Bowling Green football defeated Central Michigan 23-13 on Tuesday night in their first game of midweek MACtion.
But you can’t tell the story of this game without talking about the weather both squads endured last night at the start of the second half.
Rain, rain, and more rain.
Scot Loeffler even said in his weekly press conference last Thursday that this was
“We have to be locked in; the weather is supposed to be horrific.”
Having an older team is what helped the most, according to Loeffler.
“I think having an older team is good. They’ve played in the rain before. Tough situation, but super happy for our team.”
“Winning is hard, especially on the road, especially your first night game in the rain,” said Loeffler.
For some of those older guys, the win came down to grit and determination.
“It basically just came down to who wanted more, and we wanted it more. It’s pretty simple: when it’s raining a lot, just run the ball. Just play and be more physical than the other team.” Said star tight end Harold Fannin, who broke 1,000 yards receiving last night.
“We just knew what type of game it was gonna be coming into it. How we’re gonna have to play through it and just do what we do. Keep playing ball regardless, no matter where we are at,” said senior defensive lineman Anthony Hawkins.
Senior wide receiver Malcolm Johnson believes that training and summer workouts are what shaped how the Falcons overcame the weather last night.
“I think it was more so the training. The training that we’ve endured through fall camp, the training that we went through, all summer long, I think we were just thinking about that. Those tough environments that we were placed in by our coaches, it automatically just helps us,” said Johnson. “So whenever outside influences may make it challenging, we still overcome them due to how intense our training was. I even go further back to the summer how tough the workouts and things like that were. So I think that kinda made it.”
With the rain, it makes the ball slick, which means more reliance on the run game heavily. But we still saw quarterback Connor Bazelak go 19-30 for 207 yards and a touchdown last night.
Here’s what Loeffler had to say about his performance, especially the harder the rain came down.
“Connor, I thought, was again solid as a rock. 19 for 30 in this clown show and weather. That’s a great job.”
But these conditions are just the beauty of some good ol’ midweek MACtion.
The forecast for next Tuesday calls for partly sunny and a high of 48 degrees at kickoff.
But even Mother Nature can’t predict what MACtion brings to the table.
