#25 Falcons Open 2022 Season With Trip to Chicagoland

Friday, August 26

Chicago, Ill.

4:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

DePaul

Tickets

Photo by: Virginia Athletics

August 25, 2022 | Men's Soccer

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BGSU to face DePaul, Loyola in season's opening weekend

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

#25 FALCONS at DePAUL – Friday, August 26
4:00 p.m. ET | Wish Field | Chicago, Ill.
• Video/Web Stream: FloSports •
• Live Stats: DePaulBlueDemons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •

#25 FALCONS at LOYOLA UNIV. CHICAGO – Sunday, August 28
3:00 p.m. ET | Loyola Soccer Park | Chicago, Ill.
• Video/Web Stream: ESPN+ •
• Live Stats: LoyolaRamblers.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •

FIRST TOUCH
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team will open the 2022 season with a pair of matches in Chicago this weekend. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons will face DePaul University on Friday (Aug. 26), with first touch set for 4:00 p.m. ET at Wish Field.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will meet Loyola University Chicago on Sunday (Aug. 28), with that match set to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET at Loyola Soccer Park.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Friday's DePaul matchup is scheduled to be streamed by FloSports, while Sunday's Loyola contest is slated to be aired on ESPN+. Live stats and Twitter updates (@BGSUmenssoccer) will also be available for both matches.

• 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 ranked in a pair of national polls. BGSU enters the season ranked 25th in the country in the College Soccer News preseason top-30 poll, and the Falcons are tied for 25th in the United Soccer Coaches preseason listings.

• Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons finished the fall 2021 season with an overall record of 11-6-3, and BGSU advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships. BG picked up a 1-0 victory at Louisville in the opening round, marking the fifth NCAA Tournament victory in program history, and the first since 1997.

• BGSU achieved a feat that will be very difficult to repeat, as the Falcons advanced to the NCAA Championships twice in the 2021 calendar year. BG won the MAC regular-season title in the spring of 2021.

• The Falcons return 17 letterwinners, including nine starters, from the fall 2021 team. The two departing starters, Jacob Erlandson and Zach Buescher, each were named to the All-MAC First Team, and Erlandson was chosen by the Columbus Crew in the MLS SuperDraft.

• The returning players combined to record 62 percent (21 of 34) of the team's goals and 78% (32 of 41) of the assists last fall. Additionally, the two goalkeepers who combined to play every second of last season's 20 matches both return.

• Last year's balanced scoring attack featured six players who recorded between 11 and 16 points. Four of those Falcons return, including Alberto Anaya, the team's top returning scorer. Anaya, the 2021 MAC Freshman of the Year, had five goals and 14 points in his first season with the Falcons.

• Kyle Cusimano and Sergi Martinez had 12 points apiece last year, while Nathan Masters had 11. Cusimano led the 2021 Falcons with eight assists, while Martinez, who had three goals and six assists on the season, was chosen as the United Soccer Coaches Division I Player of the Week last Sept. 22.

• Kale Nichols had eight points, including the lone goal in BGSU's national tournament win at Louisville. Defender Joey Akpunonu, who had six points, joined Anaya on the All-MAC Second Team.

• Logan Kowalczyk played every second of last season's first 14 matches between the posts. He had 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 played the final six contests of the 2021 season, and had two shutouts, a GAA of 1.61 and 15 saves in 560 minutes of work.

• BGSU scored as many as two goals in a match only three times in 13 games in the spring of '21. But, the Falcons recorded two or more goals 10 times in 20 matches last fall. The Falcons scored three or more goals six times in the fall after doing so only once in those 13 spring matches.

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

• The Falcons are 54-27-19 in home matches since Nichols took the helm prior to the 2009 season. After going 4-8-2 at home in his first two years, the Falcons are 50-19-17 at Cochrane since the start of the 2011 season.

• BG is 32-9-11 at home since the start of the 2015 season and 26-7-11 (.716) since the beginning of the 2016 campaign. BGSU went 8-1-3 at Cochrane in the 2021 calendar year.

• BG went 5-1-2 at home and 6-5-1 on the road in 2021, and the Falcons outscored opponents by a 34-23 count last fall.

• The 2021 Falcons posted six true road wins for the third time in the Nichols Era and the second time in three seasons. No BG team has won more than six road contests since the 1997 club went 8-3-0 in true road matches.

• Entering the 2022 season, the Falcons have an overall record of 36-20-7 over the last 63 games, dating to late in the 2018 season. Thirteen of the 20 setbacks in that time have come by a single goal.

• Earlier this week, the Falcons were picked to win the MAC regular-season title in 2022. BGSU received 19 points in the league preseason coaches poll, with both Akron and Northern Illinois garnering 18 points.

• With his goal vs. Louisville last November, Kale Nichols joined an exclusive list of players to record an NCAA Tournament game-winning goal 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).

• 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.

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

CAPTAINS
• Jensen Lukacsko, Sergi Martinez and Kale Nichols are the captains of the 2021 Falcons. Lukacsko is a second-year captain.

THE OPPONENTS
• DePaul was picked to finish ninth in the Big East Conference in the 2022 preseason coaches poll. The Blue Demons ended the 2021 campaign with an overall record of 7-7-3 and a 3-4-3 conference mark. Jack Richards returns after leading the team in scoring with five goals and 11 points last season. In goal, Gandhi Cruz is back after playing every second of last year's 17 matches. He had 76 saves and a goals-against average of just 1.12 for head coach Mark Plotkin.

• Loyola opens the season by hosting Bucknell on Friday, before facing the Falcons two days later. The Ramblers enter the Atlantic 10 Conference this season, and Loyola was picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll. Last year, the Ramblers finished 9-5-2 overall and 6-3-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Billy Hency, Michael Hong and Marc Torrellas all were named to the United Soccer Coaches Players to Watch List. Hency was the 2021 MVC Player of the Year after leading the Ramblers with nine goals and eight assists. Head coach Steve Bode and his staff will look to replace Marcel Kampman, who played every second in goal last fall.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads DePaul, 4-0-0, in the all-time series, but the teams have not met since the 1999 season. The Falcons have outscored the Blue Demons, 6-0, in the four prior matches, all of which took place during the 1990s. BG is 3-0-0 at home and 1-0-0 on the road vs. DePaul.

• The Falcons trail Loyola, 1-0-0, in that series. The lone previous match saw the Ramblers post a 3-2, double-overtime win in the Windy City in 2005.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons will open the home portion of the schedule next Thursday (Sept. 1), taking on Ohio State. First touch is set for 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.

# BGSU FALCON SOCCER #