The tale of two seasons continues for the Bowling Green men’s soccer team.
After starting the season with a string of non-conference losses, it seems the two numbers that matter most to BG are two and zero. In Mid-American Conference games this season, Bowling Green has won two games and has lost zero games. The Falcons are sitting atop teams like Kentucky and Akron as the only MAC team with two conference victories.
The latest conference victory for BG was Friday’s match with Northern Illinois, netting a 2-1 win.
“Our focus is on winning MAC championship,” BG coach Mel Mahler said. “We need to be able to prepare ourselves for MAC competition by playing non-conference games. Unfortunately for us, it didn’t show very well but I think it helped us become a better team.”
The Falcons struck first, with freshman Robert Aouad scoring his third goal of the season and second in two conference games at the 18:30 mark on an assist from freshman Paul Seip.
Northern Illinois was able to tie the game at one shortly into the second half when Peter Agrimson scored an unassisted goal. After that, Bowling Green did what they had been unable to do in their losing efforts; they countered with a goal and kept the lead for good.
Junior Paul Dhaliwal scored five minutes after Northern Illinois scored. Dhaliwal has scored three goals in two MAC games and was named MAC Player of the Week last week.
The offense’s determination to create more opportunities and convert those opportunities into goals has paid off.
“In past matches, even in a losing effort we would create chances and we just weren’t finishing. Now we’re finishing,” Mahler said. “I’ve been real pleased with our efforts to even create more chances so hopefully that’s going to equate into more opportunities to score goals.”
The Falcon defense continued their dominance as of late. The defense has allowed one goal in MAC play after opponents were averaging 3.1 goals per game in the first eight matches of the season.
Junior goalkeeper David DeGraff was busy in the goal as the Huskies outshot BG 21-12. DeGraff had four saves compared to the Northern Illinois goalie’s one save.
Northern Illinois also had the advantage on corner kicks, taking seven compared to BG’s zero. The Falcon defense was able to hold the Huskies from scoring on the corner opportunities.
The Falcons were able to hold on for the win despite a late attack by the Huskies where they took 12 shots in the second half.
“We’ve been able to finish out games. We’re playing well for 90 minutes now. It helps to be in close games,” Mahler said.
“We’ve been able to deny our opponents quality shots on goal, we’ve been able to finish our chances and when you have a lead we seem to be able to maintain our focus a little bit longer.” Bowling Green’s victory was their first in DeKalb since Northern Illinois joined the MAC.
The Northern Illinois goalkeeper had recorded back to back shutouts against Bowling Green dating back to 2000. Last year’s 1-0 victory for Northern Illinois was their only conference win. The Falcons will play Michigan in Ann Arbor Wednesday at 7 p.m. The last time the Falcons played a Big Ten team, they lost 3-2 in double overtime against Ohio State on Sept. 20.
After the Michigan game, the Falcons will have time off before they play Western Michigan on Oct. 18 in Kalamazoo, Mich.
