Keira Ellenberger

Bowling Green picked up their first conference win of the 2023 season, snapping the Buffalo Bulls’ winning streak at two.  

“Anytime you win, it’s good,” head coach Scot Loeffler said after Saturday’s victory. “We did some things that were really good, we did some things that we have got to clean up in all facets. You saw glimmers of some really good stuff.”  

Camden Orth started the game for Bowling Green, his first start of the season and the second of his career at BG.  

“He (Connor Bazelak) had some things that I don’t want to get into, we knew the ball was going to be wet,” said Loeffler. “I don’t want to get into it too much, he’s just got some things he’s got to get healthy with. We made that decision, and it was the right decision to have the quarterback be able to handle the ball.”  

After both teams punted their first drives away, Austin Osborne fumbled on BG’s second drive, setting Buffalo up in prime real estate. Four plays and 33 yards later, Buffalo took their first and only lead of the day on Cole Snyder’s only touchdown, a 10-yard rushing score.   

Wet conditions at UB Stadium forced both teams to focus their offense on the ground game. 

Bowling Green drove 70 yards down the field thanks in part to a 42-yard connection between Orth and Osborne, but the drive stalled, and BG was forced to settle for three.  

With the score at 7-3, Snyder fumbled, and BG’s Darius Lorfils recovered, returning it to the Buffalo nine-yard line. Three plays later, the Falcons took their first lead of the game, and it was a lead they never relinquished.  

Orth took it upon himself to put his guys up and punched it in from a yard out to go up 10-7.  

Their next drive ended in another touchdown. Orth rolled right on a bootleg and gave Ta’ron Keith a ball on the money to go up 17-7.  

The momentum kept rolling for the Falcons, and they did what they do best. After forcing Buffalo to punt, the block unit got home and Pa’Sean Wimberly scooped up the blocked punt and took it to the house.  

“We worked on that block all week,” Loeffler said. “Avi [McGary]’s one of those guys that’s earned his way here. He’s done an unbelievable job, nothing’s been easy for him, nothing’s been given to him. He’s just got some grit. Really, really happy for him. Alex [Bayer] said all week we were going to block a punt”  

After an exciting first half, the game hit a lull. Both teams traded interceptions until halfway through the third quarter. With Snyder out of the game due to injury, the Bulls relied on Junior Quarterback CJ Ogbonna, and he delivered, cutting BG’s lead to 10. He found his big, 6’4 target Darrell Harding, Jr. in the back right corner of the end zone and put it where only Harding could get it.  

That was the last scoring play of the game. Buffalo turned the ball over on downs on their following two drives, and Jack Sauder missed a 42-yard field goal. Buffalo threw interceptions on their final two drives, halting any chance for a comeback. 

Davon Ferguson sealed the victory for BGSU, picking off Snyder with 1:10 left to go.  

“For us, ultimately, we come out every play and try to put our best foot forward. Today we really came to play,’ Ferguson said. “For me, it was more so get the offense the ball back. For me it’s like, ‘Okay, I see the ball in the air, it’s mine’ so I’ve got to go get it so the offense can have it.”   

Terion Stewart finished the day with 123 yards on 25 carries, playing the role of the offense’s engine and bringing his season total to 539 yards.  

Both Buffalo QBs combined for 71 yards on 9-for-29 passing, one touchdown, and four interceptions.  

“I thought at times (the defense) played really well. We got to a point in the fourth quarter where we were trying to get up 13, because we didn’t think they could score two touchdowns. Our defense came up big in the fourth quarter, kept them out of the endzone and out of field goal range, that was huge,” Loeffler said.  

“We knew the defense was going to have to step up this week, after last week. Today we came out and knew we had to step up,” said Avi McGary. “We knew it was going to be rainy today, we knew they were going to run it, so we just tried to stop that run.”  

Bowling Green improves to 3-4 this season (1-2 MAC) and finally returns back home to take on the Akron Zips (1-5, 0-3 MAC) on October 21. Kickoff is slated for 2:00 p.m.