Ball State Bests BG, 2-0

Sunday, October 2

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

4-9-0, 1-3-0MAC

Ball State

8-4-1, 3-1-0MAC

Ball State

Bowling Green

October 02, 2011 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Cardinals score twice in first half

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Visiting Ball State University scored a pair of first-half goals to notch a 2-0 victory over the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team Sunday afternoon (Oct. 2). The Mid-American Conference match was held at Cochrane Field.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
BGSU'S CUMULATIVE STATS: HTML | PDF

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 8-4-1 overall and 3-1-0 in MAC play. The Falcons drop to 4-9-0 and 1-3-0, respectively.

Victoria Jacobs headed home a free kick with 16:23 gone, and Maggie Brown scored off of a scrum in the penalty area in the 32nd minute for the Cardinals. BSU outshot the Falcons by a 16-6 count, including a 7-3 edge in shots on goal.

Aubrey Buehler made three saves en route to the complete-game shutout for Ball State. For the Falcons, redshirt junior Becca Ison had five stops in goal.

In the early going, the match was evenly played, with BGSU creating as many chances as the visitors. The Cards took the first four shot attempts of the match, all in the first 10 minutes, but only one was on goal, and Ison was easily able to gather it in.

With 14 minutes gone, two Falcon freshmen combined to give BG a scoring chance. Ashley Garr came up with a steal, and bumped the ball ahead to Leslie Henny near the 18-yard line. Henny took one touch to cut the ball back to her right, and rifled a shot toward net. But, the ball whizzed just high of the target.

Just over two minutes later, however, the Cardinals got on the board. The Falcons committed a seemingly harmless foul in front of the grandstand near midfield. Skylar Chew took the ensuing free kick, and played a diagonal ball toward the penalty area. Jacobs ran onto the ball, leaped higher than several players around her, and perfectly placed a gorgeous header into the upper-right corner of the goal. The goal gave the Cardinals the lead for good, and seemed to take some of the wind out of the Falcons' collective sails.

Several minutes later, Jacobs had another chance, making a run and firing a long shot that sailed near the same upper-right-hand corner of the net . This time, however, the shot went wide.

With 31:54 elapsed, however, the Cards hit the net once again. A crossing ball from the left side precipitated a scrum in the box, with the visitors attempting several shots. In the chaos, Paige Stroinski got a body part on the ball and sent it toward Brown, who was stationed near the left post. Brown was able to knock the ball home to give BSU a two-nil lead.

Just under eight minutes remained in the half when the Falcons put a shot on frame for the first time. After a long throw-in by redshirt freshman Kylie Briem, senior captain Alyssa Zuccaro got her head on the ball, but her shot was grabbed by Buehler.

With three minutes left in the half, the Falcons were able to string four or five passes together. Jenny Fowler, Briem and Kaitlyn Tobin were involved in the buildup, with a pass by Fowler finding sophomore Tracy Togba. Togba hit a shot from the 18-yard line, but a defender just barely blocked the ball immediately after it left Togba's boot. The block took most of the steam off of Togba's shot, and the ball rolled harmlessly to the BSU 'keeper.

With the two-goal lead, the Cardinals were able to maintain possession for much of the second half, and BSU was able to keep BGSU from mounting many scoring threats in the final 45 minutes.

Roughly 12 minutes into the half, Zuccaro was fouled as she headed toward the penalty area, but senior Megan Amann's ensuing free kick was blocked.

At the other end, the Cardinals' Jasmine Moses made a long run, but her shot was fired directly at Ison.

Midway through the period, freshman Kaylee Draper fired a long shot on net, but Buehler came up with the save. Buehler escaped danger with approximately 16 minutes left in the match. A BSU player attempted to clear the ball from deep in her own end of the field, but Falcon freshman Sidney Huth blocked the try. The ball bounced off of Huth and headed toward the net, but Buehler grabbed it on the goal line.

Ison made a nifty save on Stroinski's blast with 12-and-a-half minutes on the clock. Stroinski, from a bad angle, was able to put some force behind her shot and get it on net, but the Falcon 'keeper turned the shot aside. Then, with six minutes left, Draper did yeoman's work to head a cross away from her own goal as she was flattened by a BSU player.

The Falcons had a pair of corner kicks in the final five minutes, en route to a 5-3 edge in that statistical category on the afternoon, but BG was unable to come up with any more shots.

The Brown and Orange will conclude a season-long three-game homestand on Friday (Oct. 7), taking on Eastern Michigan University. Kickoff for that match is 4:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field.