The women’s soccer team has a thing for overtime.
The Falcons went to an extra session twice this weekend, coming away with a tie and a loss.
BG has had five overtime games this season.
The Falcons played Kent State yesterday, a team with the best record in the Mid-American Conference. Kent came into the game with a 8-1-1 record, but also came in losing its last contest.
BG was given a strong outing yesterday by goalkeeper Ali Shingler, who managed to keep the Golden Flashes from scoring through 110 minutes. Unfortunately for BG, Alicia Fernandez of Kent matched the feat, and the game ended in a scoreless tie.
Falcons’ coach Andy Richards talked about the amount of parity in the MAC after the game. One week before, BG went to overtime before defeating Northern Illinois, a team that is on the bottom of the MAC standings.
“If there’s ever been doubt that there is parity in the MAC, there’s your answer right there,” Richards said. “It’s incredibly competitive. It’s incredibly difficult to win at this level … you have to work and work.”
Richards gave credit to Shingler for keeping the shutout, her third of the season. Richards also praised the rest of the Falcons’ defensive effort.
“We had some excellent defending,” Richards said.
BG lost on Friday to Buffalo 3-2, on an overtime goal by Erin McGarry, just two minutes into the first extra session.
In the game, the Falcons were forced to come back from two separate deficits to force overtime.
Trailing 1-0 early in the first half, the Falcons got a goal from Julie Trundle, tying the score.
The tie remained for the rest of the first half, and for a good part of the second until Buffalo got a goal from Emily Russell.
BG tied the score by getting a goal from Britt Anderson with just under five minutes remaining in regulation.
Richards said that he was happy with his team’s performance in the games this weekend.
“I just feel really proud of this team,” Richards said. “We played fantastic soccer, and worked our tails off.”
The Falcons will now go on the road for two MAC games. The first will be against Ohio on Friday. The game begins at 4 p.m.
