If you don’t score, you can’t win. If you don’t give up a goal, you can’t lose. The Bowling Green Falcons and West Virginia Mountaineers ended with a zero-zero draw in the Falcons second Mid-American Conference game of the year.
“MAC Conference games sometimes are not full of a lot of chances. Both teams are gonna be pretty solid defensively and both teams know the other team pretty well,” Falcons head coach Eric Nichols said. “They know our tendencies, they know our key players and our plans of attack. So that was probably a pretty typical MAC game.”
A new name was the first one to get a shot on net for the Falcons, as junior defender Ebenezer Ackon got his head on one that did not go on net.
“(He was) pretty impressive,” Nichols said. “The rest of these guys out here are more than halfway through their seasons, and he’s playing his first one. The fitness was an issue as he was cramping up, but the speed intensity and what-not, to be able to step into a MAC game and not only hold your own but do well, is impressive.”
The only shot attempt in the first half for West Virginia came at the 22 minute mark off a free kick from about thirty yards out. Freshman defender Zach Buescher blocked the shot before it could reach sophomore goal keeper Anthony Mwembia.
The second half started with a pass from junior forward Tate Robertson to sophomore forward Chris Brennan, who took the ball downfield. As he went to shoot, the ball was stolen and cleared out of danger.
The best scoring chance of the game came at the 65 minute mark, as West Virginia got a shot from the middle of the box that went just wide right.
At the 78 minute mark, Robertson got the ball to Brennan, who got it to junior defender Moe Mustafa, who shot the ball just high.
During the first overtime period, only one shot occurred, and it came by way of West Virginia and did not go on net.
The Falcons got two corners, but neither proved fruitful.
In the second overtime, West Virginia got two shots with neither going in the net.
“I saw a good performance that we are really proud of,” Nichols said. “The last couple games have been rough for us. Some good things but for the most part, we’ve been disappointed in that and regrets about how we approached the game. We certainly wanted more than one point tonight, but we can look back at this with no regrets and some promise.”
The Falcons next game will be Saturday night on the road against the Akron Zips for another MAC contest.
