What To Watch For: Falcons Head to Bloomington for NCAA Championships Second Round

Sunday, November 21

Bloomington, IN

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

#17/20 Indiana

Tickets

Nathan Masters at Louisville - Nov 18 2021

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

What To Watch For: Falcons Head to Bloomington for NCAA Championships Second Round

November 20, 2021 | Men's Soccer

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BGSU to battle the Hoosiers on Sunday afternoon

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

FALCONS (11-5-3) at #17/20 INDIANA (14-5-1) – Sunday, November 21
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS SECOND ROUND
12:00 p.m. | Bill Armstrong Stadium | Bloomington, Ind.
• Video/Web Stream: Big Ten Network + ($$) •
• Live Stats: IUHoosiers.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •

WHAT TO WATCH FOR...
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, coming off of the program's first win in the NCAA Championships in nearly a quarter century, returns to the road for the second round of the national tourney. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons will face Indiana University on Sunday (Nov. 21), with first touch scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium.

• The BGSU-IU winner will advance to next weekend's third round and will take on either Washington or Portland.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Streaming information for Sunday's match is TBA. Live stats and Twitter updates (@BGSUmenssoccer) will be available.

• 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 Sunday's match will be $10 for adults, $5 for youths (ages 3-18) and $3 for college students with a valid ID. They can be purchased online at IUHoosiers.com or in person on game day.

THE FALCONS AND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• BGSU went to Louisville for the first round of the 2021 NCAA Championships, and the Falcons came away with a 1-0 victory over the Cardinals. Kale Nichols scored what would prove to be the winning goal with just under a half hour gone, and Brendan Graves and the BG back line kept a clean sheet against UofL's high-powered offense.

• BGSU is participating in the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive season and the eighth time in program history. The Falcons now have a 5-7-0 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 notes.

TOUGH CROWD
• In the first 19 matches of the 2021 season, BGSU played nine games vs. teams that have advanced to the NCAA Championships, and the Falcons went 4-4-1 in those contests. Those opponents included Akron, FIU, Georgia State, Louisville, 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 – tied for the second-highest total of any conference (ACC eight, MAC and Big East five apiece) – made the national tourney. That list includes Akron, Georgia State, NIU, WVU and the Falcons. Four of those five MAC schools are still alive as the second round begins.

• BGSU has played nine matches – and the Indiana contest will be the 10th – 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), Louisville (33rd), Georgia State (36th) and Michigan State (50th). BG has gone 4-4-1 against that group. IU is 13th and BGSU 49th in the latest RPI rankings, announced Monday (Nov. 15).

A FEW NOTES FROM THE LOUISVILLE MATCH
• Kale Nichols scored his third goal of the season and the sixth of his BGSU career in BGSU's win over Louisville.

• Nichols joins an exclusive list of players to record an NCAA Tournament GWG for the Falcons. That short list includes Joe Burch (1995 vs. Davidson), Dan Kindl (1996 vs. Detroit), Brett Strang (1997 vs. Colgate) and Brandon Pelton ('97 at Marquette).

• The win was only the second-ever road victory for the Falcons in the NCAA Championships. The first was the 1997 win over Marquette.

• Nathan Masters has been involved in the scoring of each of BGSU's last two NCAA Tournament goals. He scored the Falcons' goal in the 2020(-21) tournament match vs. Monmouth, and had the primary assist on the Nichols goal at UofL.

• Masters now has six career game-winning assists, the most among current team members.

• Brendan Graves recorded his second shutout in five starts this season.

• The Louisville duo of Aboubacar Camara and Pedro Fonseca combined for 21 of the Cards' 40 goals this fall. But, the tandem was held to a combined total of just one shot on Thursday night.

• Graves and BGSU Hall-of-Famer Scott Vallow are the only BGSU goalkeepers to record a shutout in the NCAA Championships. Vallow kept three clean sheets in the national tournament in his storied career.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons are 11-5-3 on the season, and BGSU went 2-2-2 in MAC play to finish fourth in the seven-team conference. BG lost back-to-back matches for the first time all season, 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. But, the Orange and Brown earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships, then opened national tourney play with a 1-0 win at Louisville on Thursday night (Nov. 18).

• 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.

• BGSU 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 Brown and Orange 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 17 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 19 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 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 6-4-1 on the road, and the Falcons have outscored opponents by a 34-21 count this fall.

• The Falcons have posted six true road wins for the third time in the Nichols Era, having also done so in 2014 and 2019. No BG team has won more than six road contests since the 1997 club went 8-3-0 in true road matches.

• 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 11.

• 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. He is second on the club with six assists.

• Masters picked up the assist on the GWG at Louisville Thursday, and is now third on the team with five helpers. Erlandson, Anaya and Zach Buescher each have four assists this season to date.

• Kale Nichols has eight points, and became the eighth different Falcon to record a GWG this fall with his winner at UofL.

• 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 five contests, and has 15 saves and a GAA of 1.53 in 470 minutes of work this fall.

• Entering the Indiana contest, the Falcons have an overall record of 36-19-7 over the last 62 games, dating to late in the 2018 season. Twelve of the 19 setbacks in that time have come by a single goal.

CAPTAINS
• Zach Buescher, Jacob Erlandson and Jensen Lukacsko are the captains of the 2021 Falcons.

2021 AWARDS
• The Falcons were well-represented on the All-MAC Team this fall. Zach Buescher and Jacob Erlandson each were named to the all-conference first team, while Alberto Anaya and Joey Akpunonu earned all-league second-team accolades. Anaya was named the MAC Freshman of the Year.

THE OPPONENT
• Indiana, one of the most storied programs in the country, enters Sunday's match with a 14-5-1 overall record, and the Hoosiers went 5-3-0 in Big Ten Conference play. IU advanced to the league tourney's championship match, and the Hoosiers were ranked 17th in the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll and 20th by both College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer. Samuel Sarver leads a balanced IU attack with seven goals and 18 points, while Victor Bezerra is right behind him with six goals and 17 points. In goal, Roman Celentano has 66 saves, 10 complete-match shutouts and a GAA of just 0.80. Head coach Todd Yeagley's team is 10-3-0 at home and 4-2-1 on the road this season to date.

THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Indiana, 15-3-1, in the all-time series. The teams have not met since the 1997 NCAA Championships. Two of the last three meetings have come in the national tourney, as IU picked up a 2-0 win in 1996 and a 4-0 victory in '97, with both meetings coming in the second round. The Falcons' wins over IU all came in the regular season, with a home win in 1995 and road victories in both '92 and '96. The Falcons are 1-6-1 at home, 2-8-0 on the road and 0-1-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Hoosiers over the years.

UP NEXT
• The BGSU-Indiana winner advances to the third round of the NCAA Championships, and will face either Washington or Portland next Saturday or Sunday (Nov. 27-28).

• The quarterfinals are set for the following weekend (Dec. 3-4), with the semifinals on Dec. 10 and the national championship match on Dec. 12.

# BGSU FALCON SOCCER #