BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University’s football team showed on Wednesday that it can pull out a narrow win that was decided in the final seconds.
The Falcons made a couple of huge plays in the passing game in the fourth quarter and held strong defensively with Ball State on the verge of tying the game or taking the lead.
A 52-yard field-goal attempt from Ball State’s Jackson Courville as time expired came up short as BGSU held on for a 24-21 Mid-American Conference victory at Doyt Perry Stadium.
“We have heart. We never give up,” BGSU running back Ta’ron Keith said. “This team has always been a fighting team.
“No matter what the situation is, we’re all going to fight to the end, so that’s what I like about this team.”
BGSU (5-4, 3-2 MAC) won its third straight game to move above .500 for the first time this season. It was the Falcons’ first single-digit victory of the season.
“Very proud of our team to find a way to win,” said BGSU coach Scot Loeffler, who celebrated his 49th birthday on Wednesday. “Winning is hard. Sometimes winning is ugly, sometimes it’s pretty. But, at the end of the day, it’s a win.”
Ball State (2-7, 1-3 MAC) matched every BGSU touchdown in tying the game at 7-7 in the second quarter, 14-14 in the third, and 21-21 in the fourth.
A 47-yard kickoff return to the Ball State 43 yard line from Keith, though, helped set up the winning score for BGSU.
Quarterback Connor Bazelak went 4 of 5 passing in the Falcons’ game-winning drive, including a 6-yard completion to Odieu Hiliare on 4th-and-4 from the 37, and a 20-yard completion to Keith a few plays later.
Alan Anaya’s 22-yard field goal with 3:14 remaining gave BGSU a 24-21 lead.
“I think our receivers did a good job of stepping up. I thought that 4th-and-5 or whatever to O.J. there on that last drive was huge,” Bazelak said. “If we don’t get that, they could run out the clock and kick a field goal to win.
“So, that was huge, props to him for catching that. We distributed the ball to a lot of different guys tonight, and I think that’s always good.”
On the ensuing Ball State possession, BGSU stuffed dual-threat quarterback Kiael Kelly for a 1-yard gain on 4th-and-2. After a BGSU turnover on downs, Ball State drove 30 yards to set up 1st-and-10 from the Falcons’ 35 in the final seconds.
Back-to-back incompletions from Kelly set up 3rd-and-10 with four seconds left, and Courville’s field-goal attempt was off the mark.
“They’re tough,” Loeffler said of the Cardinals. “They’re older, they’ve got good culture, and they play hard.
“They’ve played everyone really, really well. They played Toledo extremely well, so we knew that we were going to be in for a dogfight. I thought they finally got an identity on offense, and it was a hell of a football game, however you scan it.”
BGSU scored touchdowns off two Ball State turnovers in the first half. Bazelak’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Harold Fannin, Jr., on 4th-and-2 midway through the first quarter came after Davon Ferguson recovered a Kelly fumble that was forced by the Falcons’ Ali Saad.
Kelly’s backward pass was well behind Marquez Cooper and picked up by BGSU’s Trent Simms. Two plays later, Terion Stewart bolted for a 54-yard touchdown to make it 14-7 BGSU with 4:40 left.
Stewart ran left, darted through an opening up the field, then stiff-armed a defender at around the 30 yard line en route to finding the end zone.
Bazelak finished 13 of 21 passing for 128 yards and also had a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keith to give BGSU a 21-14 lead with 13:20 left. Stewart had 92 rushing yards on 15 carries, but was limited late in the game because of an injury.
Loeffler did not have an update on Stewart after the game.
“We’ll find out tomorrow where we’re at,” Loeffler said. “Looks like a high ankle sprain, I think. But we’ll find out tomorrow.”
Kelly rushed for 90 yards on 19 carries, including a 6-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7-7 early in the second quarter, and a 44-yard score early in the fourth to make it 21-21. He was 9 of 19 passing for 66 yards.
Cooper rushed for 90 yards on 25 carries, including a 5-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter to make the score 14-14.
Fannin hauled in five catches for 92 yards for the Falcons, who had 281 total yards to the Cardinals’ 283. BGSU did not commit a turnover while forcing two.
“When we win the turnover battle, we win the game, and the fact of the matter is we protected the ball and they didn’t,” Loeffler said. “That was the difference in the game, for sure.”
First Published November 2, 2023, 4:05 a.m.
