Bowling Green football (7-5, 6-2 MAC) came up just short of their first berth to the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship game since 2015, dropping their final regular season contest to the Miami (OH) RedHawks (8-4, 7-1 MAC), 28-12.
“We fought, we fought back, we fought and brought the program back, and unfortunately, didn’t happen for us today,” an emotional Scot Loeffler said postgame Friday.
It was a slow first quarter, opening with a Bowling Green punt followed by Brett Gabbert’s ninth interception of the season by Bowling Green safety CJ Brown.
After a quick three-and-out and a 13-yard punt by John Henderson, the RedHawks only needed one play to hit paydirt – a 30-yard strike from Gabbert to senior Cade McDonald put Miami up 7-0.
Another three-and-out for the Orange and Brown resulted in yet another interception by Gabbert; this time, Jordan Oladokun seized an underthrown ball and returned it to Bowling Green’s 40-yard line.
“They’re a good offense, so basically, just giving our offense a chance, and that’s all we thought we could help,” said Oladokun.
After a five-play drive for BG went nowhere, Henderson redeemed his past shortcoming, booting a beauty down to Miami’s one-yard line. Two plays later, Patrick Day and Anthony Hawkins forced a safety for the Falcons’ first points of the day.
Bowling Green took the next drive 49 yards over 10 plays, cashing in on a Zach Long field goal from 41 yards out to cut Miami’s lead to two.
Miami answered back, driving down to BG’s 20-yard line, and breakout star Reggie Virgil was on the receiving end of a tip-drill for his ninth touchdown of the season to extend Miami’s lead to nine.
The score stayed 14-5 through the third quarter, with Bowling Green’s defense forcing multiple three-and-outs from Miami.
At the 11:35 mark of the fourth quarter, the Falcons’ offense finally got on the board. Jaison Patterson cashed it in from two yards out to cut Miami’s lead back to two, 14-12.
“It was a great drive. That was one of the drives that felt like had some rhythm and some programming,” Connor Bazelak said. “So, I think we were down to at that point after that touchdown, and obviously, it was good to get a touchdown.”
In just two plays, the RedHawks were back in the driver’s seat – Javon Tracy caught a pass over the middle of the field and took it 72 yards to the house.
After more punts, Keyon Mozee stuck the nail in the coffin for Bowling Green, going 27 yards left for a touchdown to put Miami up 28-12.
“This was going to be an old school, 17-19, ball game, and we knew it,” Loeffler said. “We knew going into it that’s what we came for. Couldn’t screw it up offensively. They couldn’t screw it up offensively. They made four plays. We didn’t, and that’s how the game was going.”
Bazelak finished his final game at Doyt Perry Stadium with 201 yards and an interception on 26/41 passing.
With his 26 completions, Bazelak broke into the all-time top-20 for career completions by a college quarterback (1,119).
Harold Fannin Jr., who entered the game just 58 yards shy of the FBS single-season tight end receiving record, had just 47 yards on eight catches.
“We’re going to wake up tomorrow morning. We’re going to wipe off blood and tears, this team will stick together, and this team will go play in a bowl game, and we need to send these seniors off the right way,” Loeffler said. “Because the fact of the matter is, they came here whenever we sucked and every aspect of the word suck and worked their tails off to take us to three bowl games, put ourselves in a chance to go to the championship, and they’ve left the legacy because they changed the program back to the winning ways, unfortunately, just didn’t happen.”
BG still has one game to go in 2024 – an undetermined bowl game.
“We have one more game. So, we didn’t sign up, in my opinion, to play 12 games, 13, or 14 with the championship game. We made it to this point we might as well finish it,” Oladokun said.
A win gives the Falcons eight wins, which would be their best finish since 2015.
