BGSU Women’s Soccer Plays NIU to a Scoreless Draw on Sunday

Sunday, October 26

DeKalb, IL

2 PM

Bowling Green State University

4-12-1

Northern Illinois

6-9-3

Team	1	2	OT 1	OT 2	Final F
Bowling Green	0	0	0	0	0
Northern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0

Photo by: Larry Clapper

October 26, 2014 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (HTML)

DeKalb, Illinois – The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team played the Northern Illinois Huskies to a 0-0 draw over 110 minutes of play on Sunday afternoon at the Northern Illinois Soccer and Track and Field Complex in DeKalb, Illinois.

The tie gives the Falcons a point in the MAC standings and puts BGSU at 3-6-1 in the MAC and 4-12-1 overall. NIU moves to 6-9-3 overall and 4-3-3 in league play with the draw.

"I'm so proud of the effort on the day. We could have done better with a few opportunities around goal, but we put in work and were disciplined on the defensive side of the ball and created some good attacking chances," commented head coach Lindsay Basalyga. "For us to figure out how to become a winning program we also have to figure out how not to lose and I was confident we were going to get a result."

Both teams had multiple scoring opportunities over the two extra periods of play, as BGSU's Skylar Fleak missed wide in the 104th minute, but not before senior Sidney Huth put a shot on frame in the 97th minute for the Falcons.

NIU had four chances in the extra frames, three of which were saved by Falcon goalkeeper Lauren Cadel in the 93rd, 97th and 98th minutes, as neither team would score in the 110 minute contest.

Bowling Green looked to score first in the opening minutes of the contest, only to be called for offsides to end the offensive attack in the third minute of the opening half.

In the fifth minute, the Huskies drew the first corner kick of the game which set up the home team's first shot attempt of the game, as Lauren Gierman put a shot on target which was saved by BGSU's Cadel to set up another NIU corner kick.

On the second corner, Gierman played the ball to teammate Ashley Neubeck who fired off a shot that flew wide of the net in the sixth minute to give the Falcons a goal kick in the scoreless match.

After another Neubeck shot went wide of the goal for NIU in the 13th minute, the Falcons looked to counter minutes later as Fleak put a shot towards the goal in the 18th minute which was halted in goal by the Huskies' Amy Annala.

As the two teams both went to their benches for substitutions midway through the first half, the Huskies sent two shots offline in the 24th and the 35th minutes, while the Falcons were once again called for offsides on a counter attack in the 35th minute.

Over the final 10 minutes of play in the first half, both Northern Illinois and Bowling Green each registered one more shot attempt, but to no avail, as the Falcons' attempt from Huth soared wide of the frame in the 43rd minute.

With the score tied at 0-0 coming out of the halftime break, NIU looked to strike first, as the Huskies had a shot blocked by the BGSU defense in the 52nd minute and then watched as a Nicole Gobbo shot went wide in the 55th minute.

Again Fleak looked to put the Falcons on the scoreboard first, as the freshman sent a shot towards the goal only to have it blocked by a Huskies defender in the 56th minute.

Just a few minutes later sophomore Jessica Creech crept up from her defender position and took a long shot from outside of the box that flew wide and out of play in the 59th minute, as BGSU remained on the offensive attack.

Following a Cadel save in the 61st minute, BGSU continued to put pressure on the Huskies' defense, as Fleak recorded three straight shots over a 25 second span to force NIU's goalkeeper to stop not one, but two shots during that sequence in the 64th and 65th minutes of play to keep the Orange and Brown off the scoreboard.

With the offensive urgency picking up for both teams, the Huskies looked for the go-ahead goal in the 67th minute when Kate Wirthlin sent a shot online towards the goal where a waiting Cadel made her third save of the game for the Falcons.

The next 10 minutes would see the Huskies tally a shot in the 70th and 71st minutes, which would both miss wide, while in the 78th minute NIU's Alex Elias nearly put the home team on top with a shot that hit off the crossbar.

After escaping the NIU attack, BGSU's Madison Schupbach placed her first shot attempt of the game on frame in the 79th minute, only to see the NIU keeper make a stop on the play to keep the match knotted up at 0-0 with just over 10 minutes to play in regulation.

Bowling Green's Cadel would come up big again in goal for the Falcons over the next few minutes, as the redshirt-sophomore stopped a Marisa Knott shot attempt in both the 81st and 82nd minutes to keep the match tied at 0-0.

With time ticking down in the second half, sophomore midfielder BGSU's Kara Ross was able to find room in the NIU defensive third and put a shot towards the goal in the 87th minute, only to have Annala make a save on the attempt.

Not deterred, less than a minute later in the 88th minute Huth blasted a shot that was blocked by an NIU defender as the game clock continued to tick away on both teams.

In the closing minutes both teams would try late to score the game-winning goal, yet saw the one attempt from each team fly offline and out of play to send the game into overtime tied at 0-0.

In the extra periods, NIU outshot the Falcons 4-2, yet neither team was able to notch the game-winning goal.

Cadel totaled eight saves in goal for the Falcons over the 110 minutes of play, while NIU's Annala tallied six saves in goal for the Huskies.

Fleak led the BGSU offense with six total shots, three of which were on frame, while Huth, Ross and Schupbach each had one shot on goal for the match.

NIU outshot the Falcons 21-13 and held a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks on the day.

"It's disappointing that we won't make postseason play, but a year ago, by this game, the MAC Tournament wasn't even a discussion," continued Coach Basalyga. "We are going to get a few more days together and see how much further we can push our process."

The Falcons will wrap up the 2014 regular season on Thursday, Oct. 30, versus Eastern Michigan at 3 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.

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