At the 10-minute, 32-second mark in the second quarter, following a six-yard rushing touchdown by Western Michigan Broncos sophomore running back Jalen Buckley to put WMU up 7-3, the Broncos attempted a sky kick to catch the Bowling Green return unit off guard and hopefully force a turnover.
Kicker Cale Allaire sent the ball as high as he could into the November night sky, falling into and then through the hands of Bowling Green defensive lineman Andrew “Bam” Booker.
The ball was on the ground, and Western Michigan was on it.
The tide of the game was indeed swung, just not in the way that the Broncos hoped.
Moments after muffing the kick, Booker was laid out by Western Michigan redshirt junior safety Michael Graveley Jr., knocking him out cold and quickly silencing Doyt L. Perry Stadium.
After only a few minutes, which felt like an eternity, Booker was stretchered off the field, but not before flashing a thumbs-up to the home grandstand.
“When I got out there, it wasn’t good. By the time they got him off there, you knew it wasn’t a neck [injury],” Bowling Green head coach Scot Loeffler said postgame on Tuesday. “He was moving fine. To be able to come to the sideline, because those kids love Bam, to be able to come to the sideline and tell those kids that he’s going to be okay was huge.”
The injury to Booker lit a fire under the Orange and Brown, who had come out sluggish to open the game.
“It definitely hurts seeing one of your guys who you’ve been grinding with, one of your brothers out there go down, so you want to go out there and make up for what happened,” senior linebacker Brock Horne said.
Immediately after the teams resumed play, Bowling Green’s defense forced a quick three-and-out; a loss of three, a five-yard sack, and a five-yard completion forced WMU to punt it away after starting their drive on Bowling Green’s 37-yard line.
“You get two negative plays like that back to back; it’s hard for an offense to recover. It really fired us up, I think fired the crowd up, everyone was into it,” Horne, who had that five-yard sack, continued.
The offense felt the flames, too, marching 84 yards downfield in just six plays, capping the drive off with a 25-yard touchdown strike to none other than Harold Fannin Jr.
In the first quarter, both teams averaged just 4.25 yards per play (y/p). In the second, following the injury to Booker, Western Michigan averaged 3.48 yards per play to Bowling Green’s 10.08. In the third, Western’s average was 3.82. Bowling Green’s shot to over 12 yards/play.
“Like I said, it’s find a way,” junior running back Terion Stewart said. “Once that happened to Bam…I feel like that just fired up the team. Like, ‘They just hurt one of our players, so how hard are you going to respond?”
Again, after the injury, Bowling Green cornerback Jacorey Benjamin forced an interception off WMU’s Hayden Wolff, and the defense got to the quarterback four times.
Bowling Green’s offense rattled off 28 unanswered points in response to their fallen teammate, and Cincinnati transfer Todd Bumphis sealed the game with an interception in the south end zone, propelling them to a 31-13 victory over a Western Michigan team that was tied with Bowling Green atop the Mid-American Conference (MAC) at 4-1 in conference play – until Tuesday night’s game.
“That was awesome, wasn’t it?” Loeffler said. “Benji (Jacorey Benjamin) got banged up right after that interception…Todd came in and really, really did a great job at corner…I love Todd; he’s a team dude, he’s got juice and energy, he’s always got a smile on his face, he’s a really good teammate.”
With the win, Bowling Green (6-4, 5-1 MAC) continues to control their own destiny; win out, and you’re headed to Detroit to play in the program’s first MAC Championship Game since the 2015 season.
Standing in the way of a Ball State Cardinals squad that gave BG a run for their money at home in 2023, and a Miami squad that is always dangerous as long as Chuck Martin is at the helm.
“There are some things that we need to do better; we’ve been playing pretty good these last couple of years in November. We need to get better this week; we need to find a way to beat Ball State,” Loeffler said. “Coach Neu is a good football coach; I have a ton of respect for him. I know that they are going to attack us, and we have to be on the top of our game, Muncie is a hard place to play.”
Kickoff from Muncie is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23.
