Last-Second Try Sees Bowling Green Past Louisville
Last-Second Try Sees Bowling Green Past Louisville
Bowling Green held on to beat Louisville 28-27 in the meeting between the top two teams in the Mid-American Conference DIAA league.
The Falcons ran out to a 21-10 halftime lead thanks to two tries by hooker Ben Young and one by fullback Joe Romshe. Center Joey Apel hit a penalty goal and wing Owen Slimmer landed a rare drop goal.
"We just started slow," said Louisville Head Coach Emil Walton. "We gave them a few easy meters and it's been a theme for us to only switch on too late."
They did, however, switch on.
The Cardinals stormed back with three tries. Only one conversion, however, and that would have an influence on the game.
Bowling Green, meanwhile, went into halftime thinking they should have led by more.
"We could have put it away early if we had finished some big breakaways," said BG Head Coach Tony Mazzarella.
Louisville roared back in the second half to take the lead 27 -21 on three tries and solo conversion.
Down 27-21 Bowling Green worked their way down to the Louisville tryline with time basically up on the game.
The Cardinals got the ball and were trying to run out the block when Falcons prop Kosta Anderson stole the ball in the ruck. Bowling Green sent the ball out to prop Ralph Merz, who charged over. Fullback Joe Romshe kicked the conversion, and Bowling Green had rescued a victory at the death 28-27.
"Obviously it looked back with a minute to go," continued Mazzarella. "But it was an unbelievable effort, and an amazing kick to finish."
With the victory Bowling Green improves to 3-0, while Louisville drops to 3-1. However, Louisville holds onto the #1 spot for now because they got two bonus points in this loss (four tries and a close loss) while Bowling Green did get a bonus point for four tries but by GRR's count Louisville has 16 points and BGSU 15. This is mostly because Biowling Green's game against Dayton last week was canceled. It's unclear if it will be rescheduled. Actually that game is a forfeit so really the upshot is BGSU is, indeed, in 1st place because they get a bonus point win with the forfeit.
