No. 19 Falcons Face UC Under the Lights on Alumni Weekend

#19 FALCONS vs. CINCINNATI – Saturday, Sept. 16
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Audio: Bowling Green Radio Sports (BGRSO) | Live Video: WBGU-TV

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 Notes as a PDF (notes prior to Wednesday's MSU match)
Wednesday Recap: Second-Half PK Lifts No. 6 MSU Past BG
Tuesday: Falcons Break into the National Rankings
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
United Soccer Coaches rankings: Great Lakes Region | National Poll
MAC Office Announces Preseason Poll
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer: Schedule | Roster | Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!

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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, coming off of a loss for the first time this season, continues a difficult stretch of the schedule with a Saturday (Sept. 16) home match. Head coach Eric Nichols and the No. 19 Falcons face the University of Cincinnati as part of the program's Alumni Weekend. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. start at Cochrane Stadium.

FREE ADMISSION
Again this season, admission to all Falcon men's and women's soccer home regular-season matches is free.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For those who can't make it to Cochrane Stadium, live stats are scheduled to be available for each home match via BGSUFalcons.com. 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 Saturday's UC match – 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: live audio/video/stats can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the match.

FALCONS BREAK INTO THE RANKINGS
• The Falcons have moved into the national rankings. BGSU was ranked 19th in the nation when the United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) released the third poll of the season on Tuesday (Sept. 12).

• The latest regional rankings were also released on Tuesday, and the Falcons are ranked second in the Great Lakes Region. BGSU trails only Georgetown University, the number-nine team in the country, in the regional poll.

• BGSU cracked the USC national poll for the first time in two years, since Sept. 8, 2015. Prior to that week, when BG was ranked 24th, the Falcons had not been ranked since Sept. 6, 1999.

• The Falcons' number-19 ranking is the program's highest in nearly two decades, since BGSU was listed at No. 15 in the final poll of the 1997 season (Dec. 17, 1997). The '97 BG squad went 18-6-0 and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive season.

• Wednesday's match at No. 6 Michigan State marked the first BGSU game in which both teams were ranked in nearly two decades. The last such match took place on Nov. 30, 1997, when No. 16 BG traveled to Bloomington, Ind., to face No. 1 Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Championships.

THE STREAK IS OVER; LONG LIVE THE STREAK
• Michigan State's Ryan Sierakowski converted a penalty kick early in the second half of Wednesday night's (Sept. 13) match, giving the No. 6 Spartans a 1-0 win over the Falcons. The goal was the first allowed by the Falcons this season.

• MSU's goal snapped a shutout streak of over 500 minutes – 502:49, to be exact – for sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia and the Falcons this season. Through six matches, the BGSU defense still has not allowed a goal in the run of play.

• According to the Top Drawer Soccer web site, Bowling Green was the final NCAA Division-I team to allow a goal this season.

• Wednesday's loss snapped the Falcons' consecutive shutout streak at a school record-tying five. BGSU had posted five-straight shutouts on three occasions prior to 2017. This season marked the first time in the 53-year history of the program that the Falcons had five clean sheets to begin the year.

• The 2017 season marks the first time in program history that BGSU has begun the season with five-straight shutouts. The old mark was four, in 1981.

STILL A GOOD START
• Despite the loss at MSU, the Falcons are off to a solid start in 2017. BGSU won the first five matches before succumbing. BGSU has gotten off to at least a 4-0-0 start in each of the last three seasons, after going two decades (between 1995 and 2015) without doing so.

TOUGH CROWD
• As mentioned, BGSU is in the midst of a difficult stretch of matches. Michigan State is now 6-0-0 on the season after the narrow win over BGSU. The No. 6 Spartans, like BG, have allowed just one goal all season. And, like BG, MSU's only goal allowed came on a PK.

• BG's in the midst of a four-match stretch in which the opponents have a combined record of 18-3-1 as of Friday morning (Sept. 15). The opponents include MSU, Cincinnati (3-2-1 and coming off a road win at No. 13 Kentucky), Notre Dame (4-0-0 and ranked No. 2 in the nation) and Ohio State (5-1-0 and receiving votes in the USC national poll).

• BGSU has 11 regular-season matches remaining. No fewer than five of those 11 opponents – including two of the next three – are either nationally-ranked or receiving votes in at least one of the this week's.

A FEW MORE FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU enters the Cincinnati match with a 5-1-0 record on the young season. The Falcons have posted wins over IUPUI, Cleveland State and Western Illinois – all by 2-0 scores – at Cochrane Stadium. BG has two road wins, having blanked Drexel (3-0) and Penn (2-0) over Labor Day weekend. The Falcons' first loss came by a 1-0 score Wednesday night in East Lansing.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 11-1.

• The Falcons are unbeaten in the last 13 home matches, having gone 9-0-4 at Cochrane Stadium since a 1-0 overtime loss to Northern Illinois on Oct. 3, 2015. The win over WIU was BGSU's ninth shutout in that 13-match span. BG has outscored the opponents, 26-5, during that home unbeaten streak.

• Sophomore Chris Brennan leads the team with eight points, including a pair of goals and four assists. Junior defender Moe Mustafa has seven points on a team-leading three goals and one assist.

• Junior Tate Robertson has six points on the year. He has four assists to tie Brennan for the team lead. Junior Alexis Souahy has five points and sophomore Robert Miller III four, and both Souahy and Miller have two goals.

• Both Miller and Mustafa have two game-winning goals on the year. They each recorded their first career GWG during BG's two-match homestand to begin the regular season, and each player scored another winner on the trip to Philadelphia.

• Sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia has five shutouts in six matches, and has kept 13 clean sheets in 24 career contests. He has 23 saves on the year. Mwembia has a goals-against average of 0.17 and a saves percentage of 95.8% on the season. In his career, Mwembia's GAA is 0.59 while his saves pct. is 86.0%.

• 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 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 Amandy Ayima made his BGSU debut on Wednesday night, checking into the match with 3:30 remaining in the first half. The Ghana native returned in the second half, playing a total of 23 minutes and registering one shot attempt.

• Sophomore Charlie Maciejewski was BGSU's first substitute at MSU. Maciejewski played 40 minutes vs. the Spartans, matching his career total entering Wednesday. He played a total of 27 minutes over two matches in 2016, and saw 13 minutes of time in Saturday's win over Western Illinois. Maciejewski has had a shot attempt in each of his two matches this season and in three of his four career appearances.

SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE
• 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 UC match with a record of 67-67-24 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 37-22-6 (.615) 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.

SCOUTING CINCINNATI
Cincinnati brings a 3-2-1 record to Cochrane Stadium, and the Bearcats are coming off a road win over a nationally-ranked team. Freshman Sean Clarke scored in the 82nd minute to give UC a 1-0 win at No. 13 Kentucky Tuesday night (Sept. 12). The Bearcats also have defeated Gardner-Webb and IUPUI, while UC has lost to Wright State and Western Michigan and tied Xavier. David Sanz and Austin Smythe have combined to score six of the Bearcats' nine goals to date. Each player has three, and Sanz has nine total points while Smythe has seven. Pearce Skinner (2-1-1, 0.95 GAA) has made four starts in goal, while Noah Lawrence (1-1-0, 2.50 GAA) has started two games. Coach Hylton Dayes welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including seven starters, from a 2016 team that went 9-7-1 overall and 3-4-0 in the American Athletic Conference.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads Cincinnati, 6-4-1, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Bearcats have won the last four meetings. BG captured six-straight matchups between 1972 and 2001, and the teams tied in '03, before the 'Cats won the last four. Last year, UC posted a 1-0 home win over BG in the teams' first meeting since 2007. BG is 4-1-1 at home and 2-3 on the road vs. the Bearcats through the years.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the UC tussle, the Falcons return to the road to meet No. 2 Notre Dame (Sept. 19) and Ohio State (Sept. 22), before ending the month of September with a home matchup vs. Duquesne (Sept. 27). Each of BG's next 10 matches is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.

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