Despite Bucaro's Blast, Eastern Michigan Slips Past Falcons, 2-1

Friday, October 4

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

0-9-0, 0-3-0MAC

Eastern Michigan

6-4-1, 3-0-0MAC

Team	1	2	Final F
Eastern Michigan	0	2	2
Bowling Green	0	1	1

October 04, 2013 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Cadel ties career high with 12 saves

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Taylor Bucaro goal celeb - Nahikian - Oct 4 2013 v EMU

Visiting Eastern Michigan University scored two goals early in the second half, then held off a spirited comeback effort by the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team Friday night (Oct. 4). The Eagles escaped Cochrane Field with a 2-1, Mid-American Conference win.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
PHOTO GALLERY: Courtesy James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications
PHOTO GALLERY: Courtesy Jonathan Culver, BGSU Marketing & Communications
Scroll down for video of a post-match interview with Lindsay Basalyga

With the victory, EMU improves to 6-4-1 overall and 3-0-0 in MAC play. The Falcons drop to 0-9-0 and 0-3-0, respectively.

Freshman Taylor Bucaro scored her first collegiate goal less than a minute after Eastern's second goal, on a blast from roughly 35 yards out. Redshirt freshman Lauren Cadel had 12 saves to tie her career high.

Cadel made eight of her saves in the first half, including no fewer than seven in the first 23-plus minutes. On the night, the Eagles had a total of 27 shots to the Falcons' 12, and Eastern had a 14-5 advantage in shots on goal.

But, it was the Falcons with the first shot of the night. In the first minute of play, junior Ashley Garr hit a shot from outside the penalty area that went just over the crossbar, hitting the netting on top of the goal.

Less than 30 seconds later, senior Jenny Fowler got the ball back for the home side. Her pass found classmate Madeline Wideman, who in turn spotted senior Ivi Casagrande on the left side of the pitch. Casagrande played a cross through the box, but the ball skipped off the wet grass and went out of the reach of an onrushing teammate on the right side of the penalty area.

Three minutes into the match, EMU's Emily Dzik got her head on a corner kick by Stephanie Clarke, but Dzik's hard shot was directly at Cadel, who made the save from point-blank range.

Cadel made stops on shots by Clarke, Bianca Rossi and Cara Cutaia over the next few minutes. Midway through the opening half, an EMU diagonal ball found Rossi in the center of the box. Rossi's header was struck well, but Cadel made yet another save to keep the match scoreless.

With seven minutes left in the half, the Falcons worked the ball into the Eastern Michigan end, and an Eagle defender looked to knock the ball forward to a teammate. The ball, however, went to Falcon freshman Haley Malaczewski at the right corner of the 18-yard box. Malaczewski's sudden one-timer curled toward the upper-right corner of the goal, but EMU 'keeper Megan McCabe was able to save the spinning shot with a leaping effort.

Perhaps the best chance of the first half for either team came in the final minute. Freshman Paige Amodio and sophomore Emma Norris combined to get the ball to Wideman as she headed down the center of the field, and Wideman uncorked a hard shot that headed toward the top left corner of the goal. McCabe was just able to get her fingertips on the ball, deflecting it out of play with 35 seconds left. Wideman quickly grabbed the ball and lined up a corner kick, but EMU was able to successfully deal with that corner as the Cochrane Field public-address announcer counted down the final 10 seconds of the period.

BGSU had two corner kicks early in the second half. The first was knocked out of play by the EMU defense, leading to the second corner. That second kick was cleared out of the box, leading to an Eagle counterattack. Angela Vultaggio took the ball down the right side of the pitch and played a low diagonal ball into the penalty area. As Cadel came off of her line to get the ball, a BG defender, heading toward goal, made a lunging effort to block the cross. The ball hit the Falcon defender and trickled into the vacated net. The own goal came at the 46:47 mark.

Just over four minutes later, the Eagles were awarded a free kick approximately 25 yards away from goal. The low kick hit a BG player in the penalty area, and a penalty kick was awarded to the visitors as it was ruled the ball had struck a Falcon defender's hand. Clarke converted that PK to give the visitors a two-goal lead with 50:48 gone.

Less than a minute later, however, Bucaro cut that lead in half. The freshman, from approximately 35 yards out on the left side of goal, hit a scorcher that rocketed into the top right corner of the goal. McCabe was able to get a hand on it, but could not keep the ball out of the net. Bucaro's goal, the third in less than five minutes, narrowed EMU's lead to 2-1.

Fewer than five minutes after that goal, Bucaro nearly had a chance at another goal. Wideman brought the ball down the center of the park, and slid a pass to her right, where fellow senior Kaitlyn Tobin was filling the lane. Tobin found Bucaro on the left side, but as the freshman neared the penalty area, her first touch was a little harder than she would have liked, and McCabe was able to beat Bucaro to the ball.

As the match passed the hour mark, Cadel made a nice diving stop on a turnaround shot by Vultaggio from close range. She successfully stymied another Vultaggio volley with 21 minutes left in the half.

Under 17 minutes remained when Wideman hit a hard shot from distance. The ball bounced on the wet turf, but McCabe was able to play the ball on the short-hop and prevent a rebound opportunity for the Brown and Orange.

The Falcons had three shot attempts in the final five minutes of the match. With just over four minutes to go, Tobin took a pass from Wideman and hit a shot that eluded the diving effort of McCabe. The ball, however, went wide of the right goalpost.

BG had a last-minute flurry, but Malaczewski's shot off of a right-side cross was blocked by a defender, and a follow try by Bucaro sailed high with 42 seconds to go. That shot was the last by either team, and the Eagles held on for the win.

McCabe made four saves on the night to earn the win. The Eagles had six corner kicks to the Falcons' four, with a 3-2 advantage in each half.

In addition to Cadel, four Falcon field players -- Amodio, Garr, senior Alyssa Carmack and junior Kaylee Draper -- played all 90 minutes on the night.

The Falcons continue a four-game homestand with a Sunday (Oct. 6) match vs. Western Michigan University, with kickoff set for 1:00 p.m. at Cochrane.

FALCON NOTES
* Redshirt freshman Lauren Cadel made 12 saves on Friday night, tying her career best ... Cadel also had 12 stops in the Falcons' home match vs. Butler on Aug. 31 ... Cadel has made 72 saves this season to date, a total which already ranks her ninth on the school's CAREER list ... in fact, with five more saves, she would move into sole possession of fifth place on that list.

* All three of the Falcons' 2013 home matches have been 2-1 setbacks ... Friday's match was the first to end in regulation, as BG suffered overtime losses to Butler and Evansville (Sept. 22) at home during non-conference play.

* Freshman Taylor Bucaro's goal was the first of her collegiate career ... the goal was a near carbon-copy of her shot in another home match, vs. Butler ... Bucaro's shot in the Butler match, taken from almost the same spot on the field, also sailed toward the upper-right-hand corner of the goal ... the shot vs. BU, which was her first collegiate match, hit the crossbar.

* Eastern Michigan entered the match ranked 24th in the nation in scoring offense ... head coach Scott Hall's team had scored at least four goals in each of the previous four games.

* BGSU has scored three goals in three MAC matches this season to date ... the 2012 Falcons scored a total of four goals in 11 MAC games.