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Falcons Soar Past Rockets, 38-10 |
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Written by Jack Carle - Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
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Saturday, November 29 2008 |
 BG's Anthony Turner finds some running room / Photo: Paul Nelson
Instead, Bowling Green rode a strong defensive effort and 534 yards in total offense to a 38-10 victory over arch-rival Toledo Friday in the Glass Bowl.
The Falcons finished the regular season 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Toledo finished 3-9, 2-6.
“I’m just emotionally drained,” BG head coach Gregg Brandon said. “It’s just tremendous for the seniors, for our program.
“It’s just disappointing that last week (a 40-34 double-overtime loss to Buffalo) that we didn’t get that done at home to get to the championship. That’s what this team really wanted to do was to get to that MAC championship. We fell a game short, but that’s not going to take anything away from this great win here tonight.”
The Falcons’ defense was all over UT quarterback Aaron Opelt and his teammates in the first half, holding the Rockets scoreless and limiting them to minus-1 yard on 25 offensive plays.
Opelt had minus-44 yards on the ground in the first half and was 2-of-10 passing for 6 yards.
“BG’s defense had a very good game plan,” Opelt said. “They did what they had to and they played well.”
Senior Diyral Briggs was one of the leaders of the defensive surge, finishing with seven tackles, including 11⁄2 sacks for 14 yards and a 33-yard return of a fumble, which set up a short BG touchdown drive.
“Just playing together and believing, that’s the key on defense,” Briggs said.
Briggs appeared to have a chance to score on the fumble return, but was tackled at the 5-yard line.
“I could have scored. But I wasn’t trusting that Mike Ream was going to get the block, so I cut back in and I’m not a running back,” Briggs said.
Meanwhile, BG’s offense was piling up the yards as Tyler Sheehan threw for 241 yards and three scores and Willie Geter added 160 yards and a score on the ground. BG finished with 294 yards on the ground.
“We know if we can get the ball to those guys, they can make plays,” Sheehan said about BG’s running backs. “Our offensive line did a great job. Our coaches did a great job seeing something in their defense that we could run the ball against them."
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Last Updated ( Saturday, November 29 2008 )
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