Family, friends, and fans gathered in Doyt L. Perry Stadium on a rainy Saturday afternoon to watch the Bowling Green Falcons as they took on the Akron Zips.
While fans struggled with wet seats, the team had no issues moving the ball down the field, cracking the scoreboard first via a field goal from Alan Anaya to give BG the early 3-0 lead.
As the game went on, the Akron defense started to stall the BG offense, as the Falcons switched between quarterbacks Connor Bazelak and Camden Orth. Late in the first quarter, the Zips grabbed the lead with the first touchdown of the game, a run in the red zone by running back Lorenzo Lingard.
In the second quarter, as the rain began to pick up and the stands began to clear, the Falcon offense got to work, capitalizing off an Akron interception by quarterback Jeff Undercuffler to Jalen Huskey, setting up the team inside the five yard line.
From there, running back Terion Stewart scored one of his three touchdowns of the day to give the Falcons a 10-7 lead.
Late in the first half, after some self-inflicted penalties, the Zips were faced with a third and a mile, in which Undercuffler was strip-sacked, allowing BG’s Dontrez Brown to scoop and nearly score a defensive touchdown right before halftime, returning it to the 15-yard line.
But, BG still got points out of it, as another field goal from Anaya gave the Falcons a 13-7 lead heading into the halftime locker room.
To begin the second half, Akron continued to have all sorts of issues trying to contain Stewart, as after a Zips punt, Stewart continued to be hard to handle, highlighting the drive with a 22 yard run to set up the BG offense inside Akron territory.
From there, after a 16 yard catch and run from wide receiver Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim, Stewart had his number called again, powering in his second touchdown from 16 yards out to cushion the BG lead up to 20-7.
“Keep the energy going on the sideline, makes plays like that, keep the energy,” Stewart said postgame.
Oh yeah, it sure did.
Late in the third quarter, Stewart earned the hat trick on the ground, pounding one into the endzone from two yards out to blow the lead up to 27-7.
Then, just a couple of plays later, after a fumble from Undercuffler, the orange and brown found the endzone through the air, as Bazelak fired a pass to tight end Harold Fannin Jr., extending the lead to 34-7.
In the fourth, with the game all but over, Orth found the endzone with his arm this time, firing a pass from eight yards out to Ibrahim to give BG their final touchdown at 41-7.
A late score on the ground of Akron’s Drake Anderson padded the score, but BG took care of business on their home field, winning 41-14.
Stewart’s day ended with the senior racking up 131 yards on 19 carries with those three touchdowns, which was much needed on a day that was filled with rain and wind.
Defensively, the Falcons forced four turnovers, with Darren Anders and Ali Saad collecting strip-sacks on Undercuffler. Huskey and safety Trent Simms each collected an interception, while Brown had two fumble recoveries on the day as well.
For head coach Scot Loeffler, the win was a huge one, especially as the calendar flips to November the next time his team hits the field.
“This was a great win as we enter the month of November. Everyone remembers what you do in November, so we get that opportunity to do that in the next four weeks. We want to play good defense and we’ve done a great job in recruiting really good defensive linemen. If we keep building that defense we have a chance to win a lot of games.”
BG improves to 4-4 this season and 2-2 in MAC play, while the Zips fall to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in MAC play.
The Falcons return to the gridiron after a bye week on Wednesday, Nov. 1 for the start of “Midweek MACtion” against the Ball State Cardinals at the Doyt.
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