“You need to put wins together if you want to get recognized not only in the region, but in the country, and we’re starting to put ourselves in position where we can continue that momentum,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “Now we’ve got some games ahead of us where we can continue to get respect nationally.”

Sophomore midfielder Jay Chapman got it going early for the Spartans with a pair of rockets that forced the Bowling Green keeper to take his time pushing the ball up field.

Then, the fouls started coming.

Bowling Green defender Zach Schewee was the first Falcon to get booked after a hard, studs up tackle on senior midfielder Brent McIntosh.

Junior forward Adam Montague got some payback with an equally hard challenge of his own that saw Schewee stay on the ground holding his ankle.

Junior forward Tim Kreutz broke the deadlock in the 38th minute when he received a pass that pinballed up the field.

“I honestly don’t know how we got up there, but I remember Adam getting the ball,” Kreutz said. “I held the guy off right around the (defense) and I just made a hard run, cut in front of my guy, he put it right on my right foot. Took a touch past him and the goalie started cheating towards the near post so I put it past him far post.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Zach Bennett found freshman midfielder Dewey Lewis with a quick outlet pass, who took a couple touches and passed it to Montague, who found Kreutz for the goal — a la Landon Donovan and the U.S. Men’s National Team in the 2010 World Cup against Algeria.

“When we catch off those crosses and corners, there’s usually a chance to break down the sideline, and it’s always something I’m looking for, but it’s not always open,” Bennett said. “Today it turned out to be pretty open.”

The second half was filled with more fouls and more cards as Bowling Green’s Max Auden was given a caution, and Danny Baraldi was given a straight red in the 85th minute and sent off for the remainder of the match. There were 30 fouls in the game.

MSU pushed forward for the five minutes they had with a man advantage, but couldn’t get a dagger to get the game away.

Rensing said a 1-0 result is a good one against Bowling Green, and the five day break between this game and No. 5 Creighton will give the team a chance to recover in the best possible way.

“More importantly our mentality was good from the start today,” Rensing said. “I don’t think we’ll need a lot of motivation for Creighton, they’ve been to the last final fours. We’ll try to get rested up and haled up here and we’ll be ready to go.”