Falcons Face Spartans in Battle of Unbeatens

#19 FALCONS at #6 MICHIGAN STATE – Wednesday, Sept. 13
7:00 p.m. | DeMartin Stadium | East Lansing, Mich.
Live Stats: MSUSpartans.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer
Live Video: BTN Plus (fee required)

#19 FALCONS vs. CINCINNATI – Saturday, Sept. 16
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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LINKS
This Week's Notes as a PDF
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
United Soccer Coaches rankings: Great Lakes Region | National Poll
Saturday Recap: Robertson, Falcons Blank WIU to Remain Unbeaten
MAC Office Announces Preseason Poll
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer: Schedule | Roster | Record Book
Join the Falcon Club Today!

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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, off to a 5-0-0 start, begins a difficult stretch of the schedule with a pair of matches this week. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons head to East Lansing, Mich., to face another unbeaten team, nationally-ranked Michigan State University, on Wednesday night (Sept. 13). Kickoff for that match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium.

Then, on Saturday evening (Sept. 16), the Brown and Orange will host the University of Cincinnati as part of the program's Alumni Weekend. That contest is also set for a 7:00 p.m. start at Cochrane Stadium.

FREE ADMISSION
Again this season, admission to all Falcon men's and women's soccer home regular-season matches is free.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For those who can't make it to Cochrane Stadium, live stats are scheduled to be available for each home match via BGSUFalcons.com. 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 Saturday's UC match – are scheduled to be streamed, free of charge.

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

• As always, all of the pertinent information re: live audio/video/stats can be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the match.

FIVE-AND-OH FALCONS
• The Falcons are off to a 5-0 start for the second time in three seasons. Two years ago, the Brown and Orange got off to a 5-0 start and moved into the national rankings.

• That 2015 team became the first in two decades to begin the season with as many as four-straight wins, since the 1995 club went 4-0 out of the gate. Now, BG has started 4-0 in three-straight seasons, with 5-0 starts in both 2015 and 2017.

• The school record for consecutive wins at the start of a season is six, by the 1978 team. Three previous BGSU teams tied one early-season match, but began the year with double-digit unbeaten streaks. That group includes the 1983 (10-0-1), 1991 (10-0-1) and 1992 (13-0-1) clubs.

DOES THE "OH" IN "FIVE-AND-OH" STAND FOR "OFFENSE"...
• BGSU has scored at least two goals in all five matches this season, and the Falcons have outscored opponents, 11-0.

• BG is 19-0-2 when scoring two goals in a match since the start of the 2015 season, and the Falcons are now 49-4-6 in such matches in the Eric Nichols Era.

... OR DOES IT STAND FOR "ZERO" (AS IN "ZERO GOALS ALLOWED")?
• Through five matches this season, the Falcons have yet to allow a goal.

• BGSU has posted five consecutive shutouts for the first time in 26 years, since 1991. The Falcons have tied the school record for consecutive clean sheets.

• That school record was achieved on three previous occasions. The Falcons had five-straight shutouts in 1977-78 (last three games of 1977 and the first two of '78), then matched that mark in 1983 and again in '91, prior to the current streak.

• The 2017 season marks the first time in program history that BGSU has begun the season with five-straight shutouts. The old mark was four, in 1981.

FALCONS RANKED SECOND IN THE REGION
• The Falcons are ranked second in the Great Lakes Region in this week's United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) poll. After debuting in the number-six spot this season, BG was fourth last week before moving up two more spots this week. The Falcons' number-two ranking is the team's best in just over two years, since BG was also ranked second on Sept. 8, 2015. BG was ranked among the Great Lakes Region's top-10 teams in every week of the 2016 season.

• Additionally, BGSU is ranked 29th in the entire nation in this week's College Soccer News poll.

TOUGH CROWD
• As mentioned, BGSU is entering a difficult stretch of matches. Michigan State, like BG, is 5-0-0, and the Spartans have allowed just one goal all season.

• The Falcons' next four opponents have a combined record of 15-3-1 as of Tuesday morning (Sept. 12).

• BGSU has 12 regular-season matches remaining. No fewer than six of those 12 opponents – including three of the next four – are either nationally-ranked or receiving votes in at least one of the two polls released Monday (Sept. 11).

• Those 12 opponents have a combined record of 32-18-6 as of Tuesday morning.

A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the Michigan State match with a 5-0-0 record on the young season. The Falcons have posted wins over IUPUI, Cleveland State and Western Illinois – all by 2-0 scores – at Cochrane Stadium. BG has two road wins, having blanked Drexel (3-0) and Penn (2-0) over Labor Day weekend.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 11-0.

• The Falcons are unbeaten in the last 13 home matches, having gone 9-0-4 at Cochrane Stadium since a 1-0 overtime loss to Northern Illinois on Oct. 3, 2015. The win over WIU was BGSU's ninth shutout in that 13-match span. BG has outscored the opponents, 26-5, during that home unbeaten streak.

• Sophomore Chris Brennan leads the team with eight points, including a pair of goals and four assists. Junior defender Moe Mustafa has seven points on a team-leading three goals and one assist.

• Junior Tate Robertson has six points on the year. He has four assists to tie Brennan for the team lead. Junior Alexis Souahy has five points and sophomore Robert Miller III four, and both Souahy and Miller have two goals.

• Both Miller and Mustafa have two game-winning goals on the year. They each recorded their first career GWG during BG's two-match homestand to begin the regular season, and each player scored another winner on the trip to Philadelphia.

• Sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia has five shutouts to start the 2017 season, and now has kept 13 clean sheets in 23 career matches. He has 18 saves and a goals-against average, obviously, of 0.00. His career GAA has dropped to 0.58, while his career saves percentage is now .861.

• 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 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.

• For the first time since he was one game nto his BG tenure, Nichols has a winning overall record with the Falcons. BGSU is now 67-66-24 since he took the helm prior to the 2009 season.

SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE BROWN AND ORANGE
• 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 WIU match with a record of 67-66-24 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 37-21-6 (.625) 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.

FALCONS EARN A SLEW OF AWARDS
• BGSU has earned a veritable plethora of honors over the first few weeks of the 2017 season. Last Monday (Sept. 4), senior Alexis Souahy was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week. and junior Moe Mustafa was chosen to the Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week the next day.

• Mustafa became the second Falcon in as many weeks to be named to the TDS Team of the Week, joining sophomore Chris Brennan (Aug. 29) on that list. Also last Tuesday (Sept. 5), sophomore goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week.

• Tuesday morning (Sept. 12), junior Tate Robertson earned honorable mention on the TDS Team of the Week for his three-point performance vs. Western Illinois.

SCOUTING MSU
Michigan State, like BGSU, is 5-0-0. On Monday, the Spartans were ranked ninth in the nation in the College Soccer News poll and 11th by Top Drawer Soccer. State has topped SIUE, Saint Louis, Dartmouth, Cleveland State and Rutgers by a 7-1 aggregate, and the only goal 'keeper Jimmy Hague (5-0-0, 0.20 GAA) has allowed came on a PK in the latter match, a 2-1 road win on Friday. DeJuan Jones scored both goals in the win at Rutgers, and has three goals and seven points to lead the team. Head coach Damon Rensing's group went 13-5-2 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

SCOUTING CINCINNATI
Cincinnati takes a 2-2-1 record into a Tuesday match at Kentucky. The Bearcats have defeated Gardner-Webb and IUPUI, lost to Wright State and Western Michigan and tied Xavier. David Sanz and Austin Smythe have combined to score six of the Bearcats' eight goals to date. Each player has three, and Sanz has nine total points while Smythe has seven. Pearce Skinner (1-1-1, 1.24 GAA) and Noah Lawrence (1-1-0, 2.50 GAA) each have seen time in goal. Coach Hylton Dayes welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including seven starters, from a 2016 team that went 9-7-1 overall and 3-4-0 in the American Athletic Conference.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail Michigan State, 22-16-6, in the all-time series between the teams. Each of the last four meetings has gone to the Spartans by a 1-0 count, including last year's game in the EL and the 2015 meeting at Cochrane. The first eight BGSU-MSU matches in the Eric Nichols Era have seen MSU win by a single goal on seven occasions, while the teams battled to a scoreless draw in 2011. BGSU's last win over Sparty was a 3-1 road victory on Sept. 17, 2001.

• BGSU leads Cincinnati, 6-4-1, in that series, but the Bearcats have won the last four meetings. BG captured six-straight matchups between 1972 and 2001, and the teams tied in '03, before the 'Cats won the last four. Last year, UC posted a 1-0 home win over BG in the teams' first meeting since 2007. BG is 4-1-1 at home and 2-3 on the road vs. the Bearcats through the years.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following this week's two matches, the Falcons return to the road to meet Notre Dame (Sept. 19) and Ohio State (Sept. 22), before ending the month of September with a home matchup vs. Duquesne (Sept. 27). Each of BG's next 11 matches is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time.

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