Falcons Kick Off MAC Schedule This Weekend at SIUE

Saturday, October 7

Edwardsville, IL

7:00 PM CT (8:00 PM ET)

Bowling Green State University

SIUE

Tickets

Zach Buescher v Duquesne - Sept 27 2917 - Isaiah Vazquez photo

Freshman Zach Buescher & the Falcons face SIUE Saturday night (photo by Isaiah Vazquez)

October 05, 2017 | Men's Soccer

BGSU then faces WSU in the Battle for the I-75 Cup

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

FALCONS at SIUE – Saturday, Oct. 7
7:00 p.m. CT | Bob Guelker Field / Ralph Korte Stadium | Edwardsville, Ill.
Live Stats: siuecougars.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Video: siuecougars.com

FALCONS at WRIGHT STATE – Tuesday, Oct. 10
7:00 p.m. | Alumni Field | Dayton, Ohio
Live Stats: WSURaiders.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Video: ESPN3.com

ON MATCH DAY...
Links to any live audio/video/stats will be available on the men's soccer schedule page right here at BGSUFalcons.com on match day.

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LINKS
This Week's BGSU Notes as a PDF
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
VIDEO: In the Nest: Mwembia
BGSU Photo Galleries *
BGSU Men's Soccer Videos
MAC Office Announces Preseason Poll
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer: Schedule | Roster | Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!
* all sports - choose "men's soccer" in the drop-down link at the top right of the page

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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team will begin both the October portion of the schedule and the Mid-American Conference slate this weekend. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons head to Edwardsville, Ill., for a Saturday (Oct. 7) matchup with SIUE. The Falcons and Cougars, a first-year MAC affiliate member for men's soccer, will meet at Bob Guelker Field / Ralph Korte Stadium, with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m. locally (8:00 p.m. Eastern).

• Then, the Falcons will head to Dayton for a Tuesday (Oct. 10) meeting with Wright State University. That match, the teams' annual battle for the I-75 Cup, will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Alumni Field.

BATTLE FOR THE CUP
The Falcons and Wright State, as mentioned, will be playing for possession of the I-75 Cup in Tuesday night's match. The cup, which goes to the winner of the BGSU-WSU match each year, was instituted by Falcon coach Eric Nichols and his counterpart, WSU's Bryan Davis. BG is 6-1-0 vs. the Raiders since the two coaches came up with the idea for the cup prior to the 2010 season.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• If you can't make it to Cochrane Stadium, live stats are scheduled to be available for each home match via BGSUFalcons.com (live stats likely will be available for each road contest as well). And, twitter updates for all men's soccer action, both home and away, will be available via @BGSUmenssoccer.

• Additionally, a majority of the Falcons' home matches will be streamed by WBGU. Currently, seven of the eight home contests – including each of the final six – are scheduled to be streamed, free of charge.

• And, an audio stream for many of BG's home matches will be available through the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO).

• As always, all of the pertinent information re: Falcon soccer coverage can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the match.

MENTION OUR NAME AT THE DOOR AND GET IN FREE!
Again this season, admission to all Falcon men's and women's soccer home regular-season matches is free.

FALCONS PICKED TO TIE FOR FOURTH IN MAC
Saturday marks the first day of the MAC schedule, as all six teams play a conference contest. The Falcons were picked to tie for fourth in the MAC race in 2017 in the league's preseason coaches poll. Only one point separated the teams picked to finish between second and fifth. Last season, the Falcons were predicted to finish fifth in the six-team league, but posted a second-place finish.
2017 MAC PRESEASON COACHES' POLL
# - Team (FPV) Pts.
1 – Akron (5) 35
2 – West Virginia (1) 21
SIUE 21
4 – Bowling Green 20
Western Michigan 20
6 – Northern Illinois 9
Predicted MAC Tournament Winner – Akron

A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the SIUE match with an overall record of 6-4-0. Saturday's match will be the Falcons' first in roughly a week and a half. Most recently, the Brown and Orange topped Duquesne, 1-0 in double overtime, on Sept. 27 at Cochrane Stadium.

• The Falcons started the season with five-straight victories. BG posted multi-goal wins – all by shutout – over IUPUI, Cleveland State, Drexel, Penn and Western Illinois, but then dropped the next four matches.

• The Falcons spent a week ranked No. 19 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and three of BGSU's losses came by a goal on the road to teams also ranked in the top-25 (No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 6 Michigan State and No. 25 Ohio State). The other loss came to a Cincinnati team coming off of a road win over a ranked opponent.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 14-7, this season to date. Two of the opponents' seven goals have come via penalty kicks.

• Sophomore Chris Brennan leads the Falcons with four goals and 12 points. Brennan is tied for the team lead with four assists, and the Copley, Ohio, native has scored three of BGSU's last four goals.

• Junior defender Moe Mustafa is second on the team with seven points in just seven matches, and is tied for second on the Falcons with three goals. Mustafa was injured in practice prior to the WIU match, and missed the next three contests before returning at Notre Dame.

• Sophomore Robert Miller III and junior Tate Robertson each have six points. Miller has three goals, and all three have been game-winning markers. Robertson has four assists to match Brennan's team-best total in that category. Either Brennan or Robertson (or both) have been involved in the scoring of 11 of BGSU's 14 goals this fall.

• Junior Alexis Souahy has five points, including two goals, while freshman Chris Sullivan has three points on a goal and an assist.

• Senior Keaton Reynolds has two points, as he had the primary assist on Brennan's goals against UC and at Notre Dame. Freshman Zach Buescher also has two assists this year, including one on Miller's winner vs. Duquesne.

• BGSU is 5-0-0 this season when scoring two or more goals. The Falcons are 19-0-2 in such matches since the start of the 2015 season and 49-4-6 in the Nichols Era.

• Sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia has six shutouts this season, and now has kept 14 clean sheets in 28 career matches. He has 40 saves and a goals-against average of 0.69 on the year. Mwembia's career GAA is 0.72, while his career saves percentage is .838.

• Eight Falcons have started all 10 matches to date. That group includes Brennan, Buescher, Mwembia, Robertson, Souahy, senior Brad Macomber, junior Dominic Grida and sophomore Tom Wrobel. Junior Peter Pugliese has made nine starts, while Miller has started seven games and Mustafa six.

• Both Mwembia and Robertson were listed in the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Conference Top-20 rankings. Mwembia was listed as the 10th-ranked player in the MAC, while Robertson was ranked 12th in the league.

• BGSU went two decades (1995 to 2015) without going 4-0 to start the season, but the Falcons now have done so in three-straight years. Both the 2015 and '17 teams started 5-0 and broke into the national rankings, while BG began 4-0 in '16.

MWEMBIA MAKES HIS MARK
• Anthony Mwembia, just a sophomore, is proving that he is one of the top goalkeepers in the region and possibly the nation. Mwembia has allowed seven goals in 10 matches this season. Two of those seven goals were penalty kicks, and one was an own goal as a defender inadvertantly knocked a ball over his head as he came off of his goal line.

• Mwembia is ranked among the nation's active career leaders in several key categories. He is ranked number-one among all active NCAA Division-I 'keepers in saves percentage, at .838. And, Mwembia's career goals-against average of 0.72 (0.715, to be exact) ranks him fifth among all current goalkeepers.

• The Toulouse, France, native is ranked seventh in the nation in shutouts, and he is 12th in the country in saves pct.

SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE FOR YOUR BROADCAST, WEB STREAM, ARTICLE OR MYSPACE PAGE
• The 2017 season marks the 53rd year of BGSU men's soccer. Legendary coach Mickey Cochrane initiated varsity programs in both soccer and lacrosse at BG in 1965, after serving as club coach of both sports at the University the previous year. Cochrane can still be found in attendance at the field that bears his name for many BGSU men's and women's soccer matches.

• Eric Nichols, now in his ninth season at BG, is just the fifth coach in the illustrious history of Falcon men's soccer. Cochrane (1965-77), Gary Palmisano (1978-92, 1994), Mel Mahler (1993, 1995-2003) and Fred Thompson (2004-08) are the only other individuals to have coached the BGSU men's soccer program.

• Nichols – the 2016 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year – enters the SIUE match with a record of 68-70-24 at BG, The Falcons, after going 3-12-3 in his first year, have a winning record since the start of the 2010 campaign.

• Nichols and the Falcons had an overall record of 9-6-4 in 2016, and BGSU finished MAC regular-season play with a 2-0-3 league ledger. BG finished second in the conference, the program's best showing since the 2002 season, and the Falcons were undefeated at Cochrane Stadium for the first time since 1996.

• The Falcons have a record of 38-25-6 (.594) 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. The 2015 club finished 9-9-1, marking only the second time since 2000 that BGSU had won as many as nine games in a season. And, obviously, 2016 was the third time, as BG again posted nine victories.

• BGSU ended the 2016 regular season as the only team without a loss in MAC play. The Falcons – picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll – finished second in the league standings, and went unbeaten in the MAC for the first time since 1996.

• Nichols and his staff – assistant coaches Eric Reed and Zach Mason – welcomed back a total of 13 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team.

• Anthony Mwembia was an All-MAC First-Team selection in his freshman campaign, while Tate Robertson earned All-MAC Second-Team honors in 2016.

A QUARTET OF SENIORS NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS
A quartet of seniors will serve as captains for the 2017 Falcons. That group is comprised of Prayag Jina, Brad Macomber, Keaton Reynolds and Alexis Souahy.

SCOUTING SIUE
SIUE takes a 4-6-0 record into Saturday's match. The Cougars downed Milwaukee, 2-0, on Tuesday, snapping a three-match losing streak. SIUE is 3-3 at home and 1-3 on the road this year to date. Jorge Gonzalez, who scored both goals on Tuesday, leads the team with nine points. Lachlan McLean has eight points and is tied with Gonzalez for the team lead in goals, with four. In net, Kyle Dal Santo has played every second, and has 26 saves and a GAA of just 0.98. Like BG's Anthony Mwembia, Dal Santo is among the NCAA's active career leaders in GAA and saves pct. Last year, head coach Mario Sanchez and the Cougars went 10-5-7 overall and 4-1-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. SIUE won the MVC Tournament to qualify for the NCAA Championships, and advanced past Michigan State and Butler into the round of 16 before losing to Wake Forest.

SCOUTING WSU
Wright State is 6-4-1 overall, and the Raiders are 3-1-0 in Horizon League play, heading into a Saturday match at Belmont. WSU bounced back from double-OT losses to Green Bay and Wisconsin by picking up a 3-1 win over Detroit Mercy over the weekend (Sept. 30). The Raiders are 3-1-1 at home and 3-3-0 on the road this year to date. AJ Paterson has six goals and 12 points to lead the team in both categories, while Alec Philippe has nine points on three goals and three assists. In goal, Joel Sundell has started all 11 matches and has 35 saves, five shutouts and a 1.13 GAA. Last fall, head coach Bryan Davis and the Raiders went 11-6-3 overall and 7-1-1 in the Horizon League. WSU won the HL regular-season crown, but lost a 1-0 decision in the championship match of the league tournament.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail SIUE, 3-1-0, in the all-time series between the teams. BGSU's lone win came two years ago (Aug. 28, 2015), a 3-1 decision in the regular-season opener at Cochrane Stadium. BG faced the Cougars twice in the late 1970s, and the teams also met in 1988. The Falcons are 1-1 at home, 0-1 on the road (a 4-1 loss in 1978) and 0-1 in neutral-site meetings with the Cougars.

• The Falcons lead Wright State, 10-6-2, in that series, and BGSU has won each of the last five matches. Four of those five wins have been by one goal, with three coming in overtime. Last year (Sept. 13, 2016), BG scored in each half for a 2-0 win at Cochrane. In the teams' last meeting in Dayton, Keaton Reynolds and Tate Robertson scored late in the second half as the Falcons won a 3-2 decision in a driving rain two years ago (Oct. 27, 2015). The Falcons are 6-2-2 at home and 4-4-0 on the road vs. the Raiders.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the WSU match, the Falcons return home to face West Virginia on Oct. 14. That will be the second of five MAC matchups in as many Saturdays. All six of BGSU's October matches are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.

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