BGSU’s women’s soccer (6-1-1, 1-0) hosted the Kent State Golden Flashes (2-3-3, 0-1) at Cochrane Stadium on Sunday. The Falcons defeated the Golden Flashes 2-1 in an impressive performance.
Early in the game, the Falcons were efficient in maintaining possession and keeping the ball in Kent State’s territory. After defending a shot on goal by the Golden Flashes, BGSU’s Ellie Pool took a shot on goal but just missed it.
In the ninth minute, Kent State’s Samantha Miller took a corner but it was saved by the goal keeper, Payton O’Malley.
In the 26th minute, Kent State took another shot on goal, but it was once again saved by O’Malley. In response, Bowling Green defender Jayna Searles, but it was saved by the Kent State goal keeper.
After a couple more minutes of play, the Falcons scored first with an impressive crosser by forward Emma Stransky. The goal made the score 1-0 in favor of Bowling Green.
“I think her performance was a player of the week performance,” said head coach Chris Fox after the game.
With three minutes to go in the half, Golden Flash Maya Justice ran down the field ahead of BG defenders and barely missed a shot on goal.
At the conclusion of the first half, BGSU had the lead of 1-0.
Kelsey Salopek scored a goal for the Golden Flashes in the 50th minute, making the score even at 1-1.
After lots of back and forth between the two teams, Stransky made another goal and BGSU retook the lead with a score of 2-1. That was her second goal of the game and fifth on the season.
“If I see a dead ball drop I just gotta do whatever it takes to get there and get a touch on it to cause some chaos. It ended up in the net and that’s what you hoped for” Stransky said in the post game interview.
Stransky nearly scored a third goal in the 67th minute, but just missed it right.
With only two minutes remaining in the game, Kent State found themselves in a position to score but a great play by O’Malley prevented the goal.
The game ended with a final score of 2-1 Bowling Green, giving them a win in their conference opener. Next up, BGSU travels to Athens for a match against Ohio on Sept. 18 at 4:00 p.m.
