BGSU Begins Final Week of Regular-Season Slate with a Trip to Kalamazoo

FALCONS at WESTERN MICHIGAN – Wednesday, November 2
4:00 p.m. | WMU Soccer Complex | Kalamazoo, Mich.
• Video/Web Stream: ESPN+ •
• Live Stats: WMUBroncos.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •

FIRST TOUCH
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team enters the final week of the regular season looking to qualify or the Mid-American Conference's championship match, but the Falcons have several tough tests ahead of them. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons head to Kalamazoo for a Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 2) meeting with Western Michigan University. First touch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at the WMU Soccer Complex.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Wednesday's WMU contest will be streamed via ESPN+. Live stats and Twitter updates (@BGSUmenssoccer), as always, will also be available.

• Links to live audio/video/stats for all 2022 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.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons are 5-4-5 on the season, and BGSU is 3-1-2 in MAC play entering the WMU match. The Falcons are unbeaten in the last five matches, having tied Akron twice while posting a pair of 3-0 wins over the MAC's newest member, Chicago State. Most recently, BG picked up a 3-1 victory at Northern Illinois last Tuesday (Oct. 25) night.

• BGSU got three goals from defenders in that win in DeKalb, as Josh Erlandson scored a pair of goals, including the game winner, while Joey Akpunonu also found the back of the net. Sergi Martinez assisted on two of the three BG goals.

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

• BGSU has played a pair of MAC matches in the state of Illinois this season, scoring three goals in each game. 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.

• BG has allowed just eight goals in 14 games 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.

• The Falcons have kept the opponent off of the scoreboard in the first half in 15 of the last 16 matches, dating to last November. The first Akron game (Oct. 6) marked the first – and so far the only – time this year that the Brown and Orange surrendered a first-half goal.

No fewer than 10 of this year's 14 games have been scoreless at the half, with the lone exceptions being the Oakland (BG led, 3-0), Akron (BG trailed, 1-0) and Chicago State (BG led, 1-0) matches at Cochrane, along with last week's NIU match in DeKalb (BG led, 2-0).

• BGSU has outscored the opponents, 6-1, in the first half this season.

• All four of BGSU's losses – to Loyola (Ill.), Ohio State, Western Michigan and Georgetown – have come by identical 1-0 scores.

• In the Falcons' five draws – scoreless ties at DePaul, Michigan and Akron, and 1-1 home outcomes vs. Michigan State and UA – BG outshot the foes by a combined total of 71-41.

• All five of BGSU's wins have been by multiple goals. In addition to the aforementioned three MAC victories, the Falcons posted wins at Air Force (3-1; Sept. 17) and at home vs. Oakland (6-0; Sept. 23).

INDIVIDUALLY...
• Sergi Martinez leads a balanced BGSU scoring attack with 12 points on the season. Martinez has three goals and a team-leading six assists.

• Joey Akpunonu has 10 points and Alberto Anaya nine. Akpunonu has a team-high five goals, and has scored the opening goal in each of BGSU's three MAC wins. Anaya, who has missed four matches due to injury, exploded for seven points in the win over Oakland. Both players have two GWG this season.

• Josh Erlandson and Andrew Shaffer each have seven points, including three goals, on the season.

• Martinez leads the Falcons with seven points in MAC matches, while Akpunonu has six and Erlandson and Shaffer five apiece.

• Brendan Graves and the BGSU back line have allowed just eight goals – including one on a PK – in 1260 minutes of action. Graves has 36 saves and a goals-against average of 0.57 this season. His GAA in MAC play is just 0.50.

• Akpunonu, Erlandson, Graves and Martinez each have started all 14 matches this season. Kyle Cusimano, Jensen Lukacsko and Kale Nichols also have started every match, while Amer Dedic and Nathan Masters have made 13 starts apiece and Anaya and Eli Shope 10 each.

• Lukacsko played in the 85th match of his BGSU career at NIU, 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 is now tied for fourth on the games-started list.

RHYMES WITH SAVES
• Brendan Graves and the BG back line posted three-straight shutouts before allowing a goal at NIU. That goal snapped the Falcons' shutout streak at 430:35, after BGSU had kept three-straight clean sheets. BG had not allowed a goal since early in the Akron match of Oct. 6.

• Graves ranks seventh in the nation in goals-against average (0.57), and is also among the NCAA leaders in saves percentage (.818; 15th) and shutouts (six; 19th).

• Graves enters the WMU match with a GAA of 0.50 in MAC play. He has a career GAA of 0.95, with eight shutouts in his 21 total starts as a Falcon.

A FEW MORE NOTES AND NUMBERS
• In the Eric Nichols Era, BGSU is now 80-9-6 when scoring two or more goals.

• The Falcons are 56-29-21 in home matches since Nichols took the helm prior to the 2009 season. BG is 52-21-19 at Cochrane since the start of the 2011 campaign.

• BGSU is 34-11-13 at home since the start of the 2015 season and 28-9-13 (.690) since the beginning of 2016. BGSU was 8-1-3 at Cochrane in the '21 calendar year.

• Entering the WMU match, 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.

THE OPPONENT
• Western Michigan enters Wednesday's match with an overall record of 12-2-1, and the Broncos are 4-1-1 in MAC play. WMU has won three-straight matches, including a 2-1 win at Chicago State on Saturday (Oct. 29). Charlie Sharp has team-leading totals of nine goals and 25 points, while four other players have between 12 and 14 points. In goal, Hunter Morse has played all but two minutes this season, and has 39 saves, nine shutouts and a goals-against average of just 0.40. Last season, head coach Chad Wiseman's club went 7-6-5 overall and 2-3-1 in MAC play.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads WMU, 28-21-6, in the all-time series, but the Broncos captured this season's first meeting, 1-0, at Cochrane Stadium (Sept. 27, 2022). In fact, WMU is 6-0-3 since the Falcons' last series win, a 2-1 overtime triumph at Cochrane eight years ago (Nov. 1, 2014). The Falcons won the first 11 series meetings, and BGSU began the series with a 24-3-2 mark. But, WMU is 18-4-4 vs. the Orange and Brown since 2002. All told, the Falcons are 16-5-5 at home, 11-14-1 on the road and 1-2-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Broncos through the years.

UP NEXT
• Following the WMU match, the Falcons will wrap up the regular-season schedule on Sunday night (Nov. 6), hosting Northern Illinois. First touch is set for 6:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For more information on the BGSU 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.

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