The Falcons men’s soccer team defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies on senior night, Saturday, Oct. 28 as Bowling Green topped them 3-1 in a MAC conference game, the last home game of the year for the Falcons.
At the 14 minute mark, it was the Huskies that bit first, as a rebound was put in from close quarters to make it a one to nothing game.
At the 22 minute mark, Bowling Green got a chance to tie it back up at one as junior forward Tate Robertson was awarded a penalty kick. The kick was saved.
“At this point, we know we don’t have time to hang our heads,” Falcons head coach Eric Nichols said. “We have been hanging our heads over the last several weeks when things don’t go our way, our response hasn’t been what we’ve needed it to be. We don’t have the luxury of having any time to do that anymore, and (Robertson) understood that, and (Robertson) played a great game, a fantastic game.”
Robertson would not sulk as five minutes later, he tied the contest at one. He shot a low ball to the far post that went in.
Senior defenseman Alexis Souahy put his mark on this one at the 31 minute mark as he put the Falcons up by one. He put the ball in the net from close quarters with nothing but twine in front of him.
“(Souahy) is Superman for us right now,” Nichols said. “The fact that he got us a goal is just a cherry on top. He ran the game for us. His poise and organization and energy and ground coverage and passing and aerial prowess. He was a superstar tonight. He’s been really good over the last few weeks and it was a great performance from him on senior day.”
During the last minute of the first half, sophomore forward Chris Brennan made it three to one as he poked the ball into the net with only 52 seconds remaining in the half. The second half would provide no scoring, and the game finished at the score 3-1.
“I do think our character was really tested tonight and it showed through,” Nichols said. “We have had some tough breaks recently, most of them we created ourselves. We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot in various ways. At the beginning of this game it almost felt like … we were on it, playing well, creating chances, but then they got a counter attack, basically the length of the field where they just outworked us to the other end and put a dagger in. That one hurt. Then we responded pretty well to get back on them and get a PK, but then miss the PK. The thought was, ‘Oh here we go,’ but the guys rallied around. They kept believing. All that happened early enough in the game where we had plenty of clock left. We kept grinding and believing and eventually took care of business.”
The Falcon’s last regular season game of the year comes on Saturday, as the team will travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to take on the number-six-ranked Western Michigan Broncos.
