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 BOWLING GREEN - The Bowling Green Falcons fell one yard short Saturday afternoon against arch-rival Toledo at Perry Stadium. Trailing 21-14 and faced with third-and-1 from the UT 6-yard line, BG could not get that needed yard to even have a chance to tie the game.
Jordan Hopgood was stopped for no gain on third down from the Wildcat formation and then Anthon Samuel lost one yard on fourth down. Six plays and 93 yards later, Toledo went ahead 28-14.
BG’s Jerry ‘BooBoo’ Gates returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown.
But when Kyle Burkhardt’s on-side kick attempt sailed out-out-bounds, Toledo was able to run out the clock to secure the 28-21 win in BG’s Homecoming game.
Toledo is now 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the Mid-American Conference while Bowling Green falls to 3-4, 1-2, losing its third straight game.
“They made critical plays when they had to in the fourth quarter. That’s what this game boiled down to,” BG head coach Dave Clawson said. “For most of the game we played at a very high level.”
Clawson said there were three critical plays that hurt the Falcons in the final quarter — throwing an interception in a 14-14 game that Toledo converted into a touchdown three plays later; the inability to convert on the fourth-and-1; and then allowing Toledo to complete a 59-yard pass play on a third-and-9 play from the Rockets’ 8-yard line, which helped setup UT’s final touchdown.
“It was really an even football game and credit to Toledo, they made three plays in the fourth quarter,” Clawson said. “That’s why they won the football game.”
“We live for the fourth quarter and we showed that today,” said UT senior running back Morgan Williams.
Bowling Green finished the game converting on 2-of-4 red zone opportunities.
“We had so many chances in the red zone that we didn’t capitalize on today that we should have,” said BG quarterback Matt Schilz. “Good teams score in the red zone almost every trip they go down there.”
Both teams missed field goal attempts in the first half, but the Falcons were able to break through with one second left in the half when Kamar Jorden out-jumped the Toledo defenders in the end zone to haul in a 27-yard fourth down pass from Schilz.
UT head coach Tim Beckman said he challenged his team in the first half after they “did not play worth a darn ... and they met the challenge. That’s what good football teams do, they meet challenges.”
Toledo evened the score on its first possession of the second half.
The Falcons then had a good chance to regain the lead after Samuel broke off a 27-yard run to put BG at UT’s 26-yard line. However, on first down Schilz under threw a wide-open Samuel, who would easily have scored. Two more incomplete passes and a sack and BG turned the ball over on downs.
Toledo responded with another scoring drive to make it 14-7.
Bowling Green put together a 13-play 62-yard drive, capped by a Hopgood 1-yard run, to tie the score at 14 with 12:59 left in the game. The Falcons’ defense then held Toledo, but Schilz’s interception helped UT take a 21-14 lead with 10:43 left.
“On the interception, I got hit when I was coming down. It came out funny and they made a good play on it,” Schilz said. “I know I can’t do that in the fourth quarter with seven minutes left. I have to take better care of the ball. That was a big game-changer.”
Bowling Green was then stopped on the fourth down play with 4:25 left when Danny Farr got through to tackle Samuel.
“I just saw an opening and went threw it,” Farr said. “A big stop on a play like that ... it was very big for the team. We just had to make a play to end the drive.”
Toledo scored its insurance TD after the fourth-down stop to put the game away.
“There were two times we had the ball in the red zone that we didn’t score. When you lose a seven-point game and the score is tied in the fourth quarter, those things become glaring,” Clawson said.
“What it came down to, when we needed to make a play, we made the play,” Beckman said.
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