Bowling Green’s men’s soccer team ended the regular season with a win and will try to continue that winning streak in the Mid-American Conference tournament where they are the No. 1 seed.
The Falcons played the final two games of the regular season at Cochrane Field and split the weekend series, with a loss to Michigan State Friday and a win over Cleveland State Sunday.
Michigan State scored in overtime on a penalty kick for a 1-0 victory over the Falcons and prevented the Falcons from gaining their first non-conference win of the season.
“It was disappointing against Michigan State. I thought we played very well. It’s a shame to end a game on a penalty kick,” BG coach Mel Mahler said. “That’s the way the game goes sometimes. I thought it was two even teams and anyone deserved to win but to lose it that way was tough.”
The Spartans outshot the Falcons 21-12 and kept the BG defenders busy. Goalkeeper David DeGraff had eight saves for Bowling Green.
Michigan State, a team that improved to 11-6 on the season, was able to stop any scoring chances the Falcons generated. Freshman Paul Seip’s shot early in the match hit the post and was deflected.
The Michigan State goalkeeper took a goal away from Adrian Akpan when he blocked Akpan’s shot heading toward the top of the goal and knocked it out of bounds.
At the end of regulation, the score was still 0-0 and in overtime both teams managed shots on goal. A penalty in front of the Bowling Green goal resulted in a penalty kick for Michigan State and the Spartans capitalized.
On Sunday, the Falcons had their last chance to win a non-conference game and they did, rebounding from their loss to Michigan State a couple days before.
On senior day at Cochrane Field, Cleveland State took an early 1-0 lead and maintained the lead until the second half. After the break the Falcons scored a goal less than two minutes into the half and scored two more after that to break open a tie game.
“For us to bounce back on Sunday was a good display of character. As Mark [assistant coach Mark Dougherty] told the team at halftime, ‘There’s no opportunity to get better prepared for the MAC tournament or any game than a game itself.’ We needed to use the second half of the Cleveland State game to work on getting better,” Mahler said.
Paul Dhaliwal scored from within the Cleveland State box when he intercepted a pass intended for a Cleveland State player. The goal was Dhaliwal’s team-leading fourth of the season.
Francisco Jose Sanchez and Ben Monnette teamed up to put BG ahead of Cleveland State for the first time in the match. Sanchez passed the ball to Monnette, who shot the ball from the left side of the box to the right corner of the goal at the 49:55 mark.
Dhaliwal passed to Seip, who fed Deryck Freudeman for the goal at the 69:26 mark.
DeGraff had three saves after Cleveland State scored their second goal of the game.
The Falcons outshot Cleveland State 14-7 for one of their best halves of the season, playing solid defensively and creating scoring opportunities offensively.
“We have harped all year to get some point production from our wide midfielders and Sunday was the first day that three assists and three goals came from guys playing wide midfield positions,” Mahler said. “Minus the first goal I think we played well defensively.”
At the conclusion of the regular season, BG stands at 5-12-0 after starting the season 0-8-0. The Falcons improved their record in the second half with a 5-4-0 mark.
