The BG men’s soccer team will host the Ohio State University Buckeyes at Cochrane Field Friday night at 7 p.m. This will be their second Big Ten opponent they will host, as they earlier tied Michigan 1-1. The Falcons are coming off of a two-loss weekend in Milwaukee where they lost to The University of Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
“We expect a Big Ten team to be a physical team,” senior goalkeeper Michael Wiest said. “We know they will come out with a lot of energy, we will just have to match them. We know what we need to do better and we have been working on it all week, and we will make sure we put it all together for Ohio State.”
The Falcons will be returning home to their fans Friday night and are expecting a great crowd once again for this Friday’s game. There was a large crowd on Sept. 2 when they hosted Michigan, and now they are hosting another Big Ten team at Cochrane Field. This game will bring them closer to the end of their stretch of top conference teams, as they have played three ranked teams already. Ohio State is not ranked but are still a very capable team, and they will follow this game with a game at another Big Ten in Michigan State and then away at one of the top teams in the country in Akron.
“A big crowd would be huge, we did not have that extra pop in Milwaukee this weekend without our crowd so the crowd will be instrumental Friday night,” said head coach Eric Nichols. “Our schedule is a testament to the growth of the program, RPI matters to these teams so they won’t play us unless they know we are solid. It is also a testament to the facility and the crowds that we get.”
Ohio State has beaten the Falcons two years in a row with a 2-0 loss in Columbus last year. They are 2-2 on the year with a 4-1 loss to Tulsa, but that 4-1 loss does not reflect the talent on this team Nichols said.
“This is just another game for us. They are a great team and they have beaten us the last two years so we definitely want to beat them,” Wiest said. “It’s awesome that they are coming here but it is just another championship game and that is what we are going to focus on.”
The Falcons will need to improve their defending all around the field going into this game against Ohio State. They are very good at counter attacking and scoring off of set pieces as well Nichols said. While the Falcons will need to improve on their defense going into the game they are not preparing this week any different than they usually do.
“This team is solid on all three lines, they are big and very athletic with great soccer pedigrees,” Nichols said. “Our marking will be tested Friday it was tested in Milwaukee last weekend as well and we failed that test we just need to be better.”
This Friday night at 7 p.m. will be another test for a Falcon team that has been tested against some of the best teams in the country so early in the year.
“Our goal like every game is to work, have more energy, spirt and fight in us. We owe that especially to our fans and the people that support us,” senior midfielder Brandon Silva said. “They have had our number they beat us twice in Columbus, I think we are all really excited to get back out there and kind of stick it to them.”
