Jags struggle to score in loss to Bowling Green

As soon as he sees the ball take flight, Quinn McCallion is ready to make the save. McCallion, the starting goalkeeper for IUPUI men’s soccer, had seven saves in Tuesday's game against the Bowling Green Falcons. Unfortunately for the Jags, they couldn’t stop everything and lost 0-1 in a gritty game under the lights. 

“It’s a hard one,” McCallion said when asked what the team could’ve done better. “We had a game in Milwaukee [on Tuesday], traveling throughout the night to come back in the morning is hard, but it’s no excuse. You can prepare as much as you want, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen for you.” 

Head coach Brian Barnett agreed with McCallion, saying “that’s the challenge of college soccer, we played on Saturday and before that, we played on Tuesday. There’s no time to prepare in college soccer, so you have to prepare your team physically and mentally to go out and play.”

The Jags got off to a slow start in the first half. “Credit to Bowling Green on that, they’re a very strong, athletic, and physical team,” said Barnett. “They do a fantastic job of repressing when they lose the ball.” 

Not only that, but the Jags gave up nine corner kicks to Bowling Green. Lucky for the Jags, McCallion was there. When asked what it’s like to go up against that many, McCallion said “as a smaller goalkeeper you have to be smart, you can’t catch everything, you have to be creative, you have to learn when to punch the ball away and when you can catch. I work on my power and footwork and that helps me save a lot of goals.”

Throughout the game, the referees let the players play without many fouls. “I’m okay with it as long as they stay consistent,” said Barnett. “I think that you have to give the referee credit for staying consistent over the course of the night and I don’t think he ever wavered from that.”

On Saturday, McCallion had a career-high thirteen saves, tacking on seven more tonight. When asked about his hot streak, McCallion said “I think it’s playing each game as it comes. You can’t try and make the saves happen, you have to make them as it comes.”

After tonight's loss, the Jags are now 3-5-2. After tonight, they have a week-long break as they look to bounce back at Oakland this Saturday.