Mountaineers Come to Cochrane for Key MAC Matchup

Saturday, October 14

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

West Virginia

Keaton Reynolds v IUPUI - Aug 26 2017 - Larry Clapper

Keaton Reynolds & the Falcons face WVU Saturday night at Cochrane (Larry Clapper photo)

Photo by: Larry Clapper

October 12, 2017 | Men's Soccer

Falcons, West Virginia meet in BG Saturday night

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

FALCONS vs. WEST VIRGINIA – Saturday, Oct. 14
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Video: WBGU-TV

ON MATCH DAY...
Links to any live audio/video/stats will be available on the men's soccer schedule page right here at BGSUFalcons.com on match day.

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LINKS
This Week's BGSU Notes (PDF) | WVU Notes (PDF)
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
Falcons Earn USC Team Academic Award
VIDEO: In the Nest: Mwembia
BGSU Photo Galleries *
BGSU Men's Soccer Videos
MAC Office Announces Preseason Poll
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer: Schedule | Roster | Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!
* all sports - choose "men's soccer" in the drop-down link at the top right of the page

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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team returns home, and returns to Mid-American Conference action, this weekend. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons face West Virginia University in the first home conference contest of the 2017 campaign. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium. The WVU match is the Falcons' second of five MAC matchups in as many Saturdays.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• If you can't make it to Cochrane Stadium, live stats are scheduled to be available for each home match via BGSUFalcons.com (live stats likely will be available for each road contest as well). And, twitter updates for all men's soccer action, both home and away, will be available via @BGSUmenssoccer.

• Additionally, a majority of the Falcons' home matches will be streamed by WBGU. Currently, seven of the eight home contests – including each of the final six – are scheduled to have a web stream, free of charge.

• And, audio for most of BG's home matches will be available through the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO).

• As always, all of the pertinent information re: Falcon soccer coverage can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the match.

MENTION OUR NAME AT THE DOOR AND GET IN FREE!
Again this season, admission to all Falcon men's and women's soccer home regular-season matches is free.

AND GET SOME GEAR WHILE YOU'RE THERE!
Falcon Outfitters is hosting a merchandise sales table at Cochrane Stadium at select matches in 2017. The table will be available for fans at men's soccer matches held on Saturdays and women's soccer matches held on Fridays.

FALCONS EARN USC ACADEMIC AWARD
• For the seventh time in the last eight years, Bowling Green has received the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award. The USC (formerly NSCAA) Team Academic Award is given to soccer programs that have achieved a minimum team grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

• The Falcons had a team GPA of 3.13 in the 2016-17 academic year.

• A total of 838 college soccer teams (293 men, 545 women) across all divisions posted a team GPA of 3.00 or higher and were honored by the USC this season. Of that total, 208 schools – including BGSU – had both their men's and women's programs recognized.

A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the WVU match with an overall record of 6-6-0, and the Falcons are 0-1 in MAC play. Last weekend, the Falcons fell, 3-1, at SIUE in the conference opener, and the Brown and Orange dropped a 2-0 decision at Wright State on Tuesday night.

• The Falcons started the season with five-straight victories. BG posted multi-goal wins – all by shutout – over IUPUI, Cleveland State, Drexel, Penn and Western Illinois, but then dropped the next four matches before downing Duquesne.

• The Falcons spent a week ranked No. 19 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and three of BGSU's losses during the four-game streak came by a goal on the road to teams also ranked in the top-25 (No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 6 Michigan State and No. 25 Ohio State). The other loss came to a Cincinnati team coming off of a road win over a ranked opponent.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 15-12, this season to date. Two of the opponents' goals have come via penalty kicks.

• Five of the foes' 12 goals have come over the last two games. BGSU has allowed three goals in a game twice this season, after going the entire 2016 campaign without surrendering more than two goals in a match.

• Sophomore Chris Brennan leads the Falcons with 12 points on the year. Brennan is tied for the team lead with four goals, and the Copley, Ohio, native is second on the club with four assists.

• Junior defender Moe Mustafa is second on the team with nine points in nine matches, including four goals to tie Brennan for the team lead in that category. Mustafa was injured in practice prior to the WIU match, and missed the next three contests before returning at Notre Dame.

• Junior Tate Robertson has seven points and sophomore Robert Miller III six. Robertson paces the Falcons with five assists, while Miller has three goals, all three of which have been game-winning markers.

• Either Brennan or Robertson (or both) have been involved in the scoring of 12 of BGSU's 15 goals this fall.

• Junior Alexis Souahy has five points, including two goals, while freshman Chris Sullivan has three points on a goal and an assist.

• Senior Keaton Reynolds has two points, as he had the primary assist on Brennan's goals against UC and at Notre Dame. Freshman Zach Buescher also has two assists this year, including one on Miller's winner vs. Duquesne.

• BGSU is 5-0-0 this season when scoring two or more goals. The Falcons are 19-0-2 in such matches since the start of the 2015 season and 49-4-6 in the Nichols Era.

• Sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia has six shutouts this season, and has kept 14 clean sheets in 30 career matches. He has 43 saves and a goals-against average of 0.99 on the year. Mwembia's career GAA is 0.83, while his career saves percentage is .812.

• Eight Falcons have started all 12 matches to date. That group includes Brennan, Buescher, Mwembia, Robertson, Souahy, senior Brad Macomber, junior Dominic Grida and sophomore Tom Wrobel. Junior Peter Pugliese has made 11 starts, while Mustafa has started eight times, Miller seven and Sullivan six.

• Both Mwembia and Robertson were listed in the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Conference Top-20 rankings. Mwembia was listed as the 10th-ranked player in the MAC, while Robertson was ranked 12th in the league.

• BGSU went two decades (1995 to 2015) without going 4-0 to start the season, but the Falcons now have done so in three-straight years. Both the 2015 and '17 teams started 5-0 and broke into the national rankings, while BG began 4-0 in '16.

LOOKING TO START A NEW STREAK
Saturday's (Oct. 7) loss at SIUE marked BGSU's first MAC regular-season setback in exactly 23 months, since a loss at Akron on Nov. 7, 2015. Last year, the Falcons were undefeated in league play during the regular season, going 2-0-3 to place second in the six-team loop.

MWEMBIA MAKES HIS MARK
• Anthony Mwembia, just a sophomore, is proving that he is one of the top goalkeepers in the region and possibly the nation. An All-MAC First-Team selection in his first season at BGSU, Mwembia has picked up right where he left off a year ago.

• Mwembia is ranked among the nation's active career leaders in several key categories. He is ranked fourth among all active NCAA Division-I 'keepers in saves percentage, at .812. And, Mwembia's career goals-against average of 0.83 puts him just outside the top 10 among all current goalkeepers.

• The Toulouse, France, native is ranked 13th in the nation in shutouts, with six clean sheets this season to date.

SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE FOR YOUR BROADCAST, WEB STREAM, ARTICLE OR MYSPACE PAGE
• The 2017 season marks the 53rd year of BGSU men's soccer. Legendary coach Mickey Cochrane initiated varsity programs in both soccer and lacrosse at BG in 1965, after serving as club coach of both sports at the University the previous year. Cochrane can still be found in attendance at the field that bears his name for many BGSU men's and women's soccer matches.

• Eric Nichols, now in his ninth season at BG, is just the fifth coach in the illustrious history of Falcon men's soccer. Cochrane (1965-77), Gary Palmisano (1978-92, 1994), Mel Mahler (1993, 1995-2003) and Fred Thompson (2004-08) are the only other individuals to have coached the BGSU men's soccer program.

• Nichols – the 2016 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year – enters the WVU match with a record of 68-72-24 at BG, The Falcons, after going 3-12-3 in his first year, have a winning record since the start of the 2010 campaign.

• Nichols and the Falcons had an overall record of 9-6-4 in 2016, and BGSU finished MAC regular-season play with a 2-0-3 league ledger. BG finished second in the conference, the program's best showing since the 2002 season, and the Falcons were undefeated at Cochrane Stadium for the first time since 1996.

• The Falcons have a record of 38-27-6 (.577) since the beginning of the 2014 season. The '14 team went 14-6-1, posting the program's most wins in nearly two decades (since 1997), and advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match for the first time since 2003. The 2015 club finished 9-9-1, marking only the second time since 2000 that BGSU had won as many as nine games in a season. And, obviously, 2016 was the third time, as BG again posted nine victories.

• BGSU ended the 2016 regular season as the only team without a loss in MAC play. The Falcons – picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll – finished second in the league standings, and went unbeaten in the MAC for the first time since 1996.

• Nichols and his staff – assistant coaches Eric Reed and Zach Mason – welcomed back a total of 13 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team.

• Anthony Mwembia was an All-MAC First-Team selection in his freshman campaign, while Tate Robertson earned All-MAC Second-Team honors in 2016.

A QUARTET OF SENIORS NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS
A quartet of seniors are serving as captains for the 2017 Falcons. That group is comprised of Prayag Jina, Brad Macomber, Keaton Reynolds and Alexis Souahy.

SCOUTING WVU
West Virginia will come to Cochrane Stadium with an overall record of 7-3-3, and the Mountaineers are 0-0-1 in MAC play. WVU is coming off a 1-0 win over nationally-ranked Michigan State on Wednesday night (Oct. 11). The MSU result snapped a three-match winless streak, which included losses to Pittsburgh and Pacific and a 1-1 tie vs. Northern Illinois in last weekend's MAC opener. The Mountaineers are 3-1-3 at home and 4-2-0 on the road. Albert Andres-Llop has 12 points, including five goals, while Jad Arslan has nine points and Jorge Quintanilla seven. Arslan has scored four times, while Quintanilla leads WVU with five assists. Three goalkeepers have seen time, led by Stephen Banick. Banick has played in 11 of the team's 13 matches, and is 6-3-2 with five shutouts and a 1.07 GAA. Last year, coach Marlon LeBlanc's squad went 8-7-1 overall and 1-4-0 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
The Falcons lead West Virginia, 6-2-2, in the all-time series between the programs, and BGSU has won each of the last three meetings. Last year, Pat Flynn scored early in the second half as the Falcons won a 1-0 decision over the No. 22 Mountaineers in the MAC opener (Oct. 7, 2016). Two years ago, in the last meeting at Cochrane, BG got a pair of second-half goals for a 2-0 win. The Falcons are 2-1-0 at home, 1-1-1 on the road and 3-0-1 at neutral sites vs. WVU through the years.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the WVU match, the Falcons return to the road. BGSU will travel to Akron to face the Zips on Oct. 21, in the third of five MAC matchups in as many Saturdays. All six of BGSU's October matches are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.

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