Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Detroit
Two Road Games on Horizon for Falcons
September 14, 2010 | Men's Soccer
BGSU takes on a pair of HL foes on their home turf this week
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after a solid showing against the number-one team in the country, returns to the road for a pair of matches this week ... the Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols will take on a pair of Horizon League schools on their home turf, facing the University of Detroit Mercy on Wednesday (Sept. 15), before meeting Valparaiso University Sunday evening (Sept. 19) ... the UDM match is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. at Titan Field, while the Valpo match kicks off at 7:00 p.m. locally (8:00 p.m. Eastern Time) at Brown Field ... following the latter contest, the Brown and Orange will return home for the next three matches, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 22, vs. Wright State University.
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF | MAC NOTES & STATS - PDF
FREE ADMISSION FOR HOME MATCHES
As part of BGSU's Centennial celebration, admission to all BGSU home soccer matches in the 2010 regular season will be free ... as mentioned above, the men's soccer Falcons host Wright State on Sept. 22 to begin a three-game homestand.
LIVE STATISTICS
Again in 2010, all BGSU home men's soccer matches, and most away contests, will have live statistics available on the web ... 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 ... there is also scheduled to be an audio broadcast of Sunday's Valparaiso match.
LAST TIME OUT
Akron, the number-one-ranked team in the nation, got a goal in the 64th minute to break a scoreless draw, and the Zips went on to a 2-0 victory over the Falcons Saturday afternoon (Sept. 11) ... the match was the home opener, as well as the Mid-American Conference opener, for BGSU ... the Falcon defense, led by junior goalkeeper Miguel Rosales and center backs Thomas McLean and Tanner Fink, frustrated the UA offense for the entire first half and the first third of the second ... Rosales made a career-high 11 saves, while McLean, Fink and Company blocked numerous other shots ... the Zips broke through when Kofi Sarkodie poked home a rebound at the 63:17 mark, and Darren Mattocks gave the visitors some insurance, scoring with just under 10 minutes left.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons will enter the Detroit match with an overall record of 0-1-2, and BGSU is 0-1-0 in Mid-American Conference action ... BG's two ties came vs. Appalachian State (0-0; Sept. 3) and host Davidson (2-2; Sept. 5) in the Davidson adidas Classic ... most recently, the Brown and Orange lost to top-ranked Akron by a 2-0 count on Saturday (Sept. 11) ... junior Max Weston leads the team with three points, with a goal and an assist vs. DC ... freshman Zach Schewee had the Falcons' other goal vs. the Wildcats, and has two points ... junior Miguel Rosales has played all 310 minutes in goal, and has one shutout, 21 saves and a goals-against average of 1.16 ... Schewee has also played all 310 minutes in the first two matches, while junior tri-captain Tanner Fink has played 307 and classmate Chris Jurtovski 303 ... 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 is the top returning scorer, having recorded two goals and five points last season ... the only other players on the 2010 roster who scored in '09 are juniors Jurtovski and Weston, who had one goal apiece ... in goal, the lone returning 'keeper is sophomore Dylan Schoettley ... he played in 10 matches a year ago, starting the final seven ... Schoettley had 44 saves and a GAA of 2.27 in 2009 ... Rosales is in his first season at BGSU after transferring from the Univ. of Cincinnati.
MIGHT WANNA GRAB A PROGRAM ON THE WAY TO YOUR SEAT
Fans who come to Cochrane Field, or who make the trip to a BGSU road game, might want to grab a game program ... head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons have no fewer than 12 newcomers on the 2010 roster, including 11 freshmen ... three of those newcomers – junior Miguel Rosales and freshmen Zach Schewee and Brandon Silva – were in the starting lineup for both matches at Davidson over the weekend ... of the six players who saw action off the bench, five of them are true freshmen ... that list includes Ryan Comiskey, Jacob Eganhouse, Sam Galloway, Matt Griesinger and Ryan Snashall ... Comiskey and Snashall moved into the starting lineup for the Akron match, giving the Falcons five newcomers in the starting 11 on Saturday.
FALCON COACH ERIC NICHOLS
Eric Nichols is in his second season at the BGSU 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 3-13-5 record at the helm of the men's soccer Falcons, and is 62-35-6 overall in his sixth 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 coach Paul Habrecht and director of operations Alma-Lynn Dupont in 2010.
FALCONS PICKED TO FINISH SIXTH
The Falcons were picked to finish sixth in the MAC standings in 2010 according to the preseason coaches poll, released by the conference office on Aug. 26 ... the poll is the result of voting by the league's seven head coaches ... Akron, ranked No. 1 in the nation in every poll, was picked to capture the 2010 MAC title ... last year, the Zips captured both the regular-season and tourney titles ... Northern Illinois was predicted to finish second, while Hartwick and Western Michigan were picked to tie for third place ... Hartwick and Florida Atlantic are affiliate members of the MAC in men's soccer.
THE TITANS / THE BGSU-DETROIT SERIES
Detroit will enter the BGSU match with an overall record of 0-3-1 on the season ... Wednesday's match against the Falcons will be the home opener for the Titans ... last weekend, UDM dropped a pair of matches at the Spinx/Diadora Classic, falling to host Furman, 4-3, on Friday (Sept. 10), and losing a 3-1 verdict to the College of Charleston Sunday (Sept. 12) ... the Titans opened the season with a narrow 2-1 loss in overtime at Michigan, then played Cincinnati to a 1-1 draw ... Ya Ya Toure has three of the team's six goals to date, and leads UDM with a total of seven points ... Martin Robertson has played all 405-plus minutes in goal, and has 23 saves and a goals-against average of 2.22 ... Nick Deren is in his first full season as the Titans' head coach ... he served as the team's interim head coach for the final eight matches of 2009, and has an overall head-coaching mark of 4-7-1 ... he welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including 10 starters, from a year ago ... the Titans went 5-12-1 overall and 2-6-0 in Horizon League play in '09 ... the school's athletics web site is DetroitTitans.com.
The Falcons lead Detroit, 14-6-2, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Titans won last year's meeting ... UDM rallied from two goals down for a 3-2 win in overtime at Cochrane Field (Nov. 4, 2009) ... that broke BGSU's three-match series unbeaten streak, and marked the second-straight year that the teams had played a wild, high-scoring affair ... exactly one year prior to last season's meeting, the teams combined for six goals – tying the highest output in series history – in the Motor City ... in that match, the Falcons trailed, 3-0, early in the second half, but rallied for a 3-3 tie ... BGSU has a record of 6-4-1 in road games vs. UDM.
THE CRUSADERS / THE BGSU-VALPARAISO SERIES
Valparaiso enters the week with a record of 3-0-1 ... the Crusaders, who play at IUPUI Friday night (Sept. 17) before hosting the Falcons two days later, are undefeated through four matches for the first time in program history ... last weekend, VU won the Marquette Invitational, with a 1-0 win over Santa Clara and a scoreless tie vs. Florida Gulf Coast ... the previous weekend (Sept. 4-6), the Crusaders won a pair of one-goal matches in Las Vegas, downing UNLV (1-0) and UC Riverside (2-1 in OT) ... Valpo has scored four goals and allowed just one in the four games ... Roby Del Guidice has two of those four goals, for a team-high four points ... Ryan Schwarz and Kyle Zobeck have split time in goal ... Schwarz has nine saves and a spotless 0.00 GAA, while Zobeck has six stops and a GAA of only 0.43 ... head coach Mike Avery returned 17 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year's club that went 10-7-2 overall and 4-2-2 in the Horizon League ... the school's athletics website is www.valpoathletics.com.
Valparaiso holds a 1-0-0 lead in the series with BGSU ... the only meeting came last season (Oct. 6, 2009) at Cochrane Field ... the Crusaders scored a pair of second-half goals, on a Stefan Antonijevic header in the 53rd minute and a Zack Stivers penalty kick with 11 minutes left ... Schwartz made five saves to earn the shutout ... Sunday's match, obviously, will be the Falcons' first road contest vs. Valpo.
BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA
For the Falcons, Sunday's match at Valparaiso marks the first of no fewer than four trips to the state of Indiana this season ... BGSU will journey to Fort Wayne for an Oct. 6 match with IPFW, then will venture to Indianapolis twice, for games vs. Butler (Oct. 13) and IUPUI (Nov. 3) ... the Falcons have one Indiana native on the roster, senior Garrett Bireline (Marion, Ind./Marion HS).
THE 2010 CAPTAINS
Seniors Thomas McLean and Dusko Topolic and junior Tanner Fink are the captains of the 2010 men's soccer Falcons.
