The BG football team boosted its record to 8-3 (6-1 MAC) with a lopsided 58-7 victory against Mid-American Conference opponent, the Eastern Michigan University Eagles in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Saturday.
The Falcons went into Rynearson Stadium ready to play against the Eagles following two consecutive wins against the Miami University RedHawks on Nov. 5 (45-3) and the Ohio University Bobcats on Nov. 12 (49-0).
“The team focused and were ready to go from the whistle,” head coach Dave Clawson said. “To me, we looked like a team who was excited to play today.”
BG started the game with a 30-yard field goal by kicker Tyler Tate after its first drive of the day stalled after eight plays for 63 yards.
Eastern Michigan’s first drive went nowhere and the Eagles were forced to punt and thanks to the strong, blowing wind, the ball rolled from the 10-yard line to the one-yard line.
The Falcons tried to get the ball outside of the 10-yard line, but quarterback Matt Johnson threw an interception to EMU middle linebacker Sean Kurtz who returned the ball 10 yards for the Eagles’ only score of the game.
Once Johnson and the Falcons got the ball back, it took them 19 seconds to take the lead back from the Eagles. On the second play of the drive, Johnson threw a pass to Ronnie Moore who then ran the ball into the end zone 74 yards away.
Moore’s name came up a second time at the end of the first quarter after he caught another pass from Johnson, which resulted in a 22-yard score to put BG ahead 17-7 at the end of the quarter.
After a quick start in the first quarter, BG would continue to dominate Eastern Michigan in the second quarter. Tate kicked a 34-yard field goal to start the second quarter scoring run.
Later in the quarter, running back Travis Greene ran 28 yards into the end zone for his first of two touchdowns on the day.
With 1:34 remaining in the half, Johnson and Moore connected again for a 34-yard touchdown pass, marking Moore’s third of the half. This score put BG up 34-7 at halftime against Eastern Michigan.
Following halftime, BG continued to build upon its lead, thanks in part to the poor performance by Eastern Michigan.
Greene started the Falcons off in the second half with a two-yard touchdown run more than five minutes into the half. About five minutes later, Tate hit his third field goal of the game, this time from 29 yards out, which put BG up 44-7 with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter.
On Eastern Michigan’s following drive, quarterback Brogan Roback was sacked by BG defensive lineman Izaah Lunsford and fumbled the ball. Defensive Will Watson returned the fumble for 37 yards and scored BG’s final touchdown of the third quarter.
After three quarters, BG led Eastern Michigan 51-7.
The intensity of the game began to decline as the Falcons began to put the game away in the fourth quarter.
On BG’s only score of the fourth quarter, running back Willie Houston ran 44 yards for his 11th touchdown and longest run of the season. This single run was longer than all of his previous 10 rushing touchdowns combined.
BG finalized the game by defeating the Eastern Michigan Eagles 58-7. It was the Falcons’ largest point differential since their 70-7 win against the Temple University Owls on Oct. 1, 2005.
Moore ended the game with 174 yards receiving and three touchdowns through the air.
Moore stepped into the higher position following multiple injuries to veteran receivers.
“The more he learns, the more we can get him involved,” Clawson said. “Part of it is [Moore] and part of it is necessity. You’re down Chris Gallon, Jared Cohen and today Heath Jackson. Ronnie Moore had to play a bigger role and he played well.”
Moore’s three touchdowns marked the first time since BG’s 2011 game against the Morgan State University Bears in which a BG player scored three or more touchdowns.
“Heath Jackson went down so coach told me next man up,” Moore said. “I stepped up and I just played my game.”
Another fact to note is that Greene’s 126 rushing yards against Eastern Michigan puts him at third all-time in single season rushing yards with 1,293 rushing yards on the season. The all-time mark of 1,444 yards was set by Fred Durig in 1951.
The BG defense held Eastern Michigan to one complete pass in 18 attempts, totaling four passing yards in the game. The Eagles totaled 65 offensive yards during the game.
This game marked Eastern Michigan’s lowest attended game with 1,751 fans in attendance.
The Falcons have one more road game to win before they can clinch the MAC East Division title, which will be against the University of Buffalo on Friday. The winner of that game will represent the East Division in Detroit on Dec. 6.
