Bowling Green State University Athletics
Wednesday, October 16
Bowling Green, OH
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Cleveland State
Falcons Host Cleveland State in Midweek Matchup
October 15, 2013 | Men's Soccer
BGSU faces Vikings Wednesday before heading to North Carolina this weekend
Then, the Brown and Orange will head south for a weekend matchup with Davidson College. That match will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night (Oct. 19) at Alumni Stadium in Davidson, N.C.
BGSU NOTES & STATISTICS - PDF
Cleveland State Men's Soccer | Davidson Men's Soccer
FREE ADMISSION TO HOME FALCON FUTBOL
Admission for all Falcon men's and women's soccer home matches again this season is free. For those who can't make it to Cochrane Field, live stats are scheduled to be available for each home game via BGSUFalcons.com.
THE STARTING XI (11 things you should know about the Falcons)
• The Falcons are 3-5-4 on the season after splitting a pair of home matches last week. BGSU suffered a 2-1 loss to Detroit on Tuesday (Oct. 8), as the Titans scored with just 4:37 left in the second half to break a 1-1 tie.
• On Saturday (Oct. 12), though, the Brown and Orange bounced back, moving to 2-1-0 in Mid-American Conference play with a 1-0, double-overtime win vs. Northern Illinois. The Falcons held advantages of 27-10 in shot attempts, 12-2 in shots on goal and 10-2 in corner kicks.
• Senior striker Anthony Grant scored both of BGSU's goals last week, including his first 'Golden Goal' as a Falcon in the NIU match. Grant leads the Falcons with three goals and seven points this season.
• Grant, in his second year as a Falcon, now has 27 points on 11 goals and five assists since coming to Northwest Ohio. Seven of those goals have been game-winning goals.
• In fact, Grant has had either the GWG or a game-winning assist in nine of the Falcons' 11 wins since he joined the program. He has had the game-winning goal in four of BGSU's five MAC victories in that time, including in all three conference wins last fall.
• Senior Sean Sikich had the assist on Grant's goal vs. NIU. The assist was Sikich's first of the season and the second of his career. Both assists have come on 'Golden Goals', and both of those goals were scored at the south end of Cochrane Field on plays that began with a long ball out of the back by Sikich.
• Sikich's first collegiate assist came just 1:31 into overtime in the Falcons' 3-2 win over Wright State last year (Oct. 30, 2012). That play began when he played a long ball to Grant, who found sophomore (then freshman) Ryan James for the goal. On Saturday, Sikich's long pass forward found Grant behind the NIU defense, and Grant scored the goal himself.
• The Falcons are 2-1-2 in the last five matches, and BGSU has had more shots on goal than the opponent in each of those five games. Over the last three contests, BG has enjoyed margins of 65-30 in total shots attempted and 32-10 in shots on goal.
• Grant's goal on Saturday was BGSU's first against NIU in nearly six years, since the teams' regular-season meeting in 2007. That match, a 3-1 Falcon victory on Nov. 2, 2007, also was BG's last win in the series prior to Saturday.
• Prior to Grant's 'Golden Goal' on Saturday night, the Falcons had gone a total of 812:19 – the equivalent of just over nine regulation matches – without scoring vs. NIU. The Huskies had posted six-straight wins before the teams played to a 0-0 draw last year in DeKalb.
• BGSU is now 1-0-4 in overtime matches this season, and the Falcons are unbeaten in the last 12 overtime contests. BG's last OT loss came more than two years ago, a 1-0 setback at Ohio State on Oct. 5, 2011. The Falcons are now 5-2-16 in overtime games in the Eric Nichols Era.
A HOMECOMING OF SORTS
Saturday's match at Davidson marks a homecoming for head coach Eric Nichols. Nichols, in his fifth season with the Falcons, came to BGSU after spending the 2008 season as an assistant coach with the Wildcats under DC coach Matt Spear.
WIEST IS A BEAST (#WiestIsABeast)
• Senior goalkeeper Michael Wiest made two saves as he and the BG defense recorded a shutout vs. Northern Illinois Saturday night. The clean sheet was Wiest's fifth of the season, and his third in the last four matches. Wiest now has 18 shutouts in his career.
• Wiest has been in goal for every second of the Falcons' 12 matches this season to date. In addition to the five complete-match shutouts, the Naperville, Ill., native has 45 saves, a goals-against average of just 0.85 and a saves percentage of .804. Wiest currently leads the MAC in saves pct., and is tied for first in the league in shutouts. He ranks second in GAA and is deadlocked for second in saves.
• In MAC games only, Wiest has a saves percentage of .900 and a microscopic GAA of 0.32, having allowed only one goal in the three conference contests.
• Wiest has a GAA of 0.00 in overtime periods this season. BGSU has played a total of 91:06 of overtime this year, having tied the season's first four OT contests before downing NIU on Saturday.
• In his career, Wiest now has a total of 188 saves, a saves pct. of .800 and a GAA of 1.02 in 46 career matches.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 3-5-4 on the season, and BGSU is 2-1-0 in MAC play after Saturday's (Oct. 12) 1-0, double-overtime win over Northern Illinois. BG is 2-1-2 in the last five matches.
BGSU has a record of 2-1-2 at home this year, and the Falcons are 1-3-2 on the road and 0-1-0 in neutral-site matches to date.
The Falcons have 10 goals on the season, scored by eight different players. Senior Anthony Grant, who had both of BG's goals last week, leads the team with three, and seven of Grant's teammates have one goal apiece. That group includes fellow seniors Ryan Comiskey, Joey D'Agostino, Brandon Silva and Ryan Snashall, junior Danny Baraldi, sophomore Ryan James and freshman Joe Sullivan.
BGSU has a total of nine assists, with nine different players recording one each. Grant leads the Falcons with seven total points, while five Falcons – Baraldi, Comiskey, James, Snashall and Sullivan – have three points apiece.
Four Falcons have started all 12 of BGSU's matches to date. That list includes Grant and Silva along with fellow seniors Sean Sikich and Michael Wiest. D'Agostino, senior Zach Schewee and sophomore Jake Genrich each have made 11 starts, while Snashall has started 10 matches and Baraldi and James nine each.
In goal, Wiest has played every second of every match this season to date. He has 45 saves, five shutouts and a goals-against average of 0.85. In three MAC matches, Wiest has a GAA of 0.32 and a saves pct. of .900.
Wiest and Sikich each have played all 1171 minutes this season, while Silva has been on the pitch for 1158 minutes and Schewee 1138.
Head coach Eric Nichols and his staff returned a total of 13 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year's club. The 2012 Falcons finished with an overall record of 8-9-3 and a MAC mark of 3-3-1. BGSU tied for fourth in the league regular-season standings last fall, and qualified for the MAC Tournament.
SCOUTING THE VIKINGS
Cleveland State enters Wednesday's BGSU match with an overall record of 4-9-0, and the Vikings are 1-2-0 in Horizon League play to date. CSU is 3-4 at home, 1-4 on the road and 0-1 in neutral-site games, and the Vikings are coming off a 3-0 home win over Green Bay on Saturday (Oct. 12). Jordan Hart and Sergio Manesio each have three goals and seven points to tie for the team lead in both categories. In goal, three players have seen time. Nick Ciraldo has started seven matches, and paces the Vikings witih 17 saves and a goals-against average of 1.14. Head coach Ali Kazemaini welcomed back seven starters from the 2012 team that went 11-6-3 overall, won the Horizon League Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Championships. The Vikings were picked to win the HL in 2013 in the league's preseason coaches poll.
A LOOK AT THE WILDCATS
Davidson has a 6-5-1 overall record, and the Wildcats are 1-2-0 in Southern Conference play heading into a Tuesday (Oct. 15) game at UNC-Greensboro. The Wildcats are 3-2-1 at home and 3-3-0 on the road to date. Individually, Valeriy Sviderskiy leads the club with six goals and 12 points this season to date. Max Pragnell tops the Wildcats and ranks among the national leaders with six assists this fall. Matt Pacifici has played in 10 of the team's 12 matches in goal, and has 41 saves, two shutouts and a 1.18 GAA. Head coach Matt Spear returned eight starters from last year's club. The 2012 Wildcats went 6-11-1 overall and 2-5-0 in league play.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Cleveland State, 14-13-1, in the all-time series between the teams, but BGSU captured last season's meeting. Anthony Grant scored just 14:46 into the match, and Michael Wiest made five saves in a 1-0 BG win on the road (Sept. 14, 2012). In the teams' last meeting at Cochrane Field, the Vikings got a pair of second-half goals just over two minutes apart to pick up a 2-1 win two years ago (Sept. 3, 2011). That snapped an eight-match series unbeaten streak for the Brown and Orange. BGSU played CSU every year for over two decades, from 1973-94. Since '94, however, the teams have met just six times. The Falcons are 8-6-0 at home and 5-8-1 on the road vs. the Vikings through the years.
BGSU leads Davidson, 1-0-1, in that series, with a home win in 1995 and a tie on the road three seasons ago. The '95 match, a 3-1 BGSU victory at Cochrane, came in an NCAA Tournament play-in match (Nov. 12, 1995). Joe Burch scored two second-half goals to break a 1-1 tie in that match, which was played in sub-freezing temperatures (upper 20s) in Northwest Ohio. The game three years ago (Sept. 5, 2010) ended in a 2-2 tie at Davidson. Zach Schewee scored one of the Falcons' goals in that match.
The complete list of the Falcons' match-by-match series results against both CSU and Davidson can be found in the PDF version of these notes, located at or near the top of this page.
THE 2013 CAPTAINS
Seniors Joey D'Agostino, Brandon Silva and Michael Wiest are the tri-captains of the 2013 Falcons. Silva, a fifth-year senior, is a team captain for the third consecutive year, while D'Agostino, also in his fifth year, has been named a captain for the second-straight season.
UP NEXT FOR THE FALCONS
Next week, the Falcons head to Wright State for the annual battle for the I-75 Cup. BGSU faces the Raiders on Tuesday, Oct. 22, in a 7:00 p.m. start. Then, the Brown and Orange will return home for a match vs. MAC-leading Hartwick on Saturday, Oct. 26. That contest will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field.
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