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The BGSU women’s soccer team knows how to use their heads – literally.

The Falcons’ sent three headers into the net as they topped Northern Illinois 3-1 Friday. The squad was shutout 4-0 in yesterday’s match against Western Michigan to open Mid-American Conference play with a 1-1 conference record (5-5-0 overall).

The team was plagued by inconsistency over the weekend, having both moments of brilliance and poor play.

“It was a weekend marked by inconsistency,” BG coach Andy Richards said. “We had a very good game at Northern. We played very well and then disappointed ourselves [Sunday].”

Friday’s match turned into a showcase of the Falcon seniors’ talent.

“The seniors collaborated very well on Friday to score the goals for us,” Richards said.

BG scoring leader senior Samantha Meister opened scoring at 12:55 with her fifth goal of the season. Classmate Britt Anderson netted two goals of her own, with senior Julie Trundle assisting on all three goals for a school record four assists in a match. Leah Eggleton also had one assist.

Richards credited NIU with a hard-fought game.

“They were pretty motivated. They worked hard, but we were just a little bit too good for them,” he said.

Last week Richards experimented with moving players to different positions. His tactics proved successful in the first half of the weekend, but seemed to fall apart yesterday.

“We switched it up on Friday and it seemed to work very well. We kept the same formation [Sunday] and it didn’t work so well,” he said.

Richards had also noted the history between BGSU and WMU and he wasn’t too far off when he promised a “battle” against Western Michigan. The Broncos committed 23 fouls and were awarded three yellow cards to the Falcons’ six fouls. While the Broncos brought the pain, Richards believes his team let the game slip away by letting down defensively.

“It was a pretty physical game. Statistically, we beat them, but in the first 45 minutes, we gifted them three goals,” he said. “It gave us too much to overcome. We let ourselves down. We’re better than that.”

The Broncos’ Mandi Marsh opened scoring at 6:42 with a shot to the lower left corner. Teammate Thalia Playford knocked in two more goals in the half. Stephanie Johnson scored the lone goal of the second half just :54 into the stanza. Johnson and Ashleigh Carpentier had two assists each for the Broncos.

Ali Shingler had 2 saves for the Falcons.

While any loss is tough, losses in conference play are especially hard because they can come back to haunt a team during the post-season. Fortunately for the Falcons, MAC play has just begun and they will have many opportunities for wins. The squad returns to MAC competition this Friday.

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