BGSU men’s soccer shocked the world on a chilly night at Cochrane Stadium on Friday night by taking down No. 14 Western Michigan and their country-best 37-match unbeaten streak in regular season play for arguably the biggest win in program history
“It’s a hard one to put into words, honestly. I can say that I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Western Michigan. Whether they’re 14th in the country or not ranked, they are a tough win, and we haven’t done it a lot,” BG head coach Eric Nichols said postgame. “It’s a really, really good team, well coached, they compete for everything, they know what they’re doing; they’re 37 games unbeaten for a reason, so I got a lot of respect for them.”
While there were many contributors for the Falcons in their best performance of the season, a three-headed monster stuck out to the nearly 1,000 in attendance: senior midfielder Alberto Anaya, junior forward Trace Terry and fifth-year goalkeeper Brendan Graves.
Anaya was all over the pitch in the match, nearly missing setting up goals numerous times.
However, the Queretaro, Mexico, native delivered the first haymaker in the match, scoring his third goal of the season by finding the back of the net after his free kick found its way through traffic in the first half.
“It was funny because the guys on the bench on the other team were like, ‘He might just put it on target guys, be careful,'” Anaya said. “I’m like, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.'”
Although Anaya has played more of a facilitator role this season, he reminded everyone how good he is with his performance against the Broncos, tying for the team lead with three shots on goal in 82 minutes played. The goal marked Anaya’s eighth game-winning goal, tied for fifth-most in program history.
“He (Anaya) can also score, but he can deliver. He was so good today about getting around the park and doing a lot of the dirty work,” Nichols said. “He’s a grinder, he’s a hard worker, but I haven’t seen him put in a shift like that since he’s been here. It’s great that he got the goal, but he earned that one, for sure.”
After missing Bowling Green’s last match against Evansville due to receiving a red card against Missouri State, he returned to dominating on the pitch on Friday.
“It feels so good, feels so good,” Terry said. “I was really disappointed that I had to sit out, but coming back and scoring a goal, it feels really good.”
Terry put the game away with BG’s second goal of the match, blasting a shot into the nylon from 18 yards out with just over 11 minutes remaining.
Terry threatened the Western Michigan defense, tallying a team-high six shots and three shots on goal.
“As a striker, my job is to score goals, and I had a couple of opportunities where I should have scored, and it just made me more mad,” Terry said. “I think that anger showed in that goal.”
On the defensive end, Graves showed why he is one of the most decorated goalkeepers in program history.
Bowling Green’s defense shutout Western Michigan for just the second time this season.
Graves finished the match with four saves, earning his fifth shutout of the season and 16th of his career, tied for the seventh-most in program history.
“We’ve been conceding more goals than we would have liked to this season. An incredible performance by everybody on the field, just working their tails off, making plays, working at the top of the box, not allowing crosses,” Graves said. “I was getting fired up; my head almost exploded because I was so fired up with the boys.”
While Anaya, Terry, Graves and the rest of the Falcons had their best showing of the season on Friday, there may have been a little Cochrane Stadium magic that contributed to beating WMU for the first time in a decade.
“It’s magical,” Graves said. “It’s hard to lose here.”
