BGSU men’s soccer (5-7-4, 1-3-2) tied the University of Chicago Illinois (8-2-5, 1-1-4) Flames Friday night in Cochrane Stadium, and now all eyes turn to Northern Illinois.  

With one final push and a little bit of help around the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), the Falcons can still make it to the MVC tournament.  

“Our only focus is to win, and we can’t control what we can’t control,” Trace Terry said after the UIC tie. “We are gonna work hard this week to win on Wednesday.” 

The message is the same throughout the team, as echoed by head coach Eric Nichols.  

“We got to go up there and control what we can control, and the rest are out of our hands,” head coach Nichols said after the game.  

Keeping NIU in focus, the Falcons look to make one last push into the MVC, but it is not an easy path, even if the Falcons end up winning in NIU. Anything less than a loss by UIC would mean the Orange and Brown are not able to make the tournament.  

“If we stop playing, then we don’t have a chance. Guys are beat up a little bit, but this isn’t the time to be emotional or sentimental; that will be later. We need to be locked in, and we have work to do,” Nichols said.  

It will take everything that BGSU has and then some to overcome the Huskies, who boast one of the top offenses in the MVC. Ranking second in shots, points, goals, and assists, only behind the league-leading Evansville.  

It is a tall task for BGSU; they have to go into this game ready to leave it all on the field. Anything less opens the door for a self-inflicted elimination.  

The two teams, BGSU and NIU, have met 42 times in their long history and are currently tied at 20-20-2 in the all-time series. The Falcons are taking the last match at home vs the Huskies.

This match holds a different weight, for BGSU, they have a chance at postseason play on the line, but for NIU, they look to play spoiler to the Falcons’ season.