ROCHESTER, Mich. – The extensive road trip for Oakland Men's Soccer is set to come to a close as the Golden Grizzlies are slated to battle the Falcons of Bowling Green University Friday, September 23 at 7:00p at Cochrane Soccer Field. 

The longest road trip of the season, featuring stops at conference opponent Purdue Fort Wayne (9/10), followed by games versus Grand Canyon University (9/13) and Michigan (9/19), has entailed some of the closest, most intense matches of the 2022 regular-season. 

The most recent of those matches being against Michigan, where the whistle would sound at the end of 90 minutes with neither team scoring a goal on the night. 

One of the many notable performances versus the Wolverines came from redshirt freshman keeper, Michael Sly Jr. who stopped 10 maize and blue shots from entering the OU net. Five of those 10 saves would come in diving fashion. 

That would not be the only stalemate of the previous three games for the black and gold. 

Oakland's Horizon League opener against the PFW Mastodons also resulted in a tie, however unlike the match against Michigan, this one was not scoreless.

 Owen Smith, a cornerstone of the OU offense, netted his first goal of the season in the 52' giving Oakland the 1-0 advantage until Luke Benford would match Smith's goal, where the score would ultimately stay at 1-1 til the end of regulation. 

It has been a road trip of firsts for Oakland. Along with Owen Smith, forward Ville Ahola notched his first goal of the season in Phoenix against the GCU Antelopes. 

The Golden Grizzlies enter the last of the four-game road trip being outscored by their opponent by just one goal in the previous three games of the voyage.  

Oakland will aim to right their wrongs from last season's match up with the Falcons where Bowling Green left Rochester with a 3-0 shutout of the Golden Grizzlies. 

SCOUTING REPORT 

Bowling Green will enter Friday's contest with a record of 1-2-3, with their sole victory of the 2022 regular-season coming in their most recent contest against the United States Air Force Academy.

Midfielder Kyle Cusimano leads the offensive attack for the Falcons with one goal and one assist this season. Joey Akpunonu, Alberto Anaya, and Sergi Martinez round-out the list of goal scorers for Bowling Green.
 

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TOURNAMENT TEAM RETURNS
Oakland is coming off a historic entry into the NCAA Tournament after winning both the regular season and tournament Horizon League titles, falling in the first round to Northern Illinois.

NO. 1 IN THE LEAGUE
Oakland was picked to finish first in the Horizon League in the annual #HLMSOC Preseason Coaches Poll.

COACH OF THE YEAR
Head Coach Eric Pogue was named Horizon League Coach of the Year in 2021 following a 10-6-2 overall record, 8-1-1 in conference play.

ALL-LEAGUE RETURNERS
The Golden Grizzlies reload in 2022 with four of the seven All-Horizon League honorees last season in Mikey Ketteman, Reid Sproat, Ville Ahola, and Kai Garvey.

NEWCOMER IMPACT
With plenty of new faces to go around, Oakland was introduced to fire power in the exhibition games in Charlie Retzler, Ahmad Hamad, Jace Foster, and Addrian Knights-Browne to name a few.