Nov. 11, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Fred Thompson's men's soccer Falcons, who are currently enjoying a three-match win streak, will host the Huskies of Northern Illinois on Tuesday, Nov. 13 (1:00 p.m.) in game one of the Mid-American Conference Tournament ... the Falcons are hosting the quarterfinal match for the first time in the Thompson era ... the game can be seen on BCSN or via the internet on gametracker.

Complete Release in PDF Format (three pages)

Regular Season Combined Stats in PDF Format (one page)

Regular Season Category Leaders in PDF Format (one page)

BGSU vs. NIU - The MAC Tournament History
Bowling Green has faced Northern Illinois on just three previous occasions in the conference post-season tournament ... beginning with a 4-1 win in 1997, BGSU holds a 2-1 advantage over the Huskies ... in the two seasons (1997, 2003) in which BGSU began the MAC tournament with a win over the Huskies they have made appearances in the championship match ... in both wins over NIU, BGSU has held the Huskies to a single goal.

The Series - Game-By-Game
Nov. 6, 1997 - BGSU 4, vs. NIU 1 (Quarterfinal)
Nov. 5, 1999 - BGSU 1, vs. NIU 4 (Quarterfinal)
Nov. 6, 2003 - atat BGSU 2, NIU 1 (Quarterfinal)

What Are they Playing For?
The winner of the BGSU/NIU match will move on to face top seeded Akron on Nov. 16 in the tournament semifinal match ... the winner of that match will automatically move on to the tournament championship match.

The BRACKET - Schedule
Quarterfinals (at higher seed)
Tuesday, November 13
Game 1 - No. 5 Northern Illinois at No. 4 Bowling Green
Game 2 - No. 6 Western Michigan at No. 3 Hartwick


Semifinals (at Akron, Ohio)
Friday, November 16, 2007
Game 3 - No. 1 Akron vs. BGSU/NIU winner
Game 4 - No. 2 Buffalo vs. Hartwick/WMU winner

Final (at Akron, Ohio)
Game 5- Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner

Falcons and the MAC Tournament
In a conference history dating back to 1993, BGSU has won three regular season titles (1996, 2000, 2002) ... the Orange and Brown also have three regular season runner-up finishes in 1993, 1995, and 1997 ... historically, the Falcons have competed in eight of thirteen MAC tournament championships games ... BGSU has claimed three championship titles...the Falcons are also five time runners-up ... last season, the Falcons beat Western Michigan on the road before losing to eventual runners-up Akron in the semifinal.

Something to Celebrate: Senior Day and Falcon Victory
Normally Senior Day marks the last scheduled home contest for a squad; with Bowling Green State University's (6-9-3, 2-2-1) win over Northern Illinois University (5-8-4, 1-3-1) the seniors [Alec Perea, Ryan Perea and Abiola Sandy] were given at least one additional match in front of an Orange and Brown crowd ... the 3-1 Mid-American Conference victory ensured the Falcons home-field advantage for the Nov. 13 conference tournament play-in match ... Bowling Green got off to their quickest start of the season scoring in the second minute of the match ... Cameron Hepple organized the Falcon offense as he aimed his corner kick at the cluster of Falcons waiting in front of the NIU goal and found the newly Mohawked head of Thomas McLean ... with one flick of McLean's neck, BG found itself up 1-0 while the NIU defense found the resulting shot still lying in the back of the net ... the goal was the third of McLean's rookie season; he and sophomore Ahmad Smith lead all freshman Falcons in goal scoring under Thompson (3) ... Hepple's assist also marked the third consecutive match in which he has found himself in the point column ... four minutes later, Chuko Evwaraye joined the `back-to-back club' as he netted his second goal in as many games ... at 5:11 the red-shirt sophomore extended the Falcons lead to 2-0 after receiving a ball from keeper Brent Petkus and took it the remaining length of the field ... with Petkus' credited assist, the Falcons can now boast a pair of keepers with a pair of assists this season ... while he did make his name known on the offensive side of the ball, Petkus also played a bit of defense stopping a game high seven shots on goal. In five games, he has allowed six goals and has a 1.15 GAA setting personal records for most games played in a season and lowest goals against average ... the Falcons final goal of the match was something of a familiar scene as Hunter Van Houten completed the scoring trifecta tallying his third goal in as many consecutive games ... the Falcon were a perfect three-for-three in the first half and did not record non-shot on goal until the last minute of play when Jacob Lawrence's shot was blocked by NIU's Kyle Knotek.

Van Houten Repeats as MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week
Hunter Van Houten, a sophomore captain and heath science major, was named the MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week for the Week of Nov. 2, 2007 ... the Valparaiso, Ind. native maintains a 3.85 GPA and has scored goals in each of the Falcons three final regular season matches ... Van Houten also earned the SAW award on September 21, 2007 and was the reigning MAC Player of the Week ... he and WMU's quarterback Tim Hiller are the only two players to repeat as male SAW to date ... the MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor is presented to a MAC male and female student-athlete who has a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better and performs well during that week's competition ... the winners are selected by a group of the conference's faculty athletic representatives.

Notes from the Regular Season:
• BGSU's four shutouts are the most under Thompson ... the Falcons have not posted multiple shutouts in one season since 2003.

• Cameron Hepple recorded an assist in each of the Falcons' final three matches at home ... interestingly enough, each of Hepple's assists were served to each of the three Falcon captains, Hunter Van Houten (10/24), Abiola Sandy (10/27) and Thomas McLean (11/2) ... he is the regular season point leader with 11 (4g, 3a).

• Three rookies (Thomas McLean, Matt Klancic and Nathanyal Thomas) scored their first collegiate goals this season ... McLean's goal against NIU (11/2) was his third of the season; he and sophomore Ahmad Smith (last season) lead all freshman Falcons in goal scoring under Thompson (3).

• Both Falcon keepers, Brent Petkus and Paul Shoemaker, have earned at least one shutout and an assist this season ... it is believed this is the first time in program history for more than one keeper to have both an assist and a shutout in the same season ... previously, only four keepers, Mickey Loescher ('88, '89), Greg Murphy ('91), Dan Traver ('92, '93) and Scott Vallow ('95, '97) could find their names in both the assists and shutouts columns ... Vallow's two assist and 12 shutout season in 1997 was the last time a Falcon keeper picked up the statistical combination.

• Abiola Sandy, Hunter Van Houten and Chuko Evwaraye can each claim to have back-to-back goal scoring outings at home.

• With Hunter Van Houten's goal against NIU, he became the third Falcon to reach double-digit scoring this season ... Cameron Hepple (11) and Abiola Sandy (10) are the others to score in the double-digits ... prior to the match Bowling Green had not seen more than one player hit the milestone since 2002 and had not seen more than two do it since the 1997 squad ... that season nine Falcons recorded ten or more points.

# BGSU MEN'S SOCCER #