After falling to Michigan State University, the BGSU men’s soccer team will look to regroup and take a win on the road Tuesday night against Northern Kentucky University. Although BG currently has a winning record at 6-3-1, they seem to be a different team on the road. In the past four away games, they have managed to score only one goal or none at all.
Meanwhile, NKU is looking to get their first win of the season as their record currently stands at 0-9-2. Their previous matchup resulted in a tie against the University of Cincinnati, a team BG lost to on the road. The last time these two teams met was during the 2014 season, which resulted in BG getting the victory by a score of 2-1.
“They’re a hard working team, well-coached, and they are going to fight till the very end,” said BG Head Coach Eric Nichols. “It’s going to be a challenge like any other game, so we’ll be ready come Tuesday night.”
The game itself looks very winnable for BG, but Coach Nichols has been around long enough to know that anything can happen, especially when it comes to soccer.
“On paper, this does look like a winnable game, but just like last game we played against a nationally ranked opponent in Michigan State that also was a winnable game, but we couldn’t quite win it,” he said. “So anything could happen really and I think the key is to play hard no matter who the opponent is across from you.”
One thing that Coach Nichols acknowledged is that how the players are starting to gel in terms of feeding off energy of one another, executing passes, and simply having fun. From what Nichols has seen, he’s very confident in his players that they will continue that come Tuesday night. Since day one, it was a learning curve for some, but once they got in the hang of things the group has been playing lights out as they just reach the halfway point in the season.
“It’s great watching these group of individuals grow together as a unit and they have great senior leaders as well, so it took a little while for our younger players to adjust, but they are really coming together a lot better since the first week,” said Nichols. “For this game, I’m confident that same energy and competitiveness will show up.”
Players to watch for BG will be the three seniors Jacob Roth, Pat Flynn, and Joe Sullivan. These three have a combined 43 shot attempts for the season and are some of the players that stay on the field the longest. Look for them during the game against NKU, who have given up 26 goals on the season.
Other players to keep an eye on are freshmen Chris Brennan and Anthony Mwembia. Brennan is currently leading all players in goals and shot attempts, so look for the young freshmen to make an impact once he steps on the field. Mwembia will look to continue his stellar play as he has recorded 37 saves on the season as the goalie for BG. Mwembia’s stellar play against Big Ten Conference opponents should give him confidence heading into Tuesday night.
Finally, the deciding factor of the game will be in the first period, as BG has only scored once in the four road games they have been on in that first period. BG has struggled to put pressure on their opponents early on the road. BG will look to change that tomorrow evening as they look to capture the second road win of the season.
