Bowling Green State University Athletics
Thursday, September 1
Bowling Green, Ohio
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Ohio State
Photo by: Steve Woltmann
BGSU Battles Buckeyes Thursday Night at Cochrane
August 31, 2022 | Men's Soccer
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Falcons begin stretch of three-straight games vs. Big Ten foes
RV FALCONS vs. OHIO STATE – Thursday, Sept. 1
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
• Video/Web Stream: BCSN & ESPN+ •
• Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •
FIRST TOUCH
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team opens the home portion of the 2022 season this week. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons welcome the Ohio State University to town on Thursday evening (Sept. 1). First touch is set for 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and admission is free.
• Thursday's match is the first of three-straight contests vs. Big Ten Conference foes for the Orange and Brown, who will meet Michigan on Monday (Sept. 5) and Michigan State next Friday (Sept. 9).
HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Thursday's OSU matchup will be aired by BCSN in the Toledo area, and also will be available via both the BCSN App and on 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.
EVENTS / HAPPENINGS
• Thursday's game is a Meserve Cup event, with student-athletes from all BGSU sports encouraged to attend. It will also be Campers Night, with participants from the Falcons' summer camps in attendance. A color guard will present the colors prior to the National Anthem, and there will be a penalty-kick shootout involving BGSU student-athletes at halftime.
FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons enter the OSU tussle with an overall record of 0-1-1 on the young season. BGSU allowed just one goal in a pair of matches in Chicagoland to begin the season, but the Falcons were kept off the scoresheet in a nil-nil draw at DePaul and a 1-0 loss at Loyola (Ill.).
• BGSU received votes in this week's College Soccer News poll after being ranked 25th in that site's preseason national poll.
• Brendan Graves had a stellar weekend in Chicago, allowing just one goal and making eight saves in 180 minutes of work between the posts. The junior has a goals-against average of 0.50 this season, and he now has a career GAA of 1.41 and three shutouts in nine career starts.
• 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.
• Nichols is an OSU alum, and was a men's soccer letterwinner for the Buckeyes.
• 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 returned 17 letterwinners, including nine starters, from that 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 are back.
• Last year's balanced scoring attack featured six players who recorded between 11 and 16 points. Four of those Falcons returned, 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 campaign.
• BG is 32-9-11 at home since the start of the 2015 season and 26-7-11 (.716) since the beginning of 2016. 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 the fall of 2021, and the Falcons outscored opponents by a 34-23 count last season.
• Entering the OSU match, the Falcons have an overall record of 36-21-8 over the last 65 games, dating to midway through the 2018 season. Thirteen of the 21 setbacks in that time have come by a single goal.
• The Falcons have been 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.
CAPTAINS
• Jensen Lukacsko , Sergi Martinez and Kale Nichols are the captains of the 2021 Falcons. Lukacsko is a second-year captain.
THE OPPONENT
• Ohio State brings a 1-0-1 record into Thursday's match. The Buckeyes tied South Carolina, 1-1, before posting a 3-0 win over Cal Poly in OSU's Wolstein Classic. Two-time All-Big Ten selection Laurence Wootton leads the team with three points, while Keagan McLaughlin has played all 180 minutes in goal and has six saves and a 0.50 GAA. Head coach Brian Maisonneuve's team went 6-9-1 overall and 2-6-0 in the Big Ten last fall.
THE SERIES
• BGSU leads Ohio State, 25-19-4, in the all-time series, but the Buckeyes have had the upper hand as of late. OSU has gone 3-0-1 in the teams' last four meetings, including a 2-1, double-overtime decision in Columbus last season. BGSU's last series win was a 2-0 victory at Cochrane in 2016. The Falcons are 15-5-1 at home, 9-14-3 on the road and 1-0-0 at neutral sites vs. the Buckeyes over the years.
UP NEXT
• The Falcons head to Ann Arbor for a Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 5) matchup with Michigan. That contest will begin at 2:00 p.m.
• Then, the Orange and Brown will return to BG to host Michigan State next Friday (Sept. 9), with first touch at 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
• Video/Web Stream: BCSN & ESPN+ •
• Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer •
FIRST TOUCH
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team opens the home portion of the 2022 season this week. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons welcome the Ohio State University to town on Thursday evening (Sept. 1). First touch is set for 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and admission is free.
• Thursday's match is the first of three-straight contests vs. Big Ten Conference foes for the Orange and Brown, who will meet Michigan on Monday (Sept. 5) and Michigan State next Friday (Sept. 9).
HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Thursday's OSU matchup will be aired by BCSN in the Toledo area, and also will be available via both the BCSN App and on 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.
EVENTS / HAPPENINGS
• Thursday's game is a Meserve Cup event, with student-athletes from all BGSU sports encouraged to attend. It will also be Campers Night, with participants from the Falcons' summer camps in attendance. A color guard will present the colors prior to the National Anthem, and there will be a penalty-kick shootout involving BGSU student-athletes at halftime.
FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons enter the OSU tussle with an overall record of 0-1-1 on the young season. BGSU allowed just one goal in a pair of matches in Chicagoland to begin the season, but the Falcons were kept off the scoresheet in a nil-nil draw at DePaul and a 1-0 loss at Loyola (Ill.).
• BGSU received votes in this week's College Soccer News poll after being ranked 25th in that site's preseason national poll.
• Brendan Graves had a stellar weekend in Chicago, allowing just one goal and making eight saves in 180 minutes of work between the posts. The junior has a goals-against average of 0.50 this season, and he now has a career GAA of 1.41 and three shutouts in nine career starts.
• 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.
• Nichols is an OSU alum, and was a men's soccer letterwinner for the Buckeyes.
• 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 returned 17 letterwinners, including nine starters, from that 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 are back.
• Last year's balanced scoring attack featured six players who recorded between 11 and 16 points. Four of those Falcons returned, 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 campaign.
• BG is 32-9-11 at home since the start of the 2015 season and 26-7-11 (.716) since the beginning of 2016. 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 the fall of 2021, and the Falcons outscored opponents by a 34-23 count last season.
• Entering the OSU match, the Falcons have an overall record of 36-21-8 over the last 65 games, dating to midway through the 2018 season. Thirteen of the 21 setbacks in that time have come by a single goal.
• The Falcons have been 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.
CAPTAINS
• Jensen Lukacsko , Sergi Martinez and Kale Nichols are the captains of the 2021 Falcons. Lukacsko is a second-year captain.
THE OPPONENT
• Ohio State brings a 1-0-1 record into Thursday's match. The Buckeyes tied South Carolina, 1-1, before posting a 3-0 win over Cal Poly in OSU's Wolstein Classic. Two-time All-Big Ten selection Laurence Wootton leads the team with three points, while Keagan McLaughlin has played all 180 minutes in goal and has six saves and a 0.50 GAA. Head coach Brian Maisonneuve's team went 6-9-1 overall and 2-6-0 in the Big Ten last fall.
THE SERIES
• BGSU leads Ohio State, 25-19-4, in the all-time series, but the Buckeyes have had the upper hand as of late. OSU has gone 3-0-1 in the teams' last four meetings, including a 2-1, double-overtime decision in Columbus last season. BGSU's last series win was a 2-0 victory at Cochrane in 2016. The Falcons are 15-5-1 at home, 9-14-3 on the road and 1-0-0 at neutral sites vs. the Buckeyes over the years.
UP NEXT
• The Falcons head to Ann Arbor for a Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 5) matchup with Michigan. That contest will begin at 2:00 p.m.
• Then, the Orange and Brown will return to BG to host Michigan State next Friday (Sept. 9), with first touch at 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.
# BGSU FALCON SOCCER #
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