-0 win at Detroit (Sept. 25) and a 1-1 tie vs. Loyola (Ill.) at home (Sept. 27) ... VU is currently 3-1-0 on the road this year, with wins over Eastern Illinois, WMU and UDM, and the loss coming to then-#10 South Florida ... with the exception of the season opener vs. EIU (a 2-0 win), every game has been decided by one goal or fewer ... Zack Stivers leads the team in scoring with four goals and 10 points ... Jaymie Bullard and Brendan Roth have four points apiece, while Steve Shively has a team-high three assists ... Ryan Schwarz has played all eight games in goal, and has two shutouts, 30 saves and a GAA of 0.96 ... a year ago, the Crusaders went 6-10-3 overall and 1-6-1 in HL play ... third-year head coach Mike Avery had 17 letterwinners, including six starters, return from that club ... the school's athletics web site is www.valpoathletics.com.
The Falcons and Valparaiso have never met in men's soccer.
A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES
• Senior co-captain Hunter Van Houten will face his hometown school when Valparaiso comes to town on Tuesday ... Van Houten hails from Valparaiso, Ind.
• Redshirt sophomore Max Weston scored the first goal of his collegiate career Wednesday, giving the Falcons a 1-0 lead at Michigan ... Weston is in his first season at BGSU after transferring from Indiana University.
• Weston is currently second on the team in scoring, with four points ... he has a team-leading two assists, in addition to his goal ... senior Cameron Hepple, who missed both the U-M and Akron games, leads the Falcons with 11 points on the year.
• Seniors Chuko Evwaraye and Jacob Lawrence each assisted on Weston's goal vs. the Wolverines ... for both players, the assist was the first of the season ... in fact, for Evwaraye, it marked his first career assist.
• Evwaraye now has 19 career points at BGSU, with nine goals and the assist ... Hepple (12 goals, nine assists, 33 points) is BG's active career leader in all three scoring categories, and Evwaraye is second among current Falcons in goals and points.
• Lawrence now has 16 career points on six goals and four assists ... Wednesday's helper was his first point of the season.
• BGSU has scored five first-half goals this year ... last season, the Falcons scored only three first-half goals in 19 matches.
• Weston's goal was BG's earliest in a game in nearly two years ... 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 Evwaraye (5:11) scored in the first five-plus minutes of a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois at Cochrane Field.
• A total of 17 different players have started at least one match this year ... only three players – senior Tyler Deal, sophomore Tanner Fink and redshirt freshman Jeff Smoker – have started all nine games to date.
• Fink leads the Falcons in minutes played ... unofficially, he has played 829 of the 850 total minutes this year ... Deal has played 725 minutes, while co-captains Van Houten and Lawrence have been on the field for 673 and 666 minutes, respectively.
FALCONS TABBED FOR FIFTH
The MAC office released the preseason poll on Aug. 19, and the Falcons were 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.
GETTING AN EARLY START
Redshirt sophomore Max Weston scored just 9:34 into the match at Michigan (Sept. 23), giving the Falcons an early lead ... that marked the Falcons' fifth first-half goal this season, nearly double the total for all of last year ... in 2008, BG scored just 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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