First Place on the Line as Akron Comes to Town Saturday

FALCONS vs. AKRON
Saturday, October 29 – 7:00 p.m.
Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio | ESPN3.com
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer

FOLLOW THE FALCONS...
Links to any live audio/video/stats will be available on the men's soccer schedule page at BGSUFalcons.com on match day

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Falcons Earn NSCAA Team Academic Award
Agyeman's Goal Lifts Falcons to Victory at NIU
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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, currently sitting atop the Mid-American Conference standings, prepares for a key conference matchup as the regular season winds down. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons are home for the final two matches of the regular-season campaign, beginning with a Saturday (Oct. 29) contest vs. the University of Akron. The Falcons and Zips will meet in a 7:00 p.m. start at Cochrane Stadium.

Then, BGSU will end the regular season with another Saturday night MAC matchup, hosting the University at Buffalo on Nov. 5. That match will be Senior Night, as the four seniors on the BGSU roster will be recognized prior to kickoff.

FREE ADMISSION / FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Again this season, admission to all Falcon men's and women's soccer home regular-season matches is free. Live stats will be available for each home game via BGSUFalcons.com. Twitter updates for all men's soccer action in 2016, both home and away, will be available via @BGSUmenssoccer. And, several home matches – including Saturday's Akron contest – will be broadcast on ESPN3.com. All of the pertinent information can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the match.

PROMOTIONS / EVENTS
• The first 250 fans to arrive at Saturday's Akron match will receive a free BGSU Athletics water bottle.

• Additionally, any fan wearing a Halloween costume to Saturday's Akron match will receive a free BGSU soccer T-shirt, while supplies last.

**------M A C S T A N D I N G S------**
Team (Overall)	MAC	Pts.
BGSU (9-5-2)	2-0-1	7
Akron (8-5-2)	2-1-0	6
Buffalo (9-3-2)	1-1-1	4
Western Mich. (8-4-4)	0-0-3	3
West Virginia (8-5-1)	1-2-0	3
Northern Ill. (1-9-4)	0-2-1	1

FAST START
• BGSU is off to a 2-0-1 start in MAC play. With 60 percent of the conference matches in the books, the Falcons are in first place in the six-team league with seven points. BG was picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll.

• The Falcons' conference start is the program's best in two decades, since the 1996 team went a perfect 5-0-0 in league play.

THE FALCONS AND THE MAC TOURNAMENT RACE
• The Falcons, as mentioned, currently sit atop the MAC standings, heading into this weekend's action, and BGSU is very close to clinching a spot in the MAC Tournament. The top-four teams in the final standings will meet at the home of the regular-season champion for the tourney on Nov. 11-13.

• BGSU has seven points, and the Falcons can finish with no worse than a 2-2-1 league record. BG would clinch a tournament berth with one more point (teams earn three points for a win and one for a tie), and there are a myriad of other combinations that would result in no worse than a fourth-place finish for the Falcons.

• Long story short, BG could clinch a tournament berth in one of the following ways:
   – BGSU earns one more point; OR
   – the WMU-WVU game does not end in a tie, AND NIU does not go 2-0-0 in the Huskies' final two matches

• NIU plays at Buffalo on Friday night, and WVU plays at WMU on Saturday at 1:00 p.m., so it is possible for the Falcons to have clinched a MAC Tournament berth before BG takes the field vs. Akron.

• BG, as mentioned, can finish no worse than 2-2-1 in the MAC. In each of the last two years – i.e., in the two years since the MAC dropped to six teams for men's soccer – teams finishing 2-2-1 have placed third. Two years ago, BGSU tied WVU for third place at 2-2-1, with both clubs making the tournament. Last fall, Buffalo went 2-2-1 and finished third in the conference.

• The current MAC standings and remaining schedule for each team follows ...
MAC STANDINGS & REMAINING SCHEDULE
Team W-L-T Pts. Remaining MAC Matches
1. Bowling Green 2-0-1 7   v Akron v Buffalo
2. Akron 2-1-0 6   @BGSU v WMU
3. Buffalo 1-1-1 4   v NIU @BGSU
4. Western Michigan 0-0-3 3 v WVU @Akron
5. West Virginia 1-2-0 3 @WMU @NIU
6. Northern Illinois 0-2-1 1 @Buffalo v WVU
teams earn 3 pts for a win, 1 for a tie – complete list of MAC results on page 9 of the PDF version of these notes

LOOKING TO MAINTAIN THAT HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE
• The Falcons are 5-0-2 at home this season to date. BGSU has outscored the opponents, 16-3, in those seven matches at Cochrane Stadium.

• Since the start of the 2014 season, BGSU has a record of 17-4-3 at Cochrane. The Falcons went 6-2-0 last year and 6-2-1 in 2014. All four home losses in that time have come by identical 1-0 scores. The two '14 setbacks both came against nationally-ranked opponents. Last year's home losses came on a goal in overtime and a goal with under two minutes left in regulation.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 60-16, at Cochrane, dating to the final home game of the 2013 season. BG has scored at least two goals in 17 of the 25 matches in that time, with three or more goals in 10 of those games.

• Senior Pat Flynn has singlehandedly outscored the opponents at Cochrane Stadium in his Falcon career. Flynn has scored 19 goals in home games since transferring to BGSU prior to the 2014 season, while Falcon foes, as mentioned, have 16 goals during that time.

A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons have an overall record of 9-5-2, and BGSU is 2-0-1 in MAC play. BG currently sits in first place in the six-team conference.

• BGSU has tied the overall win total for all of last year. And, the Falcons have doubled last season's league victory total. The 2015 team went 1-4-0 in MAC play.

• BG opened the year with three multiple-goal wins at Cochrane Stadium, downing IUPUI, Appalachian State and Marshall. The Falcons scored 10 goals and conceded just one in those three matches.

• The Falcons improved to 4-0-0 as freshman Chris Brennan's goal with just four seconds remaining in the second overtime gave the Falcons a thrilling 1-0 victory at Cleveland State. But, the Brown and Orange then dropped two of the next three contests.

• The lone win during that three-game stretch was a 2-0 victory over Wright State in this year's battle for the I-75 Cup. Seniors Jacob Roth and Pat Flynn scored BG's goals vs. the Raiders.

• BG downed Ohio State by a 2-0 result before a crowd of over 2,500 fans at Cochrane. The Falcons then dropped a narrow 1-0 decision at No. 25 Michigan State, but rebounded with road wins in the next two contests.

• Those wins included a 2-1 victory at Northern Kentucky, with junior Alexis Souahy scoring both goals. Then, the Falcons got a goal from Flynn early in the second half and a clean sheet from freshman Anthony Mwembia, earning a 1-0 win over No. 22 West Virginia in Morgantown.

• BG's then played two-straight overtime matches, battling Western Michigan to a 1-1 draw at Cochrane before dropping a 1-0 OT decision on the road against No. 18 Kentucky. The Falcons bounced back with a 1-0 regulation win at Northern Illinois on a goal by redshirt sophomore Bismark Agyeman and Mwembia's seventh clean sheet of the year, but the Brown and Orange then dropped a 2-1 decision at Fort Wayne on Wednesday night.

• BGSU is 5-0-2 at home and 4-5-0 on the road this season. The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 16-3, in the seven home matches, and BG has been outscored by a narrow 8-7 margin in the eight road contests.

• The Falcons are 6-0-0 when scoring two or more goals this season. BGSU is 14-0-1 in such matches since the start of the 2015 season, and the Falcons are 44-4-5 when scoring at least two goals in the Eric Nichols Era.

• BGSU is ranked fourth in the Great Lakes Region in the latest NSCAA ratings. The Falcons have been ranked among the region's top-10 teams in all nine weeks this season, and the number-four ranking is a season best.

• A total of 11 different players have scored at least one goal for the Falcons. Brennan has five, while Flynn and fellow senior Joe Sullivan have four apiece.

• Flynn has a team-best 12 points, with Brennan and Sullivan at 11 points each. Roth and freshman Robert Miller III have eight points apiece. Roth has recorded a team-leading six assists, while Flynn and Miller have four each and Sullivan three.

• Mwembia has played 15 of the 16 matches in goal this season to date. He has 55 saves, seven shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.63. Mwembia leads the MAC in saves percentage (.846) and is second in GAA, and he is ranked in the top 20 in the nation in both categories. Redshirt freshman Noah Kummer played the full 90 minutes in the win at NKU, making three saves.

• Nine different BGSU players have scored one game-winning goal apiece this season to date. That total matches the school record, as nine Falcons also scored at least one GWG in 1997.

• A total of 21 players have seen action for the Falcons this fall to date, with 16 players making at least one start. Seven players – Agyeman, Flynn, Roth, Souahy, Sullivan, junior Brad Macomber and sophomore Tate Robertson – each have started all 16 matches.

• BGSU is 3-0-0 this fall and 16-0-0 all-time when Flynn scores a goal. The Falcons are 3-0-2 when Brennan finds the back of the net.

• The Falcons have a record of 32-20-4 (.607) since the beginning of the 2014 season. The '14 team went 14-6-1, posting the program's most wins in nearly two decades (since 1997), and advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match for the first time since 2003. Last year's team finished 9-9-1, marking only the second time since 2000 that BGSU had won as many as nine games in a season (2016, obviously, marks the third time).

SCOUTING AKRON
Akron is 8-5-2 on the season, and the Zips are 2-1-0 in MAC play. UA dropped a 3-1 decision to visiting West Virginia last weekend, but bounced back with a 2-0 win at Ohio State Wednesday night. The Zips are ranked 29th in the nation by College Soccer News and are receiving votes in the NSCAA poll. Akron has won 10 consecutive MAC regular-season championships, and the Zips own a league record of 50-3-2 since 2007. Akron has not lost a MAC road game in over 10 years (since Oct. 14, 2006). Adam Najem leads the team in scoring with 13 points, followed closely by Brad Ruhaak (11) and Skye Harter (10). Najem has five goals, while Ruhaak has netted four and Harter three. Ben Lundt has played all but 11 minutes in goal this fall, and has seven shutouts, 47 saves and a 1.23 GAA. Coach Jared Embick returned 15 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team. The 2015 Zips went 18-3-3 overall and 4-0-1 in the MAC, winning the league regular-season and tournament titles and advancing all the way to the NCAA College Cup.

THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Akron, 46-8-3, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Zips have won the last 18 meetings. Last season, UA captured a 4-0 decision in Akron, and two years ago, the Zips held off the Brown and Orange in a pair of one-goal contests, 1-0 at Cochrane Stadium in the regular season and 2-1 in Akron in the MAC Tournament championship match a month later. The Falcons' last win in the series came 14 years ago, a 1-0 triumph at Cochrane on Oct. 27, 2002.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the Akron match, the Falcons will conclude the regular-season schedule with another Saturday night match at Cochrane. BGSU will face Buffalo on Nov. 5, and the match will be 'Senior Night' for the Falcons, as the program's four seniors – Max Auden, Pat Flynn, Jacob Roth and Joe Sullivan – will be recognized in pre-game ceremonies.

BGSU MEN'S SOCCER - REMAINING REGULAR-SEASON MATCHES
Sat., Oct. 29 – AKRON, 7:00 *
Sat., Nov. 5 – BUFFALO, 7:00 *
* MAC match

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Bismark Agyeman

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Jacob Roth

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