Duquesne Comes to Cochrane as September Winds Down

FALCONS vs. DUQUESNE – Wednesday, Sept. 27
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 BGSU Notes as a PDF
2017 BGSU Men's Soccer Weekly Releases/Notes
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MAC Office Announces Preseason Poll
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UP NEXT IN FALCON SOCCER
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team returns home for one final match in the month of September. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons face Duquesne University on Wednesday night (Sept. 27), with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium.

• Then, the Falcons will have over a week between matches, before beginning Mid-American Conference play with a game at SIUE. The Falcons will face the Cougars, a first-year MAC affiliate member for men's soccer, on Saturday, Oct. 7.

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 each of the final six – 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: 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.

TOUGH CROWD
• The Falcons just wrapped up a stretch of four games in a 10-day span. Three of those four contests were played on the road against nationally-ranked teams. The Brown and Orange dropped 1-0 decisions to No. 6 Michigan State and No. 25 Ohio State, along with a 2-1 verdict against Notre Dame, the number-one team in the nation at the time.

• Both the MSU and OSU games were decided on second-half penalty kicks, while the Fighting Irish scored what proved to be the winning goal with just over 13 minutes left in the match.

• BGSU also dropped a 3-1 game vs. Cincinnati during that stretch. The Bearcats' final goal came with 30 seconds left, and was for all intents and purposes an 'empty-net' goal. All 11 Falcons on the field, including goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia, came forward as BGSU had a free kick and looked to tie the match, and UC scored after that kick was blocked and the BG 'keeper could not get back in time.

• Those four opponents have a combined record of 24-5-2 (.806) as of Monday morning, Sept. 25.

TOUGH CROWD II
• The Falcons' game at Michigan State began a difficult stretch of 12 games to end the regular season. BGSU's final 12 opponents currently have a combined record of 57-31-11 (.631), and six of those teams are ranked in at least one national poll.

• That group of 12 teams includes two undefeated clubs and three squads with just one loss.

A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU enters the Duquesne match with an overall record of 5-4-0. The Falcons posted multi-goal wins – all by shutout – over IUPUI, Cleveland State, Drexel, Penn and Western Illinois, but BG then dropped the next four matches.

• The Falcons spent a week ranked No. 19 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and three of BGSU's losses came by a goal on the road to teams also ranked in the top-25. The other loss came to a Cincinnati team coming off of a road win over a ranked opponent (Kentucky).

• BGSU's four-game losing streak is the program's longest since late September-early October of 2015. The Falcons have not suffered five-straight losses since October of 2008.

• The Cincinnati match snapped a 13-match home unbeaten streak for the Falcons, who had not fallen at Cochrane Stadium since Oct. 3, 2015. BGSU went 9-0-4 in that home unbeaten streak, outscoring opponents by a 26-5 count and posting nine shutouts.

• The Falcons have outscored the opponents, 13-7, this season to date. Two of the opponents' seven goals have come via penalty kicks.

• Sophomore Chris Brennan leads the Falcons with four goals and 12 points. Brennan is tied for the team lead with four assists, and the Copley, Ohio, native has scored BGSU's last three goals.

• Junior defender Moe Mustafa also has three goals, and has seven points in just six matches. Mustafa was injured in practice prior to the Western Illinois match, and missed the next three contests due to injury before returning at Notre Dame.

• Junior Tate Robertson has six points, including four assists to match Brennan's team-best total in that category. Either Brennan or Robertson (or both) have been involved in the scoring of 11 of BGSU's 13 goals this fall.

• 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 team's trip to Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend.

• Senior Keaton Reynolds has had the primary assist on each of BG's last two goals, Brennan's markers against UC and at Notre Dame.

• 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 had five shutouts to start the 2017 season, and now has kept 13 clean sheets in 27 career matches. He has 35 saves and a goals-against average of 0.78 on the year. Mwembia's career GAA is 0.74, while his career saves percentage is .832.

• Nine Falcons have started all nine matches to date. That group includes Brennan, Mwembia, Robertson, Souahy, senior Brad Macomber, juniors Dominic Grida and Peter Pugliese, sophomore Tom Wrobel and freshman Zach Buescher.

• 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.

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. Mwembia has allowed seven goals in nine matches this season. Two of those seven goals were penalty kicks, and one was an own goal as a defender inadvertantly knocked a ball over his head as he came off of his goal line.

• Mwembia is ranked among the nation's active career leaders in several key categories. He is second among all active NCAA Division-I 'keepers in saves percentage, at .832. And, Mwembia's career goals-against average of 0.74 ranks him eighth among all current goalkeepers.

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 Duquesne match with a record of 67-70-24 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 37-25-6 (.588) 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 DUQUESNE
Duquesne enters Wednesday's match at Cochrane Stadium with a record of 2-5-1 on the year. The Dukes have wins over Bloomsburg and Navy, and most recently played Robert Morris to a 1-1 draw. DU is 2-2 at home and 0-3-1 on the road. Zach Hall leads the team with three goals and seven points, while three of his teammates have two goals apiece. In goal, Robbie McKelvey has played in seven of the Dukes' eight matches, and has 32 saves and a 1.74 GAA. Last year, head coach Chase Brooks and DU went 8-5-5 overall and 3-2-3 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Duquesne, 2-1-1, in the all-time series between the teams. Wednesday's match marks the first time BGSU and DU will meet in a match that is not part of a regular-season tournament. The Dukes, guided by former BGSU assistant coach Wade Jean, picked up a 3-0 win 15 years ago, in the only prior meeting at Cochrane Stadium. The teams have played three times in Pittsburgh, as part of DU's Invitational in both 2009 and '14 and in the Pitt/Nike Invitational in 2011. Each of those three meetings has required double overtime, with the teams playing to a scoreless draw in '09, BGSU picking up a 1-0 win in '11 and DU capturing a 3-2 decision in '14. Brad Macomber is the only member of the current team to see action in that 2014 matchup, playing 20 minutes off the bench.

UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Following the DU match, the Falcons will prepare for the Mid-American Conference opener, a matchup at SIUE on Saturday night, Oct. 7. Three days later, BGSU will play at Wright State in the teams' annual battle for the I-75 Cup. The Falcons' next home game will be on Saturday, Oct. 14, when West Virginia comes to town, the second 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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Chris Brennan

Zach Buescher

Dominic Grida

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Robert Miller III

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Peter Pugliese

Keaton Reynolds

Tate Robertson

Alexis Souahy

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