Falcons Head to Akron for Saturday Meeting with Zips

FALCONS at #19 AKRON – Saturday, Oct. 21
7:00 p.m. | FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field | Akron, Ohio
Live Stats: GoZips.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Video: ESPN3.com

FALCONS vs. FORT WAYNE – Tuesday, Oct. 24
7:00 p.m. | Cochrane Stadium | Bowling Green, Ohio
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Audio: Bowling Green Radio Sports (BGRSO) | 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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FALCON MEN'S SOCCER LINKS
This Weeks BGSU Notes (PDF)
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
The Opponents: Akron Men's Soccer | Fort Wayne Men's Soccer
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 hits the road for a key Mid-American Conference contest this weekend. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons will travel to Northeast Ohio for a Saturday (Oct. 21) matchup with the University of Akron. The Falcons and Zips will meet at UA's FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.

• Then, the Brown and Orange will return home to close the non-conference schedule with a Tuesday (Oct. 24) tussle vs. Fort Wayne at Cochrane Stadium. The starting time for all of BGSU's October matches is 7:00 p.m.

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 merchandise table will be at all men's soccer matches held on Saturdays and all Friday women's soccer matches.

A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the Akron match with an overall record of 6-6-1, and the Falcons are 0-1-1 in MAC play. Last weekend, the Brown and Orange battled West Virginia to a scoreless draw at Cochrane Stadium.

• 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 in that stretch was against a Cincinnati team coming off of a road win over a ranked opponent.

• BG bounced back from the narrow loss at OSU by topping Duquesne, but the Falcons then lost, 3-1, at SIUE in the conference opener before dropping a 2-0 decision at Wright State last Tuesday.

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

• 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, 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 now has seven shutouts this season, and has kept 15 clean sheets in 31 career matches. He has 45 saves and a goals-against average of 0.90 on the year. Mwembia's career GAA is 0.80, while his career saves percentage is .814.

• Six Falcons have started all 13 matches to date. That group includes Brennan, Buescher, Mwembia, Robertson, Souahy and senior Brad Macomber. Juniors Dominic Grida and Peter Pugliese and sophomore Tom Wrobel each have made 12 starts, while Mustafa has started nine times and Miller and Sullivan seven each.

• Macomber, Mwembia and Souahy each have been on the pitch for all 1201-plus minutes this season to date.

• 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.

HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE
• Following Saturday's scoreless draw vs. West Virginia, BGSU is now 4-1-1 at home this season to date. The Falcons have kept five clean sheets in the six home matches, and BG has outscored opponents, 8-3, at Cochrane Stadium this fall.

• BGSU is 9-1-5 at home since the start of the 2016 season, and the Falcons have outscored the foes, 26-8, in those 15 matches.

• The Falcons went 5-0-4 at home last season, finishing the home schedule without a loss for the first time since the 1996 club went 9-0-1 at Cochrane.

• Since the start of the 2014 season, BGSU has a record of 21-5-6 at Cochrane. The Falcons went 6-2-0 in 2015 and 6-2-1 in '14. Four of the five home losses in that time have come by identical 1-0 scores.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 70-21, at Cochrane, dating to the final home game of the 2013 season. BG has scored at least two goals in 21 of the 33 matches in that time, with three or more goals in 10 of those games.

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 third among all active NCAA Division-I 'keepers in saves percentage, at .814. And, Mwembia's career goals-against average of 0.80 (0.798, to be exact) ranks him 10th among all current goalkeepers.

• The Toulouse, France, native is ranked ninth in the nation in shutouts, with seven 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 Akron match with a record of 68-72-25 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 38-27-7 (.576) 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.

SCOUTING AKRON
Akron is 9-3-1 overall, and the Zips are 1-1-0 in MAC play. UA is ranked 19th in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and the Zips are ranked between 13th and 17th in each of the other three polls. Akron has won three-straight matches, including a 2-0 win over No. 8 Notre Dame on Tuesday night. UA is 7-0-0 at home this fall. Sam Gainford leads the Zips with five goals and 12 points, while Joao Moutinho has nine points, Nick Hinds eight and Skye Harter seven. Harter has been credited with a team-high five assists. In goal, Ben Lundt has played in 10 matches and is 6-3-1 with 28 saves and a GAA of 0.58. Tor Saunders has started the last three contests and is 3-0-0 with a GAA of just 0.33. Last year, head coach Jared Embick's club finished 13-6-3 overall and 3-1-1 in the MAC. Akron won the MAC Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships.

A LOOK AT FORT WAYNE
Fort Wayne will enter Tuesday's game at BGSU with a record of 3-8-4, and the Mastodons are 0-3-1 in Summit League play to date. Fort Wayne played No. 24 Omaha to a 1-1 draw on Sept. 30, but has begun October with losses to Oral Roberts, Denver and Cincinnati. The 'Dons are 2-3-1 at home, 1-4-2 on the road and 0-1-1 at neutral sites. Oscar Uyamadu leads the team with four goals and nine points, while Romain Lopez has three goals on the year. In goal, Brendan Stangel (1.73 GAA) and Will Hathaway (2.27 GAA) each have 39 saves. Last fall, coach Mike Harper's team went 9-9-0 overall and 2-4-0 in the Summit League.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail Akron, 46-8-4, in the all-time series between the teams. The Zips had won 18-straight meetings before the teams battled to a 2-2 tie at Cochrane last season. Two years ago, in BG's last trip to the stadium with the really long name(s), the Zips captured a 4-0 decision. The Falcons' last win in the series came 14 years ago, a 1-0 triumph at Cochrane on Oct. 27, 2002.

• BGSU leads Fort Wayne, 9-5-2, in that series, but the Mastodons captured a 2-1 decision last season in Indiana, snapping a three-match series winning streak for the Brown and Orange. Two years ago, in the teams' last meeting at Cochrane, the Falcons got a late goal to post a 3-2, come-from-behind victory. The Falcons are 5-2-2 at home and 4-3-0 on the road vs. the 'Dons through the years.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the Fort Wayne game, the Falcons will close the home schedule with a "Senior Night" match against Northern Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 28. Then, the Brown and Orange will end the regular season with a road match vs. Western Michigan on Nov. 4.

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