BGSU football (2-1) defeated Liberty (1-2) 23-13 in front of a packed Homecoming crowd Saturday night, with the major contributions of the game coming from the defense, which forced four turnovers.
“Our defense produced turnovers; they did a phenomenal job against this unit, who rushed the ball very well and did a good job preparing last week for what they were going to do defensively,” said Mike and Jan Wilcox Head Football Coach Eddie George postgame. “Again, producing four turnovers, not turning the ball over, gave us a chance.”
In just the first couple of plays of the game, the Falcons set the tempo with Kal El Pascal forcing a fumble on Liberty’s Reese Smith and Keyon Washington pouncing on the ball for the Falcons’ second turnover of the season.
“In high school, a coach always told me early, just start it off early. So, that’s what I was thinking, like set the tone,” said Pascal. “When I made that play and I saw all the guys just running up to me, I just felt their energy and I just wanted to keep it rocking.”
They kept it rocking. After forcing three turnovers in the first half, the Orange and Brown finally found their way into the endzone with a 12-yard pass from Drew Pyne to tight end Jacob Harris for the first touchdown of his career, putting the Falcons up 10-0.
“That is years of emotion coming out in one play,” Harris said. “I mean, having my family right there along the fence, like in the corner that it happens, you know, growing up coming to these games, like these are the things you dream about.”
After 37 minutes of being denied a score, including two touchdowns offset by penalties and a missed field goal, Liberty finally got their way onto the scoreboard after a 44-yard connection from Ethan Vasko to Lee Jr. Donte, now only down 13-7.
12 minutes into the fourth quarter, on fourth-and-2, Liberty ran the risk and went for it on their own side of the field. Vasko kept the ball on the option play and was immediately swarmed by a flock of Falcons—fumbling the ball—setting up Bowling Green within scoring range on the 26-yard line.
The Orange and Brown got another score after a Liberty penalty got them closer to the end zone, Chris McMillian running it in from seven yards out to extend the lead to 23-7, sealing the sweet taste of victory for the Orange and Brown.
Bowling Green defeated Liberty 23-13, on the back of a defense that forced four turnovers and still won despite committing 13 penalties as a team.
“We had chances early in the first quarter, the first half to get things rolling offensively, just got out of sync,” said George. “Every time we got something going, it seemed like it was a penalty, you had like maybe seven or eight first and second 15, and it’s very hard to overcome that.”
Bowling Green picks up their second win of the season and improves to 2-1. Next week, they will face Louisville on Saturday, with kickoff at noon.
