Philosopher Dave Weinbaum once said that the most important lesson from winning is that you can. The Bowling Green football team is beginning to learn this lesson. The Falcons have already matched their win total from last season with a strong 35-0 domination of Buffalo Saturday night in their home opener under the lights at Doyt Perry stadium. The shutout was BG’s first since 1994.x “This is really exciting,” defensive captain Khary Campbell said. “I’ve been here five seasons where we just haven’t gotten through it. It’s great to get a victory at home and get off to a fast start.” BG coach Urban Meyer seemed just as pleased that his seniors were having fun during the victory as he did about that Falcon’s win.
“I look at all the seniors on this team who have worked so hard and don’t want to leave here with a legacy of not being a winner,” BG coach Urban Meyer said. “It feels great to see them being able to sit out the fourth quarter waving at the fans and having fun. We got to do all we can to get them out of here with a winning record.”
The Falcons were able to relax and enjoy the fourth quarter because of their sound defense and special teams, that helped set up many of BG’s scoring drives for the offense.
It didn’t take long for the defense to send a message to the Bull’s offense that it was going to be a long night. On only the second play of Buffalo’s opening drive, BG linebacker Chris Haneline stepped in front of quarterback Joe Freedy’s pass across the middle for an interception. Haneline returned the ball 13 yards to the Buffalo 13 yardline.
The Falcons quickly found the end zone in a two play, 49 second drive. Junior runningback Joe Alls capped off the score with a two yard trot into the end zone to quickly give BG the lead. Freshman kicker Sean Suisham banked the extra point in off the upright to put the Falcons up 7-0.
Neither the Falcons nor the Bulls were able to put points on the board during their next three possessions. Suisham missed a 31 yard field goal with 8:24 left in the first quarter. But the Falcons controlled the field of play leaving Buffalo deep inside their own territory. With 1:33 left in the first half, BG punter Pat Flemming sailed a kick that was downed on the Buffalo 1-yard line. The Bulls went three-and-out, which set up excellent field position for the Falcons on their next drive at Buffalo’s 38 yard line.
BG went on a four play, 38 yard touchdown drive which was capped off by a five yard run into the end zone by sophomore quarterback Josh Harris.
The Falcon defense once again came up big on UB’s next possession. Freshman defensive back Keon Newsome forced a fumble recovered by Campbell. With 9:54 left in the first half, quarterback Andy Sahm connected with wide receiver Robert Redd, who made a nice over the shoulder catch in the back end of the end zone.
BG would score once more before the half on a two-yard run by Alls. The Falcons went in at halftime cruising 28-0.
“I thought the offense played fairly well,” Harris said. “We’re still a little rusty and had a couple of penalties that we could have
