Off of Sergi's Set Pieces, Defenders are Dominant in DeKalb

Tuesday, October 25

DeKalb, Ill.

8:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-4-5, 3-1-2

Northern Illinois

5-6-4, 2-3-1

Bowling Green

NIU

Josh Erlandson at Michigan - Sept 5 2022

Josh Erlandson scored a pair of goals in Tuesday night's win at NIU

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

October 25, 2022 | Men's Soccer

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Erlandson's brace, Akpunonu's header lead to 3-1 win at NIU

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

DeKALB, Ill. – The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team got three goals from defenders, all on set pieces, as the Falcons posted a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois University. Tuesday night's (Oct. 25) Mid-American Conference matchup took place at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

Josh Erlandson scored a pair of goals for the Falcons (5-4-5, 3-1-2 MAC), while Joey Akpunonu found the back of the net as well. Akpunonu's header off of a Sergi Martinez free kick gave the Falcons a 1-0 halftime lead.

Set pieces by Martinez led to all three BGSU goals, as Erlandson doubled the Falcons' lead by poking home a loose ball after a Martinez corner kick later in the opening half.

After the Huskies (5-6-4, 2-3-1 MAC) cut the lead in half with under 10 minutes to go in the match, Erlandson got that goal back, heading home a Martinez free kick on a play that was basically a mirror image of the Akpunonu first-half goal.

Brendan Graves, who earned honorable mention to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week Tuesday morning, made three saves to earn the win in goal.

NOTE OF THE NIGHT
• Joey Akpunonu now has a team-leading five goals this season to date. Akpunonu has scored the first goal of the match in all three of BGSU's MAC wins.

BONUS NOTE OF THE NIGHT
• BGSU has played a pair of MAC matches in the state of Illinois this season, scoring three goals in each game. Sergi Martinez assisted on five of those six goals, and began the sequence that led to the other goal as well, with the corner kick prior to the Falcons' second goal vs. NIU.

MAC STANDINGS
School (Overall)	MAC	Pts.
Akron (9-2-4)	3-0-2	11
Bowling Green (5-4-5)	3-1-2	11
Western Mich. (11-2-1)	3-1-1	10
Northern Ill. (5-6-4)	2-3-1	7
Chicago St. (1-11-3)	0-6-0	0

HOW IT HAPPENED
• The Falcons took the lead with just over nine minutes gone. After a Huskie foul in front of the BGSU bench, Sergi Martinez took the ensuing free kick. Martinez played a nifty diagonal ball into the penalty area, and Joey Akpunonu got his head on the ball to direct it past NIU goalkeeper Martin Sanchez.
• BGSU goalkeeper Brendan Graves made saves on NIU's Harry Jolley in the 17th minute and Taisei Arima in the 31st.The first shot was from close range after a corner kic, and the second was a hard shot from outside the penalty area.
• BG doubled the lead in the 37th minute, off of a Martinez corner kick. The ball sailed toward the near post, where it was deflected on net. Sanchez made a kick save, but the ball went directly to Josh Erlandson, who knocked the ball into the net to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead.
• Just under two minutes after the goal, Graves went to his right to make the save on a Zachariah Thomas shot.
• With just over an hour gone, after a long throw-in, a header by Amer Dedic was struck well, but whizzed just over the crossbar. Then, in the 74th minute, Nathan Masters got his head on a left-side cross, but Sanchez grabbed the ball on a bounce.
• The Huskies got on the scoreboard with 8:47 left in the match. After two players vied for the ball outside the BGSU penalty area, Miguel Maynez Jr. fired a shot from distance that put the home team on the board.
• But, only 80 seconds after the Huskies' goal, the Falcons once again went up by two goals. BGSU's third goal was a carbon copy of the first. Martinez took a free kick after an NIU foul, this time from in front of the NIU bench. He put his kick into the box, and Erlandson met it with a bullet of a header. Sanchez had no chance as the ball went into the right side of the net to give the Brown and Orange a 3-1 lead with 7:27 to go.

STATS, NOTES & NUMBERS
• NIU had a slim 10-9 lead in total shot attempts, while the Falcons had narrow advantages of 5-4 in shots on goal and 4-3 in corner kicks.
• Brendan Graves made three saves en route to earning the win in goal. Martin Sanchez had two stops for the Huskies.
• Tuesday night marked just the third time this season – but the second game in a row – that BGSU scored in the first half.
• But, BG has now held the opponent scoreless in the first half in 15 of the last 16 matches, dating to last November.
• BGSU has outscored the opponents, 6-1, in the first half this season to date.
• Joey Akpunonu, as mentioned , now has a team-high five goals this season. Akpunonu has scored the first goal of the match in all three of BGSU's MAC wins to date. He opened the scoring in a pair of 3-0 wins over Chicago State.
• Josh Erlandson's two-goal match was his first as a Falcon. He now has three goals and seven points in a BG uniform, with all seven points coming this season.
• Erlandson scored his first game-winning goal as a Falcon on Tuesday night.
• Sergi Martinez recorded his second multiple-assist contest as a Falcon. Both games were MAC wins in the state of Illinois. Martinez assisted on all three goals in a win at Chicago State on Oct. 13.
• Graves and the Falcons saw their shutout streak snapped at 430:35. BGSU had not allowed a goal since early in the Akron match of Oct. 6.
• BGSU has allowed just eight goals in 14 matches this season. The Falcons have not given up more than one goal in a match since last year's NCAA Championships second-round contest at Indiana.
• Jensen Lukacsko played in the 85th match of his BGSU career, and has now made 82 career starts as a Falcon. He has moved into sole possession of fourth place on the BGSU career list for games played, and moved into a tie for fourth on the games-started list.
• The Falcons have a record of 41-24-12 over the last 77 games, dating to midway through the 2018 season. Sixteen of the 24 setbacks in that time have come by a single goal.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons return to the road for another midweek matchup, heading to Kalamazoo to face Western Michigan next Wednesday (Nov. 2). That contest will begin at 4:00 p.m. at the WMU Soccer Complex.
• Then, BGSU closes out the regular-season schedule four days later (Sunday, Nov. 6), when NIU comes to Cochrane for a 6:00 p.m. contest.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For more information on the men's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUmenssoccer), Instagram (bgsumenssoccer) and Facebook (BGMensSoccer) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.