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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Friday, September 7
Bowling Green, OH
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Michigan State
Tom Wrobel & the Falcons host No. 3 MSU Friday night
Photo by: Craig Bell, BGSU Marketing and Communications
Falcons Welcome No. 3 Michigan State to Town Friday Night
September 06, 2018 | Men's Soccer
BGSU faces two Big Ten foes in a five-day span
FALCONS vs. #3 MICHIGAN STATE – Friday, Sept. 7
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
• Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
• Video: WBGU-TV | Audio: Bowling Green Radio Sports (BGRSO)
FALCONS at OHIO STATE – Tuesday, Sept. 11
7:00 p.m. | Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium | Columbus, Ohio
• Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
• Video: BTN Plus ($$)
• 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
BGSU MEN'S SOCCER LINKS
This Week's BGSU Notes
2018 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
The Opponents: MSU | OSU
2018 Men's Soccer... Schedule | Roster | Media Guide/Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!
UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team puts a modest two-game unbeaten streak on the line, facing a pair of Big Ten Conference foes. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons host the third-ranked team in the nation, Michigan State, on Friday evening (Sept. 7). That match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and as always, admission is free to all home regular-season Falcon futbol action.
• Then, the Brown and Orange will head to Columbus for a Tuesday (Sept. 11) matchup with Ohio State. That match is also set for a 7:00 p.m. start, and will be held at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
• Each of the Falcons' final 13 matches on the regular-season schedule is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.
PROMOTIONS FOR FRIDAY'S MSU MATCH
• Orange Out -- all fans are encouraged to wear orange Challenge
• Halftime -- BGSU Quidditch
TO BE THE BEST, YOU GOTTA BEAT THE BEST ("WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!")
• As mentioned, Michigan State is ranked third in the nation heading into Friday's match. The Spartans are the first nationally-ranked opponent to come to Cochrane Stadium in four years, since BGSU faced No. 25 Akron on Oct. 11, 2014. The Falcons also hosted No. 16 MSU that same season, dropping 1-0 decisions to both the Zips and the Spartans.
• The Falcons' last win over a ranked team at Cochrane Stadium came in the 2011 season opener, when BGSU downed No. 9 Michigan, 2-0. The Falcons tied the Wolverines, then ranked 14th in the country, in a 2013 meeting at Cochrane.
• MSU will be the highest-ranked opponent to come to The House That Mickey Built in just under eight years. Akron was ranked No. 1 when the Zips topped BG, 2-0, on Sept. 11, 2010.
• Last season, BGSU played five games against top-25 opponents – including a matchup with No. 1 Notre Dame – but all five came on the road.
A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the Michigan State match with a record of 1-2-1 on the young season. The Falcons suffered a pair of one-goal losses to Northern Kentucky (3-2; Aug. 25) and Penn State (1-0; Aug. 28) to begin the season, then battled Wright State to a scoreless draw Friday (Aug. 31) before picking up a 3-2 win at Western Illinois two days later.
• BGSU has outshot the opponent and has taken more corner kicks than the opponent in each of the first four matches of the season.
• Senior Ebenezer Ackon leads the Falcons in scoring, with two goals and four points. Ackon scored a pair of goals just 75 seconds apart in the NKU match.
• Sophomore Chris Sullivan is second on the club with three points, after notching a goal and an assist at WIU. Three Falcons – seniors Moe Mustafa and Tate Robertson and sophomore Vinny Worner – each have two points on the young season. Sullivan and Mustafa both scored at WIU, while Robertson had the lone assist on each of Ackon's two goals in the NKU match.
• Junior Anthony Mwembia has played all four matches in goal, and has seven total saves, one shutout and a goals-against average of 1.42.
• Eight different Falcons have started all four matches. That list includes Ackon, Mwembia, Robertson, Sullivan, Worner, senior Peter Pugliese, junior Chris Brennan and sophomore Zach Buescher. A total of 13 different players have started at least two matches to date.
WORKING OVERTIME
• Friday night's Wright State match was BGSU's first contest to go to overtime this season. The Falcons played a total of three OT matches last year, going 1-1-1.
• BGSU is now 13-9-26 in overtime matches in the Eric Nichols Era, and the Falcons are 6-3-14 in home OT contests in that time.
TWO GOALS (USUALLY) DOES THE TRICK
• The Falcons' season-opening loss to NKU marked only the fifth time in the Eric Nichols Era that BGSU has lost when scoring two or more goals in a match. It was BG's first such setback since an OT loss to Duquesne in 2014, and was the Falcons' first such loss in regulation since the Belmont match of 2011.
• BGSU found the back of the net three times en route to Sunday's win at WIU. The Falcons are now 51-5-6 when scoring two or more goals in a match in the Nichols Era.
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE FOR YOUR BROADCAST, WEB STREAM, ARTICLE OR MYSPACE PAGE
• The 2018 season marks the 54th 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.
• Eric Nichols, now in his 10th 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 MSU match with a record of 70-77-26 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 his staff – Zach Mason, Sean Teepen and Oliver Harris – welcomed back 13 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year's team. BG finished the 2017 season with a 7-9-1 overall record and a MAC ledger of 1-3-1. Five of the team's setbacks came by one goal on the road to nationally-ranked opponents.
• The Falcons are 40-32-8 (.550) since the beginning of the 2014 season.
• Nichols welcomes back a total of four players who started at least 16 of the Falcons' 17 matches last year, including juniors Chris Brennan and Anthony Mwembia. Brennan led a balanced scoring attack with five goals and 14 points a season ago, while Mwembia played every second of every match in goal and had a 1.04 goals-against average, a saves percentage of .780 and seven shutouts.
• Brennan was named to the All-Mid-American Conference Second Team in 2017, while Mwembia earned All-Ohio Team honors.
• Senior Tate Robertson started every match last fall, and finished second on the team in scoring. Robertson's 11 points included a BG-best seven assists in 2017.
• In addition to the aforementioned trio, seniors Moe Mustafa and Peter Pugliese, junior Tom Wrobel and sophomores Zach Buescher and Chris Sullivan each made at least 11 starts a year ago.
THE OPPONENTS
• Michigan State is 3-0-1 on the season, and the Spartans are ranked third in the United Soccer Coaches poll and fifth in both the College Soccer News and Soccer America polls. MSU has defeated South Florida, Canisius and UC Riverside, with the latter match a 5-1 decision on Monday, and the Spartans tied Tulsa. Hunter Barone leads the team with two goals and six points, but seven of his teammates have one goal apiece. Jimmy Hague has two shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.25. Damon Rensing's club was picked to finish second in the Big Ten Conference in 2018, after going 13-3-4 overall and 5-0-3 in confernece play a year ago. The Spartans advanced to the NCAA's Elite Eight a year ago, and Hague was named the Big Ten's Goalkeeper of the Year.
• Ohio State is 1-3-0 heading into a Friday home match vs. South Florida. The Buckets defeated Hofstra, but have lost to Furman, Marshall and Milwaukee. Parker Siegfried has played every second in goal this season, and has 12 saves and a 1.02 GAA for first-year head coach Brian Maisonneuve. The Buckeyes were picked to tie for sixth in the Big Ten this season, after going 8-10-1 overall and 3-5-0 in conference play a year ago.
THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Michigan State, 23-16-6, in the all-time series between the teams, and each of the last five meetings has been a 1-0 Spartan win, including last year's match in East Lansing. Ryan Sierakowski scored on a PK midway through the second half for the lone goal last year. In the teams' last meeting at Cochrane, DeJuan Jones scored with under two minutes remaining in regulation. The first nine BGSU-MSU matches in the Eric Nichols Era have seen MSU win by a single goal on eight occasions, while the teams battled to a scoreless draw in 2011. BGSU's last win over Sparty was a 3-1 road victory on Sept. 17, 2001.
• BGSU leads Ohio State, 24-17-3, in that series, but the Buckeyes picked up a 1-0 victory last year. Just like BG's 2017 matchup with Michigan State, the OSU match was decided on a second-half penalty kick. Two years ago, the Falcons picked up a 2-0 win at Cochrane. BGSU is 15-4-1 in home games, 9-13-2 in road contests and 1-0-0 in neutral-site matchups with Ohio State through the years.
DOWN THE ROAD...
• The Ohio State match begins a four-game road swing for the Brown and Orange. BGSU will play at Wofford on Saturday, Sept. 15, and the Falcons then will take on Cleveland State (Sept. 18) and Purdue Fort Wayne (Sept. 22) on the road. BG returns home to end the month of September, facing Valparaiso at Cochrane Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 29.
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
• Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
• Video: WBGU-TV | Audio: Bowling Green Radio Sports (BGRSO)
FALCONS at OHIO STATE – Tuesday, Sept. 11
7:00 p.m. | Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium | Columbus, Ohio
• Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
• Video: BTN Plus ($$)
• 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
BGSU MEN'S SOCCER LINKS
This Week's BGSU Notes
2018 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
The Opponents: MSU | OSU
2018 Men's Soccer... Schedule | Roster | Media Guide/Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!
UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team puts a modest two-game unbeaten streak on the line, facing a pair of Big Ten Conference foes. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons host the third-ranked team in the nation, Michigan State, on Friday evening (Sept. 7). That match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and as always, admission is free to all home regular-season Falcon futbol action.
• Then, the Brown and Orange will head to Columbus for a Tuesday (Sept. 11) matchup with Ohio State. That match is also set for a 7:00 p.m. start, and will be held at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
• Each of the Falcons' final 13 matches on the regular-season schedule is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.
PROMOTIONS FOR FRIDAY'S MSU MATCH
• Orange Out -- all fans are encouraged to wear orange Challenge
• Halftime -- BGSU Quidditch
‼️ORANGE OUT‼️ This Friday at 7:00pm we take on #3 in the nation Michigan State! We need you all of you fans in full force decked out in ORANGE!! YOU DONT WANT TO MISS THIS! @BGathletics @CochraneCrazies #AyZiggy #OrangeOut pic.twitter.com/uon596p25W
— BGSU Men's Soccer (@BGSUmenssoccer) September 5, 2018
TO BE THE BEST, YOU GOTTA BEAT THE BEST ("WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!")
• As mentioned, Michigan State is ranked third in the nation heading into Friday's match. The Spartans are the first nationally-ranked opponent to come to Cochrane Stadium in four years, since BGSU faced No. 25 Akron on Oct. 11, 2014. The Falcons also hosted No. 16 MSU that same season, dropping 1-0 decisions to both the Zips and the Spartans.
• The Falcons' last win over a ranked team at Cochrane Stadium came in the 2011 season opener, when BGSU downed No. 9 Michigan, 2-0. The Falcons tied the Wolverines, then ranked 14th in the country, in a 2013 meeting at Cochrane.
• MSU will be the highest-ranked opponent to come to The House That Mickey Built in just under eight years. Akron was ranked No. 1 when the Zips topped BG, 2-0, on Sept. 11, 2010.
• Last season, BGSU played five games against top-25 opponents – including a matchup with No. 1 Notre Dame – but all five came on the road.
A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the Michigan State match with a record of 1-2-1 on the young season. The Falcons suffered a pair of one-goal losses to Northern Kentucky (3-2; Aug. 25) and Penn State (1-0; Aug. 28) to begin the season, then battled Wright State to a scoreless draw Friday (Aug. 31) before picking up a 3-2 win at Western Illinois two days later.
• BGSU has outshot the opponent and has taken more corner kicks than the opponent in each of the first four matches of the season.
• Senior Ebenezer Ackon leads the Falcons in scoring, with two goals and four points. Ackon scored a pair of goals just 75 seconds apart in the NKU match.
• Sophomore Chris Sullivan is second on the club with three points, after notching a goal and an assist at WIU. Three Falcons – seniors Moe Mustafa and Tate Robertson and sophomore Vinny Worner – each have two points on the young season. Sullivan and Mustafa both scored at WIU, while Robertson had the lone assist on each of Ackon's two goals in the NKU match.
• Junior Anthony Mwembia has played all four matches in goal, and has seven total saves, one shutout and a goals-against average of 1.42.
• Eight different Falcons have started all four matches. That list includes Ackon, Mwembia, Robertson, Sullivan, Worner, senior Peter Pugliese, junior Chris Brennan and sophomore Zach Buescher. A total of 13 different players have started at least two matches to date.
WORKING OVERTIME
• Friday night's Wright State match was BGSU's first contest to go to overtime this season. The Falcons played a total of three OT matches last year, going 1-1-1.
• BGSU is now 13-9-26 in overtime matches in the Eric Nichols Era, and the Falcons are 6-3-14 in home OT contests in that time.
TWO GOALS (USUALLY) DOES THE TRICK
• The Falcons' season-opening loss to NKU marked only the fifth time in the Eric Nichols Era that BGSU has lost when scoring two or more goals in a match. It was BG's first such setback since an OT loss to Duquesne in 2014, and was the Falcons' first such loss in regulation since the Belmont match of 2011.
• BGSU found the back of the net three times en route to Sunday's win at WIU. The Falcons are now 51-5-6 when scoring two or more goals in a match in the Nichols Era.
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE FOR YOUR BROADCAST, WEB STREAM, ARTICLE OR MYSPACE PAGE
• The 2018 season marks the 54th 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.
• Eric Nichols, now in his 10th 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 MSU match with a record of 70-77-26 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 his staff – Zach Mason, Sean Teepen and Oliver Harris – welcomed back 13 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year's team. BG finished the 2017 season with a 7-9-1 overall record and a MAC ledger of 1-3-1. Five of the team's setbacks came by one goal on the road to nationally-ranked opponents.
• The Falcons are 40-32-8 (.550) since the beginning of the 2014 season.
• Nichols welcomes back a total of four players who started at least 16 of the Falcons' 17 matches last year, including juniors Chris Brennan and Anthony Mwembia. Brennan led a balanced scoring attack with five goals and 14 points a season ago, while Mwembia played every second of every match in goal and had a 1.04 goals-against average, a saves percentage of .780 and seven shutouts.
• Brennan was named to the All-Mid-American Conference Second Team in 2017, while Mwembia earned All-Ohio Team honors.
• Senior Tate Robertson started every match last fall, and finished second on the team in scoring. Robertson's 11 points included a BG-best seven assists in 2017.
• In addition to the aforementioned trio, seniors Moe Mustafa and Peter Pugliese, junior Tom Wrobel and sophomores Zach Buescher and Chris Sullivan each made at least 11 starts a year ago.
THE OPPONENTS
• Michigan State is 3-0-1 on the season, and the Spartans are ranked third in the United Soccer Coaches poll and fifth in both the College Soccer News and Soccer America polls. MSU has defeated South Florida, Canisius and UC Riverside, with the latter match a 5-1 decision on Monday, and the Spartans tied Tulsa. Hunter Barone leads the team with two goals and six points, but seven of his teammates have one goal apiece. Jimmy Hague has two shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.25. Damon Rensing's club was picked to finish second in the Big Ten Conference in 2018, after going 13-3-4 overall and 5-0-3 in confernece play a year ago. The Spartans advanced to the NCAA's Elite Eight a year ago, and Hague was named the Big Ten's Goalkeeper of the Year.
• Ohio State is 1-3-0 heading into a Friday home match vs. South Florida. The Buckets defeated Hofstra, but have lost to Furman, Marshall and Milwaukee. Parker Siegfried has played every second in goal this season, and has 12 saves and a 1.02 GAA for first-year head coach Brian Maisonneuve. The Buckeyes were picked to tie for sixth in the Big Ten this season, after going 8-10-1 overall and 3-5-0 in conference play a year ago.
THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Michigan State, 23-16-6, in the all-time series between the teams, and each of the last five meetings has been a 1-0 Spartan win, including last year's match in East Lansing. Ryan Sierakowski scored on a PK midway through the second half for the lone goal last year. In the teams' last meeting at Cochrane, DeJuan Jones scored with under two minutes remaining in regulation. The first nine BGSU-MSU matches in the Eric Nichols Era have seen MSU win by a single goal on eight occasions, while the teams battled to a scoreless draw in 2011. BGSU's last win over Sparty was a 3-1 road victory on Sept. 17, 2001.
• BGSU leads Ohio State, 24-17-3, in that series, but the Buckeyes picked up a 1-0 victory last year. Just like BG's 2017 matchup with Michigan State, the OSU match was decided on a second-half penalty kick. Two years ago, the Falcons picked up a 2-0 win at Cochrane. BGSU is 15-4-1 in home games, 9-13-2 in road contests and 1-0-0 in neutral-site matchups with Ohio State through the years.
DOWN THE ROAD...
• The Ohio State match begins a four-game road swing for the Brown and Orange. BGSU will play at Wofford on Saturday, Sept. 15, and the Falcons then will take on Cleveland State (Sept. 18) and Purdue Fort Wayne (Sept. 22) on the road. BG returns home to end the month of September, facing Valparaiso at Cochrane Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 29.
# B G S U M E N ' S S O C C E R #
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