What To Watch For: Toledo Comes to Cochrane to Close Regular Season

BGSU vs. TOLEDO – Thursday, October 28
3:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
• Video/Web Stream: WBGU-TV (YouTube) •
• Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @bgsuwsoc •

WHAT TO WATCH FOR...
• The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team enters the final day of the regular-season schedule in the thick of the Mid-American Conference title chase. Head coach Jimmy Walker and the Falcons, the three-time defending MAC champions, host the University of Toledo on Thursday afternoon (Oct. 28), with first touch scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.

• Admission, as is the case for all home regular-season matches, is free.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will prepare for MAC Tournament action. The Falcons have clinched a berth in the six-team tourney, but will not know the date, site or opponent for the next match until Thursday's action is complete.

MAC TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
• Entering the final day of the regular season, the Falcons sit in third place, one point behind co-leaders Kent State and Ohio. The Golden Flashes face the Bobcats Thursday in Athens. Six teams will qualify for the MAC Tournament, with the top-two seeds earning first-round byes. The Falcons still can finish anywhere from first to third in the regular-season standings. BGSU's scenarios are as follows...

>>> IF BGSU BEATS TOLEDO...
• The Falcons clinch no worse than second place and a first-round bye.
• BGSU would win the regular-season championship if KSU and Ohio tie.
• If the KSU-Ohio match does NOT end in a tie, BGSU would finish in second place, behind the KSU-Ohio winner and ahead of the KSU-Ohio loser.

>>> IF BGSU TIES TOLEDO...
• The Falcons would be the second seed if Ohio beats KSU. BG wins a tiebreaker with KSU based on a head-to-head win in the teams' regular-season meeting.
• If KSU beats Ohio, BGSU would be the second seed. In that case, BG would be tied with Ohio, and the teams played to a 0-0 draw in the head-to-head meeting. The second tiebreaker is goal differential in all conference matches. BGSU enters Thursday with a goal differential of +12 (18 goals for, 6 goals against), while Ohio is at +10 (16 goals for, 6 goals against). In this scenario, the Falcons would remain at +12, while Ohio would be at +9 or lower.
• If KSU and Ohio tie, BGSU would be the third seed and would host a first-round match against the sixth seed on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 31).

>>> IF BGSU LOSES TO TOLEDO...
• The Falcons would be the No. 3 seed and would host the sixth-seeded team in a quarterfinal-round match on Sunday.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• If you can't make it to Cochrane Stadium on Thursday, the UT match will be streamed on YouTube, free of charge, and produced by WBGU-TV. Live stats will be available as well.

• Links to live audio/video/stats for all 2021 matches will be available on BGSUFalcons.com (on the women's soccer schedule page and at the top of the main page) on game day.

LOOKING TO CONTINUE THAT MAC SUCCESS
• The Falcons have enjoyed great success in MAC play in recent years. BGSU advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match in 2017 before falling in overtime, and the Falcons then proceeded to win both the regular-season and tournament titles in both 2018 and '19.

• In 2020 (actually 2020-21), the Falcons went 5-1-0 in MAC regular-season action, then defeated Ball State in the MAC Championship to advance to the NCAA Championships for the third-straight season.

• Entering Thursday's Toledo match, the Falcons are 11-2-1 in the last 14 contests vs. MAC opponents, having outscored the foes by a 30-7 count in that span.

• The Falcons have a 55-25-11 overall record since the start of the 2017 season. BGSU is 38-9-2 in MAC regular-season matches and 45-10-4 in all games vs. conference foes in that time.

• Since the start of the 2018 campaign, the Falcons are 42-18-10 overall, 32-5-1 in MAC regular-season action and 37-5-3 in all games vs. league opposition.

THE FALCONS SINCE 2017
Year Overall MAC All MAC* Home Away Neutral
2017 13-7-1 6-4-1   8-5-1 7-2-0   6-4-1   0-1-0
2018 14-5-3   10-1-0 12-1-1 10-1-2   4-4-0   0-0-1
2019 14-6-3   10-1-0 12-1-1   8-1-1   6-5-2   0-0-0
2020(-21) 6-1-1 5-1-0   6-1-0   4-0-0   2-1-0   0-0-1
2021 8-6-3 7-2-1   7-2-1   3-3-2   5-3-1   0-0-0

TOTALS   55-25-11 38-9-2 45-10-4 32-7-5 23-17-4 0-1-2
SINCE '18 42-18-10 32-5-1 37-5-3 25-5-5 17-13-3 0-0-2
* All matches (regular-season & tournament) vs. MAC schools

SUCCESSFUL AT HOME
• The Falcons went a perfect 4-0-0 at Cochrane Stadium in the spring, with all four wins coming against MAC opponents. BGSU outscored the foes, 10-1, in those four matches.

• BGSU enters Thursday's UT match with a record of 32-7-5 at home since the start of the 2017 season. The Falcons are 25-4-3 against MAC teams at Cochrane Stadium in that time.

• In those 32 contests vs. conference competition, BGSU has outscored the opposition, 66-23.

97 PERCENT OF THE TIME, SCORING TWO GOALS WORKS EVERY TIME
(alternate title: THE MORE GOALS, THE MORE BETTER)
• It would stand to reason that scoring goals increases a team's chances of winning. For the Falcons, that is most certainly the case.

• Since the start of the 2017 season, BGSU has a record of 49-1-1 when scoring at least two goals in a match. In that time, the Falcons are 6-24-10 when being held to fewer than two goals.

• The Falcons have won 29-straight matches when scoring two or more goals at Cochrane Stadium, since a 4-3 loss to Western Michigan on Oct. 20, 2016.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU enters the week with an overall record of 8-6-3, and the Falcons are 7-2-1 in MAC play, good for third place in the 12-team conference. BG, as mentioned, is just one point behind co-leaders Kent State and Ohio entering Thursday's action.

• BG's grueling non-conference schedule saw the Falcons face four Big Ten schools as well as one ACC member and a nationally-ranked Big East foe. Five of BGSU's seven non-league opponents currently are in the top 50 in the RPI, including Xavier (eighth), Notre Dame (18th), Michigan (19th), Ohio State (41st) and Michigan State (49th). BGSU played both XU and MSU to 1-1 draws.

• The Falcons are 3-3-2 at home and 5-3-1 on the road this season to date. BGSU has outscored the opponents, 30-21, through 17 matches, including 18-6 in conference play.

• BG has won six of the last seven matches, including a 3-0 win at Akron on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 24). The Falcons finished the road portion of the MAC schedule with a perfect 5-0-0 record.

• Returning All-MAC First-Team performers Madi Wolfbauer and Nikki Cox lead the team in scoring. Wolfbauer has 10 goals and 21 points to pace BGSU in both categories, and she recently tied the school record by scoring at least one goal in five consecutive matches.

• Cox has 15 points this fall. She scored the game-winning goal at Akron, and she leads the club with seven assists. Lacee Bethea has 11 points and Audrey Shea eight. Bethea scored the Falcons' second goal at UA on Sunday. Kennedy White has six points and Katie Cox five.

• Lili Berg has started every match in goal, and has 65 saves and a 1.11 goals-against average. She has a GAA of just 0.59 in MAC play.

• The Falcons returned 19 letterwinners, including all 11 starters, from last season's club. The 2020(-21) Falcons went 6-1-1 overall and 5-1-0 in MAC play, outscoring opponents by a 17-3 count in the spring.

THE OPPONENT
• Toledo is 10-4-4 overall, and the Rockets enter Thursday's action with a MAC record of 5-3-2. UT is currently fifth in the league standings, and would clinch a league tournament berth with a win over BG or a loss by either Central Michigan or Miami on Thursday. The Rockets are unbeaten in the last five matches, with that 3-0-2 mark including a pair of shutouts (2-0 win over Akron, 0-0 draw at Buffalo) last week. Ellie Pool and Olivia Dault have 15 and 14 points, respectively, on the season, and the two players each have six goals to tie for the team lead. Emma Boutorwick has played all but three minutes in goal this season, and has nine shutouts, 73 saves and a GAA of just 0.58. UT is 7-2-0 at home and 3-2-4 on the road.

THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Toledo, 15-9-4, in the all-time series, but the Falcons have won the last two meetings, including a 3-1 road win the last time the teams met (Oct. 30, 2019). The last meeting at Cochrane saw the Orange and Brown post a 2-1, come-from-behind victory three seasons ago (Oct. 25, 2018). That victory snapped an 11-match series winning streak for the Gold and Blue. BGSU is 2-7-3 in home games, 7-7-0 in road meetings and 0-1-1 in neutral-site confrontations with UT.

UP NEXT
• Following the Toledo match, the Falcons will begin MAC Tournament play on either Sunday (Oct. 31) or next Thursday (Nov. 4). Should BG finish third in the standings, the Falcons would host the number-six seed in Sunday's MAC Tournament quarterfinal round.

• If BGSU earns the first or second seed, the Falcons would earn a first-round bye and face one of the quarterfinal-round winners in the semifinal round.

• The semifinals (Nov. 4) and championship match (Nov. 7) will be hosted by the regular-season champion.

# BGSU FALCON SOCCER #

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results