The Bowling Green Falcons (11-5-2, 4-3-1) successfully defeated the UIC Flames (7-10, 3-5) in the quarterfinal of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament Sunday night at Cochrane Stadium.
After losing to the Flames in the regular season earlier this year, the Falcons get sweet revenge and knock them out of the MVC tournament.
Head coach Eric Nichols spoke about the difference in performance between the first and second half. “I thought they were the better team in the first half,” said Nichols. “I really enjoyed the turnaround at halftime from the guys, much more pleased with the second half than the first.”
Fifth-year goalkeeper Brendan Graves had seven saves and spoke on the challenge of facing UIC. “90 minutes felt pretty long they had some really dangerous forwards up top and was giving our centrebacks a handful,” said Graves. “I had to make some saves, but the whole team were working their tails off to get it done.”
Here is how the game played out:
Bowling Green started the game out immediately on fire. Just 33 seconds into the game, senior midfielder Jake Bergin scored with a powerful shot to give the Falcons an immediate 1-0 lead.
The Falcons had another scoring opportunity early on from junior forward Trace Terry. Terry found himself in the box surrounded by two defenders and decided to shoot, but unfortunately for the Falcons, his shot was just over the top of the goalpost.
UIC were mere inches away from tying the game up. Graduate student forward Jack Finnegan had his shot bounce off the left crossbar and then quickly cleared away by the Falcons.
The Flames once again had an amazing opportunity to score. Junior midfielder Rui Reis had a one-on-one against Bowling Green’s Graves. Unfortunately for the Flames, Ruis shot the ball way over the top of the crossbar, missing one of the best opportunities the Flames had the entire match.
UIC continued to be relentless on the offensive end as there was another shot that was nearly going to go in the Falcons net. Luckily for the Orange and Brown, sophomore defender Gus Peacock played heroics as he made a diving save, kicking the ball away after it sailed past Graves.
As the half only had three minutes remaining, freshman midfielder Ryko Bodurov scored to double Bowling Green’s lead and gain a 2-0 advantage over UIC.
The first half ended with a 2-0 Bowling Green lead. It was highlighted by Bowling Green’s impressive defending and goalkeeping. Bowling Green’s pressure on the defensive end and Graves’s four first-half saves allowed them to produce their 2-0 lead.
The second half starts similar to the first, with BG pushing the pace, trying to score early. The Falcons had an early chance to score from Terry, but his header attempt was just wide left of the net.
Earlier in the game, there was a one-on-one opportunity for UIC that led to a shot above the net. There was some deja vu in the second half, except this time for the Falcons. Terry had a one-on-one opportunity on goal, missing above the crossbar.
After a multitude of chances, the Falcons finally got their third goal of the night, scored by Bodurov, his second goal of the night. A little flashiness by Bodurov on the third Falcon goal as he was surrounded by two UIC defenders, he back-heeled the ball into the net to make it 3-0 BG.
The Flames would not go down quietly. With just under 20 minutes remaining, the Flames get on the board with a goal scored by redshirt senior forward Bart Muns.
UIC nearly had another goal as another shot by Muns went just off the right goalpost. Bowling Green got lucky off of that miss by Muns; the aggressiveness by BG was almost their downfall.
However, the aggressiveness of Bowling Green allowed sophomore forward Bennett Painter to get on the end of an Andrew Shaffer cross, heading the ball into the back of the net, making it 4-1 Falcons.
With the final whistle blown, the Falcons defeated the Flames with a final score of 4-1. The aggressiveness, intensity, and effort of the Falcons in a playoff atmosphere on Sunday night was something beautiful to watch.
The Falcon’s next matchup will be against the second-seeded Drake Bulldogs on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium for the Missouri Valley Conference semi-final game.
