Falcons and Huskies Meet Again, This Time in the Postseason

Sunday, November 5

Bowling Green, Ohio

6 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Northern Illinois (Quarterfinals)

Kyle Blasingame & the Falcons face NIU for the second time in a five-day span, this time in the MVC Tournament

Photo by: Scott Walstrom, NIU Athletics

November 04, 2023 | Men's Soccer

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BGSU hosts NIU in Sunday's MVC Tournament Quarterfinal Round

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BGSU vs. NORTHERN ILLINOIS
MVC TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL
Sunday, Nov. 5 | 6:00 p.m.
Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
Video/Web Stream: ESPN+
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com
Admission: Free

• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team returns to Cochrane Stadium this weekend for the program's first-ever Missouri Valley Conference Tournament match. The Falcons of head coach Eric Nichols face Northern Illinois University in MVC Tournament quarterfinal-round action on Sunday night (Nov. 5). First touch is set for 6:00 p.m. at Cochrane, and admission is free.

• The Falcons (7-7-3, 4-4-0 MVC) and Huskies (6-8-1, 3-4-1 MVC) each are first-year MVC members after previously competing in the Mid-American Conference.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Sunday's NIU match will be streamed via ESPN+, with Brandon Loe and Lucas Kleimeyer on the call. Live stats and Twitter/X updates (@BGSUMSoccer), as always, will also be available.

• Links to any available live audio/video/stats for all 2023 matches can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on game day.

BACK TO BACK
• The Falcons ended the 2023 regular season with a match at Northern Illinois, and the teams now meet in the quarterfinal round of the MVC Tournament. This marks the seventh time in program history that BG will play back-to-back matches against the same opponent. All seven instances have seen BGSU close the regular season vs. a conference foe, then open league tournament play against that same opponent.

• In three of the seven such instances, the Falcons' opponent has been Northern Illinois.

• BGSU is 3-2-2 in the first leg of those back-to-back matchups, and heading into Sunday, the Falcons are 4-2-0 in the return matches.
YOU AGAIN?
(BGSU's back-to-back meetings with the same opponent)
Year   Opponent First Mtg. (Site)   Second Mtg (Site)
1995   Kentucky T 0-0 (OT) (A) W 1-0 (2-OT) (N – Kalamazoo, Mich.)
1998   Marshall W 1-0 (H) W 2-0 (N – Lexington, Ky.)
2006   Western Mich.   L 1-2 (A) W 2-1 (A)
2007   Northern Ill. W 3-1 (H) L 0-3 (H)
2016   Buffalo T 0-0 (2-OT) (H)   L 1-2 (OT) (N – Akron, Ohio)
2019   Northern Ill.   W 1-0 (H) W 2-1 (OT) (H)
2023   Northern Ill.   L 1-2 (A) Sunday (H)

THE FALCONS AND THE MVC TOURNAMENT
• Sunday evening's NIU contest will be BGSU's first-ever MVC Tournament match. Both the Falcons and Huskies, as mentioned, are first-year members of the MVC.

FALCONS VS. NIU IN THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
• BGSU enters Sunday's match with a record of 3-4-0 vs. Northern Illinois in conference tournament play. All seven prior meetings came while both programs were members of the Mid-American Conference, with six of those seven matchups coming in the quarterfinal round.

• BGSU is 2-1-0 vs. the Huskies at home, 0-2-0 on the road and 1-1-0 at neutral sites in league tourney action. Most recently, the teams met in the 2021 MAC semifinals, with NIU downing the Falcons, 5-2, in DeKalb.

• The teams' last tournament meeting at Cochrane Stadium came in the 2019 quarterfinals, with BGSU picking up a 2-1 overtime win. That match was played with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, less than 24 hours after an early-season storm resulted in several inches of snow in the Bowling Green area.
FALCONS. HUSKIES. TOURNEY TIME.
(BGSU's meetings with NIU in the league tourney)
Year   Seeds*   Round    Site Result
1997   3/6   MAC QF N1 W 4-1
1999   3/6 MAC QF A   L 2-4
2003   4/5    MAC QF H   W 2-1
2007   4/5   MAC QF H   L 0-3
2008   7/2    MAC QF N2 L 0-2
2019   4/5   MAC QF H    W 2-1 (OT)
2021   4/1    MAC QF A L 2-5
2023   4/5   MVC QF H Sunday
* BG's seed listed first, then NIU's seed
N1 - Oxford, Ohio N2 - Akron, Ohio

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons have an overall record of 7-7-3, and BGSU finished Missouri Valley Conference regular-season play with a 4-4-0 ledger. BG finished fourth in the nine-team league.

• The Falcons are looking to snap a two-game losing streak. Most recently, the Orange and Brown dropped a 2-1 decision on the road at Northern Illinois on Wednesday evening (Nov. 1).

• The NIU match came after BG suffered a 5-2 home loss to nationally-ranked Missouri State (Oct. 27). That match was tied, 2-2, before the Falcons were shown a red card in the 56th minute. BGSU had outshot MSU, 7-6, to that point, but the Bears regained momentum, scoring three times in the final 25-plus minutes.

• The MSU loss snapped a two-game win streak, as BG had posted 3-1 victories at home vs. UIC (Oct. 18) and on the road against Drake (Oct. 22). All four of BGSU's conference wins were by two-goal margins.

• Entering the NIU rematch, the Falcons have scored 26 goals while allowing 28 this fall. Junior Alberto Anaya and sophomore Trace Terry lead the way offensively, as both players have 14 points on four goals and six assists. Anaya has tied his career best, having also scored 14 points as a freshman in 2021. Terry has more than tripled his point total for all of last season.

• Fifth-year Falcon Eli Shope is third on the team in scoring, with nine points, and has four goals to tie Anaya and Terry for the team lead in that category. Sophomore Andrew Shaffer has eight points, including three goals, while freshman Bennett Painter has three goals and seven points, with all seven points coming in the back-to-back matches vs. Drake and Missouri State.

• Kyle Cusimano and Jake Bergin each have four points on the year, with Nathan Masters and Rodrigo Montez Silva having scored three points each.

• Anaya is the Falcons' top returning scorer from a year ago. He had 10 points on three goals and four assists in 2022, despite missing four of BG's 16 matches due to injury. Shaffer had eight points and Josh Erlandson seven last season, with each player scoring three goals.

• Brendan Graves has played all 17 matches in goal this season, and has 79 saves, two shutouts and a goals-against average of 1.65.

• Graves has played every second of the Falcons' last 39 matches – a total of 3,530 minutes. No other BGSU player has been between the posts since Oct. 22, 2021.

• A total of 18 different Falcons have started at least one match this season. Only four players – Graves, Terry, Kyle Blasingame and Mads Christensen – have been in the Starting XI for all 17 contests.

• Graves, as mentioned, has played all 1,530 minutes. Blasingame leads the field players, having been on the pitch for 1,395 minutes, while Christensen (1,375), Terry (1,277) and Masters (1,226) round out the team's top five in that category.

• Bowling Green returned 11 letterwinners, including seven starters, from the 2022 team that went 6-5-5 overall and finished third in the Mid-American Conference with a 4-2-2 league ledger. Nichols and his staff have a whopping 14 newcomers on the 2023 roster.

• After 30 seasons of men's soccer in the MAC, BGSU entered the Missouri Valley Conference in 2023. BGSU and fellow MAC institutions Northern Illinois and Western Michigan joined the MVC, which also includes Belmont, Bradley, Drake, Evansville, UIC and Missouri State.

A FEW FUN FALCON FACTS
• Junior Alberto Anaya scored a goal in four consecutive matches before seeing that streak snapped at NIU. Anaya's feat was the longest streak by a Falcon in over 18 years, since Omari Aldridge found the net in five-straight contests from Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, 2005.

• The Falcons suffered a 1-0 loss at eventual league champion Western Michigan in the first MVC match in program history, back on Sept. 16. Following that match, BGSU averaged 2.43 goals per game over the remainder of conference play, with 17 goals in the final seven MVC regular-season matches. BG scored two or more goals five times in MVC play, with three or more goals in four conference contests.

• BGSU has scored at least two goals in every home MVC match in program history. That 'history' began on Sept. 23 with a 3-1 win against Bradley, and BGSU also downed Evansville (4-2; Sept. 30) and UIC (3-1; Oct. 18) at Cochrane. The Falcons found the back of the net twice against #18 Missouri State (Oct. 27) as well.

• That MSU match, a 5-2 loss, was BGSU's first home setback this season. The Falcons enter Sunday's tourney tilt with a 6-1-1 record at Cochrane Stadium in '23.

• The loss to MSU snapped a 10-match home unbeaten streak for the Orange and Brown, as BGSU had gone 8-0-2 since a 1-0 setback to Western Michigan over a year ago (Sept. 27, 2002).

• Freshman Bennett Painter was directly involved in the scoring of four-straight BGSU goals, prior to missing the NIU game. Painter scored the first – then the second – goal of his collegiate career in the second half of the Falcons' 3-1 win at Drake. (Oct. 22). Then, he had the primary assist on Alberto Anaya's goal vs. Missouri State (Oct. 27), before scoring BG's second goal against the Bears.

• For what it's worth, Wednesday's game at NIU marked the first time this season BGSU scored exactly one goal in a match. The Falcons scored a season-high four goals vs. Evansville, and BGSU has recorded three goals four times and two goals on four occasions, while being shut out seven times.

• The Falcons averaged 1.00 goals per game in non-conference play this season, scoring nine goals in nine non-league games. In MVC action, however, BGSU averaged 2.13 goals per game, with 17 goals in eight conference contests.

• Since the start of the 2009 season, BGSU is 88-10-7 when scoring two or more goals in a match.

• The Falcons are 63-30-22 in home matches since Eric Nichols took the helm prior to the 2009 season. BG is 59-22-20 at Cochrane since the start of 2011.

• BGSU is 41-12-14 at home since the start of the 2015 season and 35-10-14 since the beginning of 2016. The Falcons are 6-1-1 at home so far in 2023.

• Entering the NIU tourney match, the Falcons have an overall record of 49-32-15 over the last 96 games, dating to midway through the 2018 season. BGSU has 24 multiple-goal victories and 12 multi-goal losses in that time.

THE OPPONENT
• Northern Illinois is 6-8-1 overall, and the Huskies finished MVC play with a 3-4-1 league mark. NIU tied for fifth place in the final conference standings and earned the number-five seed for the MVC Tournament. Northern went 3-2-1 in the last six conference contests of the season, including a 2-1 win over the Falcons on Wednesday night. The Huskies went 4-2-0 at home and are 1-6-1 on the road and 1-0-0 at neutral sites this season to date. Individually, Taisei Arima and Angel Rodriguez each have 11 points on the season, and are tied for the team lead in goals (four) and assists (three) as well as points. Sam Divis also has three helpers for the Huskies. In goal, Jacob Rojek has started 12 of the team's 15 matches, and has 64 saves, three shutouts and a goals-against average of 1.67. Head coach Ryan Swan welcomed back 13 players who saw action for a 2022 team that finished 5-8-4 overall and 2-5-1 in the final season of Mid-American Conference play.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons and Northern Illinois are tied, 19-19-2, in the all-time series. BGSU had won two-straight meetings prior to NIU's victory on Wednesday. Last season, the Falcons picked up a 3-1 victory in DeKalb (Oct. 25, 2022) and a 6-0 win at Cochrane (Nov. 6, 2022). BGSU is 12-7-0 at home, 6-11-2 on the road and 1-1-0 at neutral sites against the Huskies over the years.

UP NEXT
• The BGSU-NIU survivor will advance to the semifinal round of the MVC Tournament to face either Western Michigan or Missouri State in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Wednesday (Nov. 8). The teams are reseeded after the quarterfinal round.

FOR MORE INFORMATION...
• For more information on the BGSU men's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSUMSoccer), Instagram (bgfalcons and bgsumsoccer) and Facebook (BGMensSoccer) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.