Falcons Blank Malone, 5-0, in Season Opener

Friday, August 30

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Malone

August 30, 2013 | Men's Soccer

Five different players score in BGSU win

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com)

Anthony Grant v Malone - Jacob Dorow photo

The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team took care of business in the regular-season opener Friday night (Aug. 30). Five different Falcons scored, and the BG defense kept a clean sheet in a 5-0 win over Malone University at Cochrane Field.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
PHOTO GALLERY: Courtesy Jacob Dorow, BGSU Athletic Communications
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, or log on to the FalconAthletics YouTube page, for post-match interviews with Eric Nichols, Matt Griesinger and Zach Schewee

Seniors Ryan Comiskey, Anthony Grant, Brandon Silva and Ryan Snashall and sophomore Ryan James all scored for the Falcons, who outshot the Pioneers by a 23-5 count. At the other end of the pitch, senior goalkeeper Michael Wiest was called upon to make just one save in his complete-match shutout effort.

Wiest picked up an assist on the Falcons' third goal of the night, and redshirt freshman Max Auden also recorded an assist in his collegiate debut.

Senior outside backs Matt Griesinger and Zach Schewee joined the attack on numerous occasions throughout the night. Twice within the first 12 minutes of play, Griesinger played a through ball that just missed putting a teammate in on goal. Griesinger and junior Vlad Lekarev worked a give-and-go in the 13th minute that sent Griesinger into the box, but the Falcons were whistled for one of their no fewer than 11 offside calls on the night.

Another Griesinger pass indirectly resulted in the Falcons' first goal. The senior played a short diagonal ball to Grant, who was stationed just outside the 18-yard box with his back to the goal. As Grant looked to elude his defender, he was hauled down just outside the box. The senior took the ensuing free kick, and neatly curled it into the upper-right-hand corner of the goal. With 15:11 gone, the Brown and Orange had the lead for good.

Twenty minutes had expired when Grant had another scoring chance. As he worked his way into the box, Malone goalkeeper Felipe Monteiro knocked the ball off of Grant's foot. It came out to Griesinger, who quickly fired a long shot as Monteiro was out of his net. But, the shot was off target.

Schewee got forward in the 24th minute, as the Falcons put five or six passes together. The senior made a run into the box, getting past a defender with several nifty moves. His short crossing ball, however, was knocked out of play by a Malone backliner just before it reached a teammate.

With just under 32 minutes gone, Snashall doubled the Falcons' lead. The senior stole the ball from a Malone player in BG's offensive third of the pitch. Snashall took several touches as he headed down the field, and blasted a shot just prior to reaching the penalty area. Monteiro got a hand on the hard shot, but could not prevent it from hitting the back of the net.

The scoring chances were coming fast and furious for the Falcons. Grant took a pass from Silva and fired a shot from the right side that hit the woodwork where the goalpost meets the crossbar. Less than a minute later, another pass by Silva found the foot of Comiskey, who drilled a shot just wide of the frame. The Falcons had a 12-1 advantage in first-half shot attempts, and BG took that 2-0 lead into the intermission.

Malone's long first-half shot was an effort from distance that was blocked by a BG defender.

As the match neared the hour mark, another lengthy sequence of passes by the Falcons resulted in Comiskey putting the ball past Monteiro and into the net. But, the ball had crossed the end line just a split-second before Schewee had tapped a short pass to Comiskey, and the score remained 2-0.

BGSU would break the match wide open, scoring three times in just over nine minutes. Lekarev was taken down in the box after receiving a pass from Snashall, and the Falcons were awarded a penalty kick. Silva made no mistake, burying that kick for a 3-0 lead at the 70:44 mark.

Just 1:26 later, Comiskey got the Falcons' fourth goal. A long ball by Wiest bounced just outside the 18-yard box. Comiskey took one touch to control the ball and keep it away from a defender, then took a second touch to tap it past the onrushing Monteiro. Having successfully evaded both Pioneers, the senior fired a shot into the vacated net.

The Falcons' final goal of the night came with just over 10 minutes to go. Auden, who had come off the bench to make his debut just three minutes earlier, played a cross into the box from the right side. James and Grant battled two defenders for the ball, and Grant poked it in the direction of James. The sophomore capped the night's scoring with a shot from approximately 10 yards out.

For the match, the Falcons had an 8-1 advantage in shots on goal and a 4-0 margin in corner kicks. Monteiro made three saves in his complete-match effort in goal for the visitors.

Four different Falcons had at least three shot attempts in the win. Grant led all players with five attempts, and was the lone player in the match with two shots on goal. Lekarev, Comiskey and freshman Joe Sullivan each had three shot attempts on Friday night.

Sullivan was in the starting lineup in his collegiate debut. In addition to Sullivan and Auden, four other Falcons played in a regular-season match for the first time. that list included redshirt freshmen Danny Shea and Jacob Shelt and true frosh Dan Looker and Jacob Roth.

The Falcons return to Cochrane on Monday night (Sept. 2), hosting the University of Michigan in a 7:00 p.m. start. Admission to all BGSU home soccer matches is free.

FALCON NOTES
* Senior Anthony Grant has scored at better than a point-per-match pace during his Bowling Green tenure ... Grant, in his second season with the Falcons, has 23 points in 21 matches with the Brown and Orange.

* Grant's goal on Friday night proved to be the game-winning goal ... he now has a total of six GWG since arriving at BGSU.

* Junior Danny Baraldi, who finished second on the team in scoring last season, sat out the Malone match due to receiving his eighth yellow card of the 2012 season in last year's final match ... Baraldi, who has scored 37 points in 37 career matches with the Falcons, will be back in uniform for Monday's Michigan game.

* Redshirt freshman Max Auden picked up his first career assist in his first collegiate match ... Auden had an assist on the Falcons' final goal of the night, which came just three minutes after he had entered the match for the first time.

* Senior goalkeeper Michael Wiest picked up his 14th career shutout, and his third in as many regular-season openers ... Wiest kept clean sheets against Michigan in 2011 and Saint Bonaventure in 2012 in season-opening BGSU wins at Cochrane Field.

* Seniors Ryan Comiskey, Brandon Silva and Ryan Snashall all scored a goal in their second consecutive regular-season opener ... both Silva and Comiskey found the net in last season's 3-0 victory over Saint Bonaventure.

* Snashall scored the Falcons' second goal in a 2-0 victory over Michigan two seasons ago, before missing last year's opener vs. SBU due to injury.

* Comiskey has recorded at least one point in each of the last three openers ... he assisted on the Snashall goal in the '11 win over U-M, before scoring the final goal of last August's SBU match.

* Comiskey now has a career total of 17 points, including seven goals ... Silva has 13 career points, while sophomore Ryan James now has 12 ... both James and Silva have scored five goals in their respective BGSU tenures ... Snashall now has 11 career points, including a pair of goals and seven assists.