BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The IUPUI men's soccer team ran into an early season buzzsaw on Friday night (Aug. 26) as the Jaguars got turned back by the Falcons, 4-0. The hosts scored three times before intermission, including scoring a pair of goals in the opening 20-plus minutes.
"I absolutely give credit to Bowling Green," IUPUI Head Coach
Brian Barnett said. "They did what a junior and senior-laden team should do on opening night, especially with a team that returns eight starters, including their top three scorers from a year ago. They came out with a lot of energy and jumped on us in the first 15 minutes.
"From our perspective, I have to continue to evaluate things in the sense that, are we making improvements from the last time out? The answer to that was absolutely yes. We challenged our guys at halftime and they came out and responded in the second half."
BGSU (1-0) opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Vincent Giannini headed a shot past sophomore goalie
Josh Gray from 10 yards out. In the 21st minute, Joe Sullivan scored, beginning with a long throw-in from Peter Pugliese. The Falcons capped the first half scoring in the 36th minute when Chris Brennan got a shot past Gray.
IUPUI's best scoring chance came at the end of the first half when senior
Cristian Soto had an attempt tip off BGSU goalie Anthony Mwembia's hands and then off the crossbar, out of play.
BGSU added insurance when Moe Mustafa scored in the game's 63rd minute.
The Falcons ended with a 20-12 shot advantage and 9-4 edge in shots on goal.
"Our defending was better in the second half. We challenged the guys to respond at halftime and they did," Barnett said. "I would like to see us sort through things a little more before halftime without having to be coached on it, but we'll get there over time."
Uriel Macias,
Ben Thornton and Soto finished with a team-high three shots each. Thornton missed both preseason games due to injury and made his debut on Friday night.
Gray ended his evening with five saves while Mwembia collected four stops in the shutout win.
The Jaguars will return to Indianapolis and face Butler on Tuesday night (Aug. 30) at 7:00 p.m. at the Butler Bowl.
