DETROIT – A short-handed Bowling Green State University football team nearly pulled off a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback on Monday.
The scrambling ability of New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia was a big reason why the Falcons fell just short.
New Mexico State converted four third-down conversions in running out the clock on its final drive, including three via running plays from the dual-threat signal caller, as the Aggies held off a late BGSU comeback for a 24-19 win in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit.
“Diego drives me crazy sometimes, but when it comes down to winning, he finds a way to win,” New Mexico State coach Jerry Kill said. “The last couple runs he made toward the end were flat-out unbelievable.
“He just threw his body out there and he takes hits, but he’s also a state champion wrestler, so that may have something to do with that. I don’t think he has a conscience sometimes, but that’s good and bad, by the way.”
New Mexico State (7-6) remained unbeaten in bowl games (4-0-1). The win was also the first in six tries for Kill, who is in his first season with the Aggies.
BGSU, which was playing in its first bowl game since 2015 and searching for its first victory since the 2014 Camellia Bowl, finished its season at 6-7. The Falcons suffered their first bowl loss at Ford Field in three tries.
BGSU played with plenty of adversity, especially when three-year starting quarterback Matt McDonald left the game with an injury with 7:40 left in the first quarter. He scrambled left for an 11-yard gain on 3rd-and-9, but was drilled in the right hip by New Mexico State safety Dylan Early and hit the ground hard.
McDonald’s left foot appeared to have been out of bounds before the hit. Early was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but BGSU offensive lineman Bronson Warner was called for one as well shortly after the play.
“We had some adversity strike by losing the quarterback early,” BGSU coach Scot Loeffler said. “There’s some things with discipline that we need to get better at.
“I don’t want to say what I think [about the hit] until I watch the tape, but my eyes normally don’t lie.”
Despite having to adjust to backup quarterback Camden Orth, a junior who has appeared in nine games this season for the Falcons, BGSU mounted a strong rally.
The Falcons scored 12 points in the fourth quarter to pull within 24-19 with 6:27 left. Mason Lawler drained a 49-yard field goal on the first play of the quarter; Davion Daniels blocked a punt deep in New Mexico State territory that rolled out of the back of the end zone for a safety with 7:10 left; and Orth fired a strike to Detroit native Tyrone Broden for a 19-yard touchdown.
“Just be able to lead the ship, kind of like Matt’s done this entire year. He goes down, it’s my job to step in and do exactly what Matt did,” Orth said. “We were starting drives [in the first half], we just weren’t finishing so our goal was to finish drives.”
BGSU, though, didn’t get the ball back the rest of the game.
Pavia orchestrated a 13-play, 43-yard drive in the final six minutes to secure the win. He scrambled for a pair of 10-yard gains for first downs on 3rd-and-long, had a 6-yard completion to Kordell David on 3rd-and-5, and ran for five yards on 3rd-and-2.
“The No. 1 objective, which we failed on, was to contain the quarterback,” Loeffler said. “The third down and longs, with the quarterback scrambling and making a play, really hurt us.”
Pavia finished 17 of 29 for 167 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. He had 65 yards on 12 carries.
Pavia hit Star Thomas for a 15-yard touchdown on the Aggies’ opening drive. His 2-yard touchdown pass to Eric Marsh extended New Mexico State’s advantage to 14-0 midway through the second quarter.
Ahmonte Watkins’ 45-yard touchdown run right up the middle put New Mexico State ahead 24-7 with 3:26 left in the third quarter.
BGSU got the spark it needed with a big special teams play in the third quarter. After Ethan Albertson hit a 35-yard field goal to make it 17-0 New Mexico State, Ta’ron Keith returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown with 11:02 left.
“Originally, I didn’t think they were going to kick it to me. But when they did kick it to me, I just made my magic happen,” said Keith, a sophomore running back who has scored three game-winning touchdowns this season. “I had a couple good blocks, and that’s all I needed.”
Orth finished 14 of 22 for 191 yards and a touchdown, and he had 16 rushing yards on four carries. McDonald was 2 of 4 for 30 yards and an interception before leaving the game.
“The entire gameplan was built around Matt, and I thought [Orth] did a great job, particularly in the second half, adapting and adjusting,” Loeffler said. “No one knows how hard it is to be the backup quarterback and, when you get thrown in the mix like that, we had to adapt and adjust and we did to give him a chance in the second half.”
Keith also had a team-high 69 receiving yards on three catches, while Christian Sims had four receptions for 56 yards.
Watkins had a team-best 76 rushing yards on nine carries, while David had team highs of five receptions for 54 yards for New Mexico State. The Aggies had a 407-294 advantage in total yards, and converted 11 of 17 third downs.
First Published December 27, 2022, 1:55 a.m.
