The highest-ranked USF athletic team is opening its season at home Saturday night, and it isn’t the football team.
Taking the field at 7:30, the No.18 Bulls will begin the soccer season at Pepin Stadium against the Bowling Green Falcons as they start the race for the Big East championship.
USF comes off a 1-0-2 preseason and a 2-1 upset of No. 8 Maryland in Tampa to cap off the exhibition matches.
“I think the team is going into the game with the right mindset. We’ve been taking each day as it comes,” senior forward Jordan Seabrook said in an e-mail interview. “The commitment level is there from all the players, so things are going very smoothly. The entire team is excited about getting the season started.”
The Falcons have been predicted to finish fifth in the seven-team Mid-American Conference (MAC).
Bowling Green has never won an MAC title and finished the 2007 season with a 6-10-3 record. The Falcons were over .500 at home, but struggled on the road and were 2-7-1 away from Mickey Cochrane Field.
Seabrook said USF will have an offensive mindset and will attack the Falcons with many players without losing defensive stability.
“We have the firepower to score a lot of goals, but the team understands that scoring goals doesn’t mean much if you are also conceding goals,” he said.
