What To Watch For: Falcons Face Louisville in NCAA Championships First Round

Thursday, November 18

Louisville, KY

6:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

Louisville

Tickets

Jensen Lukacsko & the Falcons are 3-4-1 vs. NCAA Tournament teams this year, including a 2-0 win over FIU

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

What To Watch For: Falcons Face Louisville in NCAA Championships First Round

November 17, 2021 | Men's Soccer

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BGSU to battle the Cards on Thursday evening

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

FALCONS (10-5-3) at LOUISVILLE (10-6-1) – Thursday, November 18
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS FIRST ROUND
6:30 p.m. | Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium | Louisville, Ky.
• Video/Web Stream: ACC Network Extra •
• Live Stats: GoCards.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •

WHAT TO WATCH FOR...
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team returns to the NCAA Championships for the second time in the 2021 calendar year. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons hit the road to face the University of Louisville in Thursday's (Nov. 18) first round. First touch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium.

• The BGSU-UofL winner will advance to Sunday's (Nov. 21) second round and will take on 15th-seeded Indiana University in a 12:00 p.m. start in Bloomington.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Thursday's match will be streamed via ACC Network Extra. Live stats and Twitter updates (@BGSUmenssoccer) will be available as well.

• Links to live audio/video/stats for all 2021 matches can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com (on the men's soccer schedule page as well as at the top of the main page) on game day.

TICKETS
• Tickets for Thursday's match will be $10 for adults and $5 for youths, and all tickets will be general admission. They can be purchased online at GoCards.com or in person on game night.

TOUGH CROWD
• In the first 18 matches of the 2021 season, BGSU played eight games vs. teams that have advanced to the NCAA Championships, and the Falcons went 3-4-1 in those contests. Those opponents included Akron, FIU, Georgia State, Marshall, Northern Illinois (twice), Oakland and West Virginia.

• The Falcons played three matches against teams that received a top-16 seed for the national tourney. BGSU beat 13-seed FIU, 2-0, and suffered a 1-0 loss to 14-seed Marshall on a goal in the 89th minute. BG also faced 11-seed West Virginia, falling by a 2-0 final.

• Five of the seven Mid-American Conference teams made the national tourney. That list includes Akron, Georgia State, NIU, WVU and the Falcons.

• BGSU has played eight matches – and the Louisville contest will be the ninth – against teams currently ranked in the top 50 of the RPI. The Falcons (49th in the RPI) have faced Marshall (17th), FIU (18th), West Virginia (19th), Northern Illinois (23rd; two meetings), Akron (27th), Georgia State (36th) and Michigan State (50th). BG went 3-4-1 against that group.

THE FALCONS AND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• BGSU is participating in the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive season and the eighth time in program history. The Falcons have a 4-7-0 record in national tourney play.

• In April of 2021, the Falcons appeared in the NCAA tourney for the first time since 1997. BGSU dropped a 2-1 decision to Monmouth in Greensboro, N.C.

• BG's first three NCAA matches all came against Saint Louis, with the Billikens capturing all three contests in 1972, '73 and '92.

• The Falcons picked up the first NCAA win in program history in 1995, downing Davidson by a 3-1 final in a 'Play-In' match at Cochrane Stadium. BG then fell, 2-0, on the road against eventual national champion Wisconsin.

• BGSU won home tourney matches in both 1996 and 1997, dismantling Detroit, 4-0, in 1996 before topping Colgate by a 2-0 count in '97. The Colgate match was a 'Play-In' contest, and BGSU then went on the road and defeated Marquette, 1-0 in the '97 first round.

• In both 1996 and 1997, BGSU's season came to an end with a second-round loss on the road against Indiana.

• A complete list of BGSU's NCAA Championships matches and results can be found in the PDF version of these very notes.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons are 10-5-3 on the season, and BGSU went 2-2-2 in MAC play to finish fourth in the seven-team conference. BG has lost back-to-back matches for the first time all season, having ended the regular season with a 2-0 loss at West Virginia (Nov. 4) before dropping a 5-2 decision at Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament semifinals.

• BG went 6-2-1 in a month-long stretch from mid-September to mid-October, before suffering a 5-1 loss at Akron on Oct. 22. The Falcons responded with a dominant 3-0 win at Oakland (Oct. 26) before playing Western Michigan to a 1-1 draw (Oct. 30).

• BGSU began the month of October (some call it 'MACtober') with a pair of home wins over the league's two newest members. The Falcons defeated Georgia State (3-2) and Georgia Southern (4-0) at Cochrane Stadium before going on the road and earning a 1-1 draw vs. NIU in a matchup of top-25 teams.

• BG began the season with a 3-0-1 mark, picking up road wins over Gonzaga, Cleveland State and Michigan State by an 8-1 aggregate in that time. Marshall got a goal with just 93 seconds left in the second half as the defending national champions downed the Falcons, 1-0, on Sept. 11. But, the Orange and Brown bounced back with four-straight wins, including shutout victories over Wright State, then #13/17 FIU and Detroit Mercy.

• BGSU led by two goals on only one occasion during all of last season, and never had a three-goal lead in the spring. But, the Falcons have led by two or more goals in eight of the last 16 games, winning seven such skirmishes by multiple goals.

• BGSU scored as many as two goals in a match only three times in 13 games in the spring. But, the Falcons have recorded two or more goals 10 times in 18 matches this season to date.

• The Falcons have scored three or more goals six times this year after doing so only once in those 13 spring matches.

• BGSU is now 75-9-6 when scoring two or more goals in a match in the Eric Nichols Era.

• BG is 5-1-2 at home and 5-4-1 on the road, and the Falcons have topped the home, road and overall win totals for all of last season. BGSU has outscored opponents by a 33-21 count this fall.

• Jacob Erlandson leads a balanced Falcon scoring attack which features six players with at least 10 points. Erlandson has 16 points, while Alberto Anaya has 14 and Roberto Fernandez Garrido 13.

• Erlandson and Fernandez Garrido each have six goals, while Anaya has five. Anaya picked up his third game-winning goal of the season in the win at Oakland, while Erlandson has a pair of GWG.

• Fernandez Garrido came off the bench to score a goal in three-straight matches in mid-September, and also found the net in the final home game, vs. Western Michigan.

• Kyle Cusimano and Sergi Martinez have 12 points apiece this year, while Nathan Masters has 10.

• Cusimano leads the Falcons with eight assists. Martinez, who has three goals and six assists on the season, was chosen as the United Soccer Coaches Division I Player of the Week on Sept. 22.

• Masters, who assisted on BG's first goal at Oakland, was taken down in the box to draw the PK that resulted in the Falcons' second goal of the night. Masters, Erlandson, Anaya and Zach Buescher each have four assists this season, tying for third on the team.

• Logan Kowalczyk played every second between the posts in the season's first 14 matches. He has seven shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.89. Kowalczyk has kept 12 clean sheets in 26 career starts at BGSU.

• Brendan Graves made his season debut at Oakland, and recorded the first shutout of his BG career. Graves has played in the last four contests, and has 14 saves and a GAA of 1.89 in 380 minutes of work this fall.

• Entering the Louisville contest, the Falcons have an overall record of 35-19-7 over the last 61 games, dating to late in the 2018 season.

THE OPPONENT
• Louisville enters Thursday's match with a 10-6-1 overall record, and the Cardinals went 5-3-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The Cards earned a share of the ACC Atlantic Division title, its first regular-season crown since joining the league in 2014. UofL battled Notre Dame to a scoreless draw in the ACC Tournament's quarterfinal round, but the Irish advanced via PKs. Aboubacar Camara and Pedro Fonseca have 28 and 24 points, respectively, and both were named to the All-ACC First Team. Camara has 13 goals on the year, while Fonseca has eight goals and eight assists. Detre Bell has started 16 of the team's 17 games in goal and has 41 saves, six complete-match shutouts and a 1.29 GAA. Head coach John Michael Hayden's team is 9-2-1 at home and 1-4-0 on the road this season to date.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads Louisville, 2-1-0, in the all-time series. The Falcons picked up 1-0 wins in both 1986 (at home) and '87 (on the road). The most recent meeting saw the Cards capture a 3-0 decision at a tournament hosted by Kentucky. That match, in September of 2009, was just the second match of the Eric Nichols Era at BGSU. The Falcons are 1-0-0 at home, 1-0-0 on the road and 0-1-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Cards over the years.

UP NEXT
• The BGSU-Louisville winner advances to the second round of the NCAA Championships, and will face 15th-seeded Indiana in Bloomington on Sunday (Nov. 21) at 12:00 p.m. ET.

• Third-round matches are set for the following weekend (Nov. 27-28), with the quarterfinals on Dec. 3-4, the semifinals Dec. 10 and the national championship match on Dec. 12.

# BGSU FALCON SOCCER #