Freshmen Duo Connect in 3-1 Loss at Buffalo on Friday Night

Friday, October 3

Buffalo, NY

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

1-9-0 (0-3-0MAC)

Buffalo

7-2-1 (3-0-0MAC)

Team	1	2	Final F
Bowling Green	1	0	1
Buffalo	1	2	3

Photo by: Larry Clapper

October 03, 2014 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (HTML)

Buffalo, New York – The freshmen duo of Leah Runkle and Skylar Fleak connected on a goal late in the first half to tie the match up, however, the Falcons surrendered two second half goals to fall to Buffalo 3-1 in a MAC East contest at UB Stadium on Friday night in Buffalo, New York.

The goal was Fleak's third of the season, while the assist marked the third helper on the year for Runkle.

"Tonight we ran up against a team that is playing with confidence and unfortunately we didn't win our individual battles," commented head coach Lindsay Basalyga. "Our back line shape wasn't as clean as it can be and we were exploited. On the flip side, this was the most dynamic we've been in the attack and we figured out that we can still score goals."

BGSU falls to 1-9-0 overall and 0-3-0 in the MAC with the loss, while the Bulls improve to 7-2-1 and 3-0-0 in league play with the win.

Bowling Green played from behind for the majority of the match, as the Bulls took an early 1-0 lead with a goal in the sixth minute from Kassidy Kidd on an assist by Sophie Therien and Julia Benati.

The Falcons, who started the match off slow, continued to face an offensive surge from the home team, as Buffalo would run-off seven straight shots over the next 12 minutes of play. However, BGSU goalkeeper Lauren Cadel was up for the challenge, as the redshirt-sophomore posted a save on four of those seven shot attempts to keep the Falcons in the game.

Following a shot from UB's Megan Giesen in the 18th minute, the momentum began to sway in the direction of the Falcons and the BGSU offensive attack over the next 20 minutes of play.

Bowling Green freshman Sarah Quimby registered the Falcons' first shot attempt in the 19th minute which forced Buffalo goalkeeper Laura Dougall to make a save on the play.

Fleak fired off a shot in the 27th minute, which was again halted by UB's Dougall, while only a minute later BGSU's Mikaela Couch had her scoring chance blocked by a UB defender as the Falcons looked for their equalizer midway through the first half.

Fighting to tie the match up before the halftime break, BGSU's Madison Schupbach had a shot blocked again by a Bulls' defender in the 36th minute, which was followed by Fleak shooting the ball just over the goal in the 38th minute.

After a Buffalo shot flew offline in the 41st minute, the Falcons finally broke through in the 44th minute when Runkle played the ball to Fleak who placed a shot toward the lower right corner of the goal that snuck past the UB goalkeeper to knot the match up at 1-1 heading into the halftime intermission.

Unfortunately for the Falcons the second half started out just like the first, as Buffalo found the back of the net earlier in the period on a Katie Roberts goal that beat BGSU's Cadel in the lower right corner in the 53rd minute to put the home team in white back in front by one at 2-1.

Cadel would make another save in the 54th minute on a Kidd shot attempt to keep the Falcons down just one, while less than a minute later Schupbach blasted a shot from outside the top of the box which sailed wide of the goal in the 55th minute.

The next 15 minutes would see the Falcons called for an offside and the Bulls post three shots that all missed offline, until in the 71st minute UB's Roberts received a pass in the box and lined a low shot into the lower left corner of the goal past a diving Cadel to increase the Bulls' lead to two at 3-1.

After another stop in goal for BGSU's Cadel in the 76th minute, the Falcons' keeper made a leaping save on a Kidd shot attempt in the 77th minute as she punched the hard shot up to send it offline and hit the crossbar before bounding out of play.

The final 20 minutes would see the BGSU defense block three Buffalo shot attempts and Cadel make a sliding save in front of the right post on a shot off a corner kick to keep the score at 3-1, yet the Falcons were unable to register a shot during that time frame in the 3-1 conference road loss.

"We need to continue to get better at putting both sides of the ball together for 90 minutes," stated Coach Basalyga.

Cadel, who suffered the loss, had eight saves in goal for the Falcons, while UB's Dougall earned the win with just two saves on the night.

Fleak led the BGSU offense with three shots in the game, while Schupbach tallied two shots on the night. Both Quimby and Couch each recorded one shot apiece for the Falcons in the match.

Buffalo outshot the Falcons 26-7 on the night, including placing 11 shots on target compared to just three from BGSU, and also held a 9-2 advantage in corner kicks.

Bowling Green was whistled for three fouls compared to the Bulls' two, while both teams were called offside twice in the match.

The Falcons will wrap up its five-match road swing on Sunday versus the Akron Zips at 12 p.m. in Akron, Ohio.

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