BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University didn’t make many mistakes on either side of the ball on Saturday, and it led to a solid 38-15 win over Eastern Illinois in its home opener.
The Falcons racked up 509 yards of offense, including 368 through the air, and had no turnovers. Defensively, BGSU held Eastern Illinois to 325 yards, had five sacks, and made a key stop early in the third quarter as the Falcons prevailed at Doyt Perry Stadium.
“It was definitely a good feeling having the football team hit on all cylinders,” BGSU linebacker Cashius Howell said. “Offense doing good, defense, special teams too. It was definitely a great feeling.”
The Falcons (1-1) bounced back from their season-opening 34-24 loss at Liberty a week ago by playing clean and efficient football. BGSU had just six penalties for 60 yards, and averaged 8.0 yards per play on offense.
“That was gross last week with the turnovers,” BGSU coach Scot Loeffler said of the Falcons’ five interceptions. “There’s nothing worse than watching the ball being turned over unless our defense is on the field.
“The way that we’re going to win this year is all three units have got to play really well together.”
Quarterback Connor Bazelak completed his first 12 passes and finished 23 of 28 overall for 319 yards and three touchdowns. It was a stark contrast to his outing against the Flames when he went 6 of 21 for 71 yards and three interceptions.
Sophomore tight end Harold Fannin, Jr., had career highs in receptions (seven) and yards (109). He hauled in a 19-yard touchdown reception from Bazelak to give BGSU a 31-12 lead with 1:07 left in the third quarter.
“He didn’t play well last week, and we challenged him. He didn’t play a lot during training camp, and I think we’ve got the dust off of him,” Loeffler said. “He’s a very good football player, he’s got a ton of talent, and we’re going to challenge him week in and week out to be a pro.
“He’s a type of guy that, I think, he learns how to take care of his body, he learns how to study extra tape, he could be a really good weapon for us.”
Running back Ta’ron Keith had six catches for 123 yards, while wideout Austin Osborne had four catches for 56 yards. Odieu Hiliare had a 10-yard touchdown catch from Bazelak on BGSU’s 11-play, 90-yard opening possession, and Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim made a remarkable 11-yard touchdown grab after Bazelak scrambled right and fired a pass to the right corner of the end zone.
Ibrahim reached out for the ball and caught it while dragging both of his feet inbounds as the Falcons took a 21-6 lead with 7:01 left.
“Abdul’s a great player, a great person, and him and [Hiliare] are a great duo to have out there,” Bazelak said. “They complement one another really well.”
Eastern Illinois (1-1) snatched momentum heading into halftime with a couple of big plays. On 4th-and-11 from the Eastern Illinois 43, the Panthers’ Jacob Horvath ran for 23 yards on a fake punt to extend the drive.
Facing 4th-and-7 from the 31, Eastern Illinois quarterback Pierce Holley found DeAirious Smith for a touchdown over the middle to cut the Panthers’ deficit to 21-12 with 1:31 left in the second quarter.
The Panthers marched 57 yards in eight plays to set up 1st-and-10 from the BGSU 27 on their opening drive of the second half. But the Falcons came up clutch as Howell sacked Holley for a 7-yard loss.
On the next play, BGSU’s Davon Ferguson was unblocked off the edge and leveled Holley for a sack and a 7-yard loss. Two plays later, Jalen Huskey picked off Holley’s pass in the end zone on 4th-and-15 to give BGSU the ball.
“It was definitely critical, especially coming out of halftime. That’s definitely a critical possession of the game to either make it or break it,” Howell said. “Me and Ferg both stepped up and made the play whenever our name was called.”
Terion Stewart had 10 carries for 51 yards, including 1-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter to put BGSU ahead 14-6 with 12:10 left and in the fourth quarter for the game’s final score. Alan Anaya hit a 27-yard field goal with 3:23 left in the third quarter to extend BGSU’s lead to 24-12.
Holley finished 21 of 32 for 250 yards. On the Panthers’ first possession, he had a 15-yard touchdown pass to running back Kevin Daniels, who also had 78 rushing yards on 15 carries.
First Published September 9, 2023, 11:37 p.m.
