Falcons falter in final seconds

TROY, Ala. — The Bowling Green State University football team's game at Troy last night was everything you'd expect from a season opener — especially from a young team like the Falcons.

There were penalties, 13 in fact, setting BG back 80 yards. There were mistakes, especially missed tackles by the Falcon defense.

But there were plenty of bright spots too — just not enough of them to overcome several mistakes in the final minute that cost BG in a 30-27 loss to the Trojans in an exciting contest played at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“We made some critical errors that cost us in a close game against a good football team,” Falcon coach Dave Clawson said. “We had some turnovers that hurt us, and we gave up some long third-down plays in the final quarter because we didn't wrap up the way we needed to.

“The intangibles, the competitiveness and the want-to — how can you not love the effort our guys gave? But it's a results-oriented deal, and the bottom line is we're 0-1.”

Bowling Green seemed poised to steal a win from the Trojans, who had not lost a home opener since 1986, as it drove into Troy territory with less than two minutes to play. On a second-and-five play from Troy's 35, BG quarterback Matt Schilz threw a pass that bounced off Calvin Wiley's hands and was intercepted by Tony Davis.

The Trojans then drove 49 yards on seven plays — helped in part by a personal foul on the Falcons — before Michael Taylor kicked a 34-yard field goal with just four seconds left to play.

It was a crazy finish to a contest that saw four ties and a lot of back-and-forth action.

After an exchange of punts to start the game, the Falcons mounted a drive that had a pair of nifty third-down conversions. On third and 17 from BG's 33 Schilz hit Kamar Jorden for 19 yards and a first down; three plays later, on third and 15 from the BG 47, Tyrone Pronty caught a Schilz pass up the middle for 18 yards and another first down.

Willie Geter capped the drive with a 35-yard TD run with 8:54 left in the first period.

The Trojans answered with a seven-play, 70-yard drive to tie the contest. The big play on that drive was the last one, a 38-yard scoring strike by Corey Robinson to a wide-open Jason Bruce streaking down the right sideline for a score that tied the game with 7:06 left.

But the Falcons fired a counterpunch as Pronty took the ensuing kickoff 48 yards to start the BG drive on the Troy 48, and 11 plays later Schilz connected with Adrian Hodges for a 3-yard TD toss that put BG back on top.

Then the Falcon defense started to buckle down against the Trojans' passing attack. Keith Morgan intercepted a pass to stop Troy's drive following the touchdown, and after a Falcon punt Eugene “Champ” Fells intercepted a pass at the Troy 27.

That set up a 20-yard field goal by Bryan Wright that gave BG a 17-7 lead with 10:23 left in the first half.

But the Trojans got a 26-yard field goal from Taylor and a 1-yard TD plunge by Shawn Southward to tie the game at 17.

The Falcons came out of the after halftime firing on all cylinders: a great kickoff coverage made Troy start their first drive on their own 18, and the BG defense posted a three-and-out. Then Eugene Cooper raced 63 yards with a punt return for a touchdown, BG's first punt return for a score since Corey Partridge returned a punt 79 yards for a score against Temple in 2005.

Troy responded with a 49-yard TD run by Jerrel Jernigan to retie the game, then added a 40-yard field goal by Taylor that gave the Trojans their first lead of the game at 27-24 with 8:45 left in the third.

After gaining a total of eight yards on their first two possessions of the second half, the Falcons mustered some offense late in the period. Two Schilz passes led to a 23-yard FG by Wright that tied the game at 27 with 2:11 to go in the third.

Schilz finished with 221 passing yards, completing 22-of-43 throws in his first college start. Geter led the Falcon ground attack with 93 yards on 20 carries.

“Our game plan was to be balanced, shorten the game, and keep the defense off the field,” said Jorden, who caught nine passes for 111 yards.

Troy finished with 475 yards of total offense, split fairly evenly between the air (264 passing yards) and the ground (211 yards).

“We had the right game-plan [on defense] — we just needed to tackle better,” said Dwayne Woods, who led the Falcons with 14 tackles.

Contact John Wagner at:jwagner@theblade.com or 419-724-6481.