Huskies Spoil Senior Night with 3-0 Win

Saturday, October 29

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Northern Illinois

BGSU men's soccer Senior Night - Armstrong Fink Jurtovski Ebling Rosales

October 29, 2011 | Men's Soccer

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Northern Illinois University put a damper on the Bowling Green State University men's soccer team's 'Senior Night' festivities, posting a workmanlike 3-0 win over the Falcons Saturday night (Oct. 29). The Mid-American Conference match was held at Cochrane Field.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
SENIOR NIGHT PHOTO GALLERY
Scroll down for a postgame interview with BGSU coach Eric Nichols

With the victory, the Huskies improve to 11-4-0 overall and 3-2-0 in MAC play. The Falcons drop to 7-6-3 and 1-3-1, respectively.

The loss dropped the Falcons into sixth place in the seven-team conference, while NIU clinched one of the four MAC Tournament berths with the victory.

Pat Sloan scored what would turn out to be the winning goal in the 19th minute, while Kenny Kranz and Jayson LeSeth gave the visitors a comfortable lead with second-half markers.

The Huskies held a 15-8 advantage in shot attempts, including a 7-4 margin in shots on goal. Jordan Godsey had four saves to earn the complete-match shutout for the visitors.

Sophomore Michael Wiest, who had four saves as well, was on the wrong end of a tough stat line. Two of NIU's three goals deflected in off of a BGSU defender, while the other goal came when Kranz found himself wide open less than 10 yards from goal.

The skies were calm when the match started, but the field was slick from multiple types of precipitation earlier in the day. It had briefly rained in Bowling Green earlier in the day, and at approximately 6:00 p.m. (an hour prior to kickoff), the rain returned, accompanied by hail this time. But, the precipitation had subsided by the time 'Senior Night' ceremonies began at about 6:45 p.m.

Once the match started, NIU took the lead with 18:03 gone. A corner kick by Gael Rivera deflected off of the head of a BGSU defender in the penalty area, and sailed to Sloan on the left side of the box. Sloan settled the ball and fired a low shot. The shot hit a Falcon defender, and Wiest got a piece of the shot, but it went under the diving 'keeper and into the net.

Kranz doubled the NIU lead with 28:18 remaining in the match. James Stevenson, the Huskies' leading scorer, did most of the work on the play, making a run through the BGSU defense and into the box. From the right side, Stevenson slid a pass to a wide-open Kranz, who was about 10 yards out. Kranz hit the shot in stride, and there was little Wiest could do as the ball sailed into the net.

Northern closed the scoring with just under six minutes left. After a BG foul just to the left of the penalty box, Karim Darbaki slid the ensuing free kick to LeSeth. LeSeth fired a shot from approximately 10 yards away from goal and slightly left of the center of the pitch. For the second time on the night, a shot was partially blocked by a Falcon defender, and the change of direction sent the ball past Wiest, who had already started to dive.

Wiest's four saves included several impressive stops. The sophomore denied Stevenson after Isaac Kannah had played a through ball ahead to the NIU striker. Stevenson fired a shot just after crossing the 18-yard line, but Wiest made a diving save with 12 minutes left in the first half. The BG goalie also came off of his line to make a sliding grab of another forward ball just before an NIU striker arrived.

BGSU had a chance late in the first half, off of a throw-in by redshirt junior Zach Lemke. Junior Rodcliff Hall, running away from goal and toward Lemke's throw, headed the ball behind him to classmate Chris McLean. McLean poked the ball toward the far post, but the ball was just out of reach of freshman Danny Baraldi's lunging effort, and it rolled out of bounds for a goal kick.

Early in the second half, with the Huskies ahead by a single goal, freshman Alex Bechtol's sliding tackle took the ball off of Darbaki's foot after Darbaki had made a run into the box.

Midway through the half, with Northern up by a pair of goals, Hall laid a pass off to Lemke, who blasted a shot from 20 yards out that sailed over the goal. Several minutes later, Hall had a chance of his own after sophomore Ryan Snashall stole the ball deep in the NIU end. Snashall passed the ball ahead to Hall at the top of the box, and the junior turned and fired, but the low shot rolled just wide of the far (left) post.

Following NIU's third goal with 5:51 left, the Falcons ventured deep into the NIU end on one or two more occasions, but BG could not get a shot on goal the rest of the night.

As mentioned, Saturday marked 'Senior Night' for the Falcon program. BGSU's five-person senior class, including Colin Armstrong, Byard Ebling, Tanner Fink, Chris Jurtovski and Miguel Rosales were recognized in pregame ceremonies.

The Falcons hit the road for a pair of matches to begin November and end the regular season. BGSU steps outside of MAC play one final time for a Tuesday (Nov. 1) match at Wright State University. Then, the Brown and Orange will head to Kalamazoo, Mich., to face Western Michigan University next Saturday (Nov. 5), on the final day of the regular season.

To qualify for the MAC Tournament, BGSU needs a win at Western Michigan, and the Falcons need Hartwick to do no better than to earn one tie the rest of the way. The Hawks are at Buffalo on Wednesday (Nov. 2) before hosting NIU next Saturday evening (Nov. 5). One Hartwick win, or two draws by the Hawks, will eliminate BGSU from league tourney consideration.

The MAC Tournament, which will be hosted by regular-season champion Akron, begins with semifinal matches on Friday, Nov. 11. The championship match will be Sunday, Nov. 13.