Bowling Green Tightens Grip on MAC Lead With Win Over Louisville
Bowling Green Tightens Grip on MAC Lead With Win Over Louisville
Bowling Green defeated Louisville in this weekend's clash of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference.
The Falcons led comfortably through much of the game, holding a 28-5 advantage until late in the game. Co-captain and No. 8 Phil Tracey scored three tries on the day, while Griffin Wilson added another and Joey Apel converted all four.
Wilson's try was a fun one. In the wet conditions Louisville dropped the ball and Wilson toed it ahead. Wisely he opted not to try to pick up the ball and instead kept soccer-dribbling the ball down the field and into in-goal before diving on it to score.
"This was probably our most complete game," said BGSU Head Coach Tony Mazzarella. In addition, said the coach, several players had their best games of the season.
Fullback Beau Abbott is coming along nicely and his tactical kicking was huge for Bowling Green. Flyhalf Jake Capel was really strong on defense, while the forwards battled hard to win the contact point on both sides of the ball.
This was a big victory for Bowling Green, which has been unseated as MAC champs last year by these self-same Louisville Cardinals.
The result puts Bowling Green at 5-0 with 25 standings points and two games left on the schedule.
Right behind BGSU Louisville, Western Michigan, and Cincinnati all have 20 standings points.
Cincinnati won well this weekend, beating IUPUI 53-7. But they have two losses while WMU and Louisville have just one. In addition, UC has just the one game left to play ... against Bowling Green.
Western Michigan, which beat Cincinnati a week before thanks to an excellent showing by flyhalf Hugo Triquero and three tries from center Nick Pastore. The Broncos were idle this weekend and will finish their schedule November 4 hosting Dayton. Louisville finish their schedule on the road at IUPUI. Both teams are expected to win those games. But, of course, they play each other this coming weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Also this weekend, in a meeting of winless teams, Pitt edged Dayton 31-25 to improve to 1-5, dropping Dayton to 0-5.
The semifinalists, then, are confirmed, with Cincinnati far enough ahead of Ohio to clinch 4th. Bowling Green has not clinched 1st but are certainly favored, and the regular-season finale against Cincinnati should also be the semifinal matchup for the two. That means that, regardless of the result, Louisville and WMU will meet up for the MAC semis in three weeks.
