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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
#10 Michigan State
Falcons Host Nationally-Ranked Spartans to Close Home Schedule
October 19, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Wednesday's MSU match is Senior Day at Cochrane Field
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, having won three of the last four games, has a .500 record in mid-October for the first time in seven years ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols will put that record on the line, with a game against a nationally-ranked opponent this week ... BGSU will host Michigan State University in Wednesday (Oct. 20) action, with kickoff set for 3:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field ... the game, the Falcons' final home contest of the regular season, is also BGSU's lone action of the week ... following the MSU game, BG's final four regular-season matches all will take place on the road, including a second-straight game vs. a Big Ten Conference foe, at the University of Michigan on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF
MAC NOTES & STATS - PDF
SENIOR DAY MATCH PROGRAM COVER - PDF
LIVE STATS FOR WEDNESDAY'S MATCH
SENIOR DAY
Wednesday's match will be 'Senior Day' for the Falcon men's soccer program ... fourth-year Falcons Robert Barker, Garrett Bireline, Thomas McLean and Dusko Topolic will be recognized in a brief ceremony at halftime of the MSU game.
FREE ADMISSION FOR HOME MATCHES
As part of BGSU's Centennial celebration, admission to all Falcon home men's and women's soccer matches in the 2010 regular season will be free ... as mentioned, Wednesday's match vs. Michigan State is the final home regular-season contest for the BGSU men.
LIVE STATISTICS
Again in 2010, all BGSU home men's soccer matches, as well as all of the team's away contests (at least all of the road games so far), will have live statistics available on the web ... if you can't make it to Cochrane Field on Wednesday, log on to BGSUFalcons.com at game time ... the live stats links can be found on the front page of the site (in the 'schedule' section) or by clicking on the men's soccer 2010 schedule and choosing the corresponding match.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons split a pair of matches on the road last week ... on Wednesday (Oct. 13), host Butler proved to be worthy of its national top-10 ranking, scoring three first-half goals en route to a 5-0 win over the Falcons at the Butler Bowl in Indianapolis ... BU entered the game ranked eighth in the nation in several polls and ninth in several others ... on Saturday (Oct. 16), senior Dusko Topolic's second-half goal lifted the Falcons to a 1-0 win at Hartwick ... Topolic headed home a corner kick by freshman Jacob Eganhouse in the 55th minute ... junior Miguel Rosales made seven saves to earn his fifth shutout of the season.
SOMETHING ABOUT TWO BIRDS AND ONE STONE
BGSU hosts Michigan State on Wednesday, and the Spartans are ranked in the national polls ... the Falcons are looking to defeat a nationally-ranked team for the first time in over five years ... BGSU's last such win was a 3-2, double-overtime triumph over 11th-ranked Ohio State at Cochrane Field on Sept. 23, 2005 ... that win, believe it or not, broke a 26-match winless streak for the Falcons, dating to the 2003 season ... the victory over OSU on that afternoon at Cochrane Field also marks the last time BGSU defeated a Big Ten Conference opponent.
EVEN STEVEN
With a 5-5-2 record heading into the MSU game, the Falcons have surpassed the win total for all of last season by two games ... BGSU went 3-12-3 during the 2009 campaign.
BGSU IN THE RPI
The Falcons are 88th of 204 schools in the latest NCAA Men's Soccer RPI, released Tuesday (Oct. 19) by the NCAA office ... in the five years from 2005 through 2009, BGSU did not have an RPI higher than 152 ... last year, BG finished 180th of 204 schools in the final RPI ... a list of the Falcons' RPI rankings since 2005 can be found on page 6 of the PDF version of this release.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons will enter Wednesday's Michigan State match with an overall record of 5-5-2, and BGSU is 2-2-0 in Mid-American Conference action ... BGSU has won three of the last four games, including a 1-0 victory at Hartwick in the team's most recent contest, on Saturday night (Oct. 16) in New York.
• Junior Max Weston leads the team with 11 points, having been involved in the scoring of seven of BGSU's 11 goals this season ... Weston also leads the Falcons in goals, with four, and assists (three) ... senior tri-captain Dusko Topolic is second on the team with four points, and his total of two goals also puts him second on the Falcons ... Topolic and Weston each have two game-winning goals this fall to date.
• Six Falcons – juniors Colin Armstrong and Chris Jurtovski, sophomores Joey D'Agostino and Zach Lemke and freshmen Sam Galloway and Zach Schewee – each have two points on the season ... Armstrong, D'Agostino, Lemke and Schewee have one goal apiece, while Galloway and Jurtovski both have recorded two assists.
• Junior Miguel Rosales has played all 1128-plus minutes in goal, and has five shutouts, a MAC-leading 60 saves and a goals-against average of 1.28 ... in the four MAC matches, Rosales has a pair of shutouts and a GAA of 1.00.
• Junior tri-captain Tanner Fink has played 1125 of the 1128 minutes over the first 12 matches, while senior Thomas McLean – also a tri-captain along with Fink and Topolic –has played 1115 minutes ... freshman Brandon Silva and Schewee have played 1100 and 1061 minutes, respectively, this fall.
• Falcon coach Eric Nichols is in his second season at the BG helm ... Nichols and assistant coach Paul Habrecht welcomed back a total of 14 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's club ... the 2009 Falcons went 3-12-3 overall and posted a MAC mark of 2-3-1, placing fifth in the league standings.
• BG scored a total of 21 goals last season, and the departed players combined to score 17 of them ... the Falcons' top-two scorers last season were the graduated Cameron Hepple (10 goals, 21 points) and Jacob Lawrence (five goals, 13 points) ... the Falcons have 12 newcomers on the 2010 team ... junior Byard Ebling scored the most points of the returnees, with two goals and five points last season ... the only other players on the 2010 roster who scored in '09 are Jurtovski and Weston, who had one goal apiece.
• In goal, the lone returning 'keeper is sophomore Dylan Schoettley ... he played in 10 matches, starting the final seven, and had 44 saves and a GAA of 2.27 in 2009 ... Rosales is in his first season at BGSU after transferring from Cincinnati.
HELPS TO SCORE FIRST
Not surprisingly, the Falcons have had better results when scoring the first goal of the match this fall ... BGSU is a perfect 4-0-0 when netting the first goal this season ... the Falcons have surrendered the first goal seven times, but have rallied back on two occasions ... BG is 1-5-1 when allowing the first goal, rallying for a 2-2 tie at Davidson (Sept. 5) and a 2-1 overtime victory over IPFW (Oct. 6).
FALCON COACH ERIC NICHOLS
BGSU coach Eric Nichols is in his second season at the Falcon helm ... he was hired on Feb. 17, 2009, and is just the fifth head coach in the 46-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 2009 regular-season opener, and picked up his first MAC victory at Buffalo ... Nichols has a record of 8-17-5 at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 67-39-6 overall in his sixth season as a collegiate head coach ... he is 4-5-1 in MAC matches ... 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 coach Paul Habrecht and director of operations Alma-Lynn Dupont in 2010.
WEDNESDAY WARRIORS
BGSU is in the midst of a stretch which sees the Falcons play a game on each of five consecutive Wednesdays ... BGSU has a record of 3-1-0 in Wednesday games this year to date ... the wins came at Detroit, (1-0; Sept. 15), at home against Wright State (3-0; Sept. 22), and in overtime at IPFW (2-1; Oct. 6) ... the loss came at eighth-ranked Butler, 5-0, last week (Oct. 13).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Michigan State game is the only home contest in BGSU's last seven regular-season games ... following the match vs. the Spartans, the Falcons will play four-straight games away from home, against Michigan, Northern Illinois, IUPUI and Florida Atlantic ... both of BG's remaining MAC matches – vs. NIU and FAU – will take place on the road.
THE SPARTANS / THE BGSU-MICHIGAN STATE SERIES
Michigan State enters the week with an overall record of 10-3-0, and the Spartans are 2-2-0 in Big Ten Conference play ... MSU will be the Falcons' third nationally-ranked opponent, and BG's second in a three-game span ... the Spartans are ranked #10 in the nation in the Soccer America poll, which was released Tuesday night ... MSU is #15 in both the SoccerTimes.com and TopDrawerSoccer.com polls, #16 in the NSCAA poll and rated #17 by College Soccer News ... MSU won a pair of home games by shutout last week, with a 5-0 victory over Western Michigan (Oct. 13) on Wednesday and a 3-0 triumph vs. Wisconsin (Oct. 17) on Sunday ... the Spartans are 7-0-0 at home and 3-3-0 on the road this season to date ... State has outscored opponents, 31-13, this year ... Domenic Barone and Brent Rosendall have 15 and 14 points, respectively, pacing a balanced scoring attack ... Barone has six goals in just nine matches, while Rosendall also has six goals to tie for the team lead ... four other players have three goals each, including Spencer Thompson ... Thompson has a team-leading seven assists, while Cyrus Saydee has six helpers ... in goal, Avery Steinlage has four complete-match shutouts, 60 saves and a goals-against average of just 0.98 ... Damon Rensing is in his second season as head coach at his alma mater ... he returned all but one letterwinner from the 2009 team ... last year's edition of the Spartans went 11-8-2 overall and 2-4-0 in Big Ten action ... MSU earned an NCAA Championships berth for the third-straight season, falling to Duke in the second round ... the school's athletics web site is www.MSUSpartans.com.
The Falcons and Michigan State are tied, 16-16-5, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU has a record of 10-7-2 in home matches vs. the Spartans, but MSU has won the last four games at Cochrane Field and the last eight meetings overall ... last season, the Spartans scored a pair of goals two minutes apart early in the second half, then held on for a 2-1 victory in East Lansing (Oct. 21, 2009) ... Dylan Schoettley made eight saves for the Falcons ... in the last meeting in BG, the Spartans scored on the first two shots of the game en route to a 4-0 win (Oct. 29, 2008) ... BGSU went 5-0-2 in series meetings between 1994 and 2001, prior to MSU's current eight-match win streak ... the Falcons' last win over MSU came in East Lansing, 3-1, on Sept. 17, 2001 ... BGSU's last home result was a 1-1 tie 10 years ago (Oct. 31, 2000), and the Falcons' last home win over MSU was a 3-0 victory on Oct. 18, 1998.
FALCONS ON THE ROAD
• The Falcons have tripled the road win total for all of last season ... Saturday's (Oct. 16) win at Hartwick gives BGSU a record of 3-2-1 in road games this year to date ... the Falcons went 1-6-1 in true road contests in 2009.
• The Falcons' total of road wins is higher than the combined total of the 2008 and '09 teams ... BGSU went 2-13-3 in road games over those two seasons, including a 1-8-1 mark last year and a 1-7-2 record in 2008.
CLEAN SHEETS FOR ROSALES, FALCONS
• The win over Hartwick was the Falcons' fifth shutout of the season, two more than the total for all of last year ... the Brown and Orange had three shutouts in 18 games in 2009.
• Junior Miguel Rosales has been in goal for every minute of the Falcons' first 12 games this year, and has five complete-match shutouts ... Rosales is the first BGSU 'keeper to record five clean sheets in a season since David DeGraff had five in the 2003 season ... no Falcon goalie has had more shutouts in a year since DeGraff posted seven in 2001.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG (a few more BGSU notes)
Senior Dusko Topolic's goal against Hartwick was his second of the season, and the second of his BGSU career • both of Topolic's goals have been the first goal of a match, and have proven to be the game-winning goal ... he scored early in the Falcons' 3-0 home win over Wright State last month (Sept. 22) • second-year head coach Eric Nichols has a 2-1-0 record in MAC road games – including a 2-0-0 mark in the state of New York – since his arrival at BGSU ... the Falcons played just two conference games away from home last season, losing at Akron, but posting a 4-3 win at Buffalo exactly one year prior to this season's Hartwick match (Oct. 16, 2009) • freshman Jacob Eganhouse picked up his first collegiate point with an assist on Topolic's goal at Hartwick.
THE 2010 CAPTAINS
Seniors Thomas McLean and Dusko Topolic and junior Tanner Fink are the captains of the 2010 men's soccer Falcons.
