Heavy winds reaching up to 37 mph were not enough to stop the Bowling Green women’s soccer team from beating Buffalo 1-0 Sunday. The team, led by a goal from Kristy Coppes, rebounded from a 4-2 loss to Kent State Friday.
Friday’s game was much like many early-season Falcon matches, in which BG dominated the competition in every area except the scoreboard.
“We played very well at Kent State, other than some bad errors. We totally dominated play in the first half. We let in a lot of goals, which really killed us,” head coach Andy Richards said.
Kent State drew first blood in the match, as Lisa Kurz scored on a free kick 40:33 into the first half. The Falcons were unable to answer back in the remaining minutes of the half.
Early in the second half, Leah Eggleton sent a ball into Coppes, who put a move on Kent State keeper Alicia Fernandez before firing into an empty net to tie the score at one. Just five minutes later, Kent reclaimed the lead when Kimberly Dimitroff put away a pass from teammate Amy Kessler. Kent scored again at the 74:33 mark, as Amanda Messer chipped the ball in unassisted.
BG’s second goal, scored by Britt Anderson off of a rebound at 83:17, would not be enough for a Falcon win. Coppes and Ashley Wenzel assisted Anderson. Kent State’s Dimitroff scored again with less than four minutes in the match for a final score of 4-2. BG keeper Ali Shingler had five saves in the match.
Sunday’s game against Buffalo was a much different story, with strong winds blowing across the field. The windy weather definitely affected play and may have cost the Falcons some scoring opportunities.
“It was very windy, very blustery, very cold. It was tough to play in,” Richards said. “We had a number of opportunities. We really felt we should have had three or four [goals] by halftime.”
Kristy Coppes scored her second goal of the weekend just 4:55 into the game, lofting the ball over Buffalo keeper Anna-Lesa Calvert. Eggleton picked up the assist. The goal, Coppes’ thirteenth of the season, broke BG’s single season scoring record. Coppes is also tops in BG history in career goals and points.
Buffalo was not able to even the score in the remaining 85 minutes and BG walked away with a much-needed conference victory. Ali Shingler picked up the shutout with eight saves in goal. The win put BG at 3-5-1 in the Mid-American Conference, 5-10-1 overall.
Richards highlighted some individual performances.
“Ali Shingler had a double save in the first half, which ended up being incredibly important,” he said. Leah Eggleton provided a tremendous amount of hard work and Beth Rieman helped keep possession for us.”
The Falcons will be back at home this weekend against Northern Illinois and Western Michigan.
