Bradley soccer celebrated Homecoming weekend with a Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) matchup against Bowling Green, hoping to secure its first win of the conference season.
With Shea Stadium filled with fans, the atmosphere was unlike any other Bradley game this season.
It wasn’t enough to stave off the 2-1 defeat.
The Braves started slowly, creating only one shot in the first 15 minutes. While they kept the Falcons at bay with only two shots in that time, their second was successful.
Bowling Green started their attack with a short corner, building up to a cross from midfielder Aiden Ptacek from outside of the box that bounced around and found the foot of defender Aidan Flanders. The freshman found the top left corner of the net, giving him his first goal of the season.
For the rest of the first half, Bradley continued to apply pressure to the Bowling Green defense, finishing with nine shots in the first 45 minutes compared to the Falcons’ five. Attempt after attempt, they couldn’t find the back of the net until the 39th minute.
Freshman midfielder Liam Healey sent a corner kick in from the right side, finding junior defender Anel Kafedzic, who quickly chipped the ball up to freshman defender Adrian Franks, who fired it just past the keeper.
After the Braves celebrated, the referee went to the VAR screen to review a no-foul decision in the box and disallowed the goal, keeping it 1-0 going into halftime.
Coming out of the locker room, Bradley continued to create chance after chance, ending the second half with 15 shots and limiting Bowling Green to five. But instead of leading to a goal for the Braves, the Falcons pounced on another opportunity to strengthen their lead.
Another corner from Ptacek in the 60th minute found the head of midfielder Caue Ramos, who headed it down the lower half of the goal line to give Bowling Green a 2-0 lead.
Bradley finally scored in the 86th minute, but in a very unexpected way.
The Braves won a free kick close to 30 yards away from the goal, which redshirt sophomore Archie Heron sent into the box and found the head of a Falcon, resulting in an own goal.
The Braves couldn’t convert on any chances in the next four minutes, dropping their record to 2-3-5 with a 0-2 conference record. The conference schedule continues on Sunday when the Braves travel to Nashville to face Belmont at 6 p.m.
