Saturday was not Bowling Green's day.
A strong Falcons side that had played well through the fall did not bring its A-game against a Kentucky team that was firing nicely. The result, in this NCR D1AA final was an emphatic Kentucky Wildcat repeat, 57-14.
Kentucky threatened early and were held up in-goal in the opening minutes, but the Wildcats kept at it and a superb pass from flyhalf Jack Phillips out to wing Joe Keough. He sidestepped his way calmly through the BG defense to score the opener. Kentucky looks powerful in contact, with props Jared Monnier and Richard Donlon making all kinds of trouble for the Falcons.
A brilliant run from fullback John Hall set up a Monnier score and Phillips converted that as easily as the first try for a 14-0 lead.
Bowling Green seemed to struggle to find the energy they needed to keep attacks going. Slow to secure the ball in the breakdown, they gave up turnovers and penalties. Phillips kicked on such penalty over the bar, and Kentucky built on that lead after Monnier was held up with a counter from Joe Keough and a follow-up from flanker Holden Hahn.
That made it 24-0 and when Hahn broke three tackles to canter through the middle Bowling Green was in a too deep a hole.
