Falcons Drop Home Decision To NIU Friday Night

Friday, October 23

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

6-10-1, 2-7-0

Northern Illinois

3-12-1, 2-6-1

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

October 23, 2015 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: By Alexx Klein, BGSU Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF)
Box Score (HTML)
Season Stats (PDF)
Season Stats (HTML)
Postgame Interview: Head coach Lindsay Basalyga

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team fell to Northern Illinois 2-0 Friday night in front of a home crowd at Cochrane Stadium. The Huskies used one first half goal and one second half goal to defeat the Falcons.

The loss drops BGSU to 6-10-1 overall and 2-7-0 in the Mid-American Conference, while the win gives NIU its third victory of the season (3-12-1, 2-6-1).

"This is a really tough one for me," said head coach Lindsay Basalyga. "I thought we played excellent. We were really sharp for 90 minutes. We fed off the energy we had in the second half of OU and I think we really have put three quality halves of soccer together where we are working to try and win soccer games. It's just really unfortunate that that didn't happen tonight."

Northern Illinois scored late in the opening period when Allie Ingham put a shot past BGSU goalkeeper Lauren Cadel in the 42nd minute to put the Huskies on the board first. An NIU foul gave Madison Schupbach a free kick opportunity at the 44:50 mark, but her shot went just high to keep the score 1-0 Northern Illinois at the half.

In the 70th minute, Cadel made a diving save on an NIU shot attempt to keep the Falcons in the game, still just down one goal.

However, seven minutes later, the Canada native came charging out of the box chasing a loose ball and collided with an NIU player, resulting in a red card for Cadel. The redshirt junior was replaced by senior Alexis Smith at the 76:18 mark.

"These are all learning moments. We are still in a process of taking the program to the next level and these are growing pains. But more importantly I absolutely loved our response as a team. We kept sending numbers forward and we didn't give up on the game. Even after we went down a man, I think we were taking some pretty dangerous risks and that's a sign of our character. That's going to add up long term," added Basalyga.

In fact, following the ejection and despite playing a participant down, the Falcons were able to get three shot attempts off in the remaining 13 minutes of action; one from Erica Hubert and two from Kara Ross. Hubert's shot sailed over the crossbar, but the first of Ross's two attempts was on frame, making NIU keeper Amy Annala record a save, and the second missed wide.

The other two BGSU shots on goal came in the first half of play, with Schupbach's in the 6th minute and Skylar Fleak's in the 16th.

Haley Parkinson and Fleak had a game-high four shots each, while Schupbach, Hubert and Ross recorded three a piece. Sophomore Mikaela Couch and freshman Morgan Abbitt rounded out the shot column for the Falcons, each with one attempt.

Bowling Green outshot Northern Illinois 19-12, but the Huskies were able to convert two of their three shots on goal to move passed the Falcons in conference play. BGSU also held a 3-2 advantage in corner kicks on the night.

Cadel recorded one save and allowed one goal in 76:18 minutes of play, while Smith allowed one goal in 13:42 minutes on the pitch. Smith will get her first start of her BGSU career on Sunday.

Bowling Green will return to the pitch Sunday afternoon to wrap up its regular season home schedule with a matchup against Western Michigan at 1 pm. A brief senior day ceremony will take place prior to kick off for Smith and Parkinson.