Falcons Headed To MAC Championship With Win Over Buffalo

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Orchard Park, N.Y. – The Bowling Green defense held Buffalo to 15 yards rushing and the Falcons won the Mid-American Conference East Division with a dominant 24-7 victory over the Bulls Friday in Ralph Wilson Stadium. BGSU will play in the MAC Championship game against No. 14 Northern Illinois at Ford Field in Detroit Friday at 8 p.m.

As it has done all year, the best defense in the MAC shut down the Buffalo offense, holding the Bulls to 236 yards of offense. UB entered the game having won eight of its last nine games, but the Falcons kept the Bulls to just one second quarter touchdown, the team's lowest scoring output of the year. Most notably, running back Braden Oliver was smothered, rushing for just 46 yards, 123 below his average in conference play entering the game.

The first half was a low scoring affair and Buffalo took a 7-3 lead into the break as the two defenses, ranked first and second in the conference, made life difficult for the offenses.

On the first possession of the game, Buffalo was helped by a 15-yard facemask to move across midfield. But Ryland Ward ripped the ball away from a Bulls receiver on a flea-flicker attempt that could have been a 46-yard touchdown. Two plays later, Paul Swan and Paul Senn combined for a sack that halted the drive.

Bowling Green started the scoring with 4:52 left in the first quarter on a 40-yard Tyler Tate field goal that was set up by a 33-yard Travis Greene carry. Buffalo did put together a nine-play, 66-yard drive in the second quarter, capped by Oliver's two-yard rush, for a 7-3 halftime lead.

The Falcons got the ball to start the third quarter and drove into the Buffalo red zone after a 31-yard Shaun Joplin reception, but quarterback Matt Johnson was picked off one play later. Despite the interception, the Bowling Green offense was finding its rhythm.

After Buffalo was forced to punt on the ensuing possession, the Falcons took the lead for good. Alex Bayer caught a 48-yard pass over two defenders and Joplin made an acrobatic 23-yard touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone.

With a chance to respond, Buffalo picked up only five yards on its next drive and the Falcons took control of the game after a Bulls punt. Bowling Green started on its own 7-yard line and then got a false start that pushed the team back to the four. On the team's first play of the drive, Johnson faked a handoff to Greene and went right for 56 yards, the longest rush of the season for Bowling Green. On third-and-5, Johnson scrambled out of the pocket and found Tyler Beck for 13 yards and a first down to the 22. Greene went around left end for a 15-yard touchdown that put the Falcons ahead by two scores.

Bowling Green closed out the scoring in the fourth quarter and iced the game away with a 7-play, 81-yard drive. Joplin caught a bomb, stepped inside the defender and went 62 yards before being tackled at the Buffalo 7-yard line. Johnson finished the drive with a seven-yard quarterback keeper to make it 24-7 with 8:18 left.

For the game, Bowling Green rushed for 260 yards and passed for 230, outgaining Buffalo 490-236. The Bulls rushed for just 0.6 yards per carry. Buffalo entered the game leading the MAC in quarterback sacks but had just one for the game, while Bowling Green had a season-high five.

Greene carried the ball 30 times for 129 yards, moving into second place in BGSU history with 1,422 yards on the season. He is 22 yards from tying the BGSU single-season record held by Fred Durig in 1971.

Johnson was only 11-of-26 passing but was able to complete the long ball, finishing with 230 yards passing. Joplin caught six passes for a career-high 149 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, Aaron Foster and Brian Sutton led the way with six tackles and Ted Ouellet had 3.0 tackles for loss, including two sacks. Cam Truss had a 14-yard interception return and Greg Hohenstein recovered a fumble on a muffed punt.

With the win, Bowling Green improves to 9-3 on the season and earns the MAC East title with a 7-1 conference record. The Falcons earn the division title for the first time since being co-champs in 2007 and will play in the MAC Championship for the first time since 2003. BGSU is now the only team in the conference to win both an East and West Division title.

It marks the first nine-win season for the Falcons since 2004, when the team won the GMAC Bowl. It is the first nine-win regular season since the Falcons went 11-3 in 2003, posting a 10-2 regular season mark (with a loss in the MAC Championship and a win in the Motor City Bowl).

The Falcons will face 12-0 Northern Illinois for the MAC title Friday night at 8 p.m. in a game televised on ESPN2.

Notes
*Shaun Joplin caught six passes for a career-high 149 yards on Friday. He also caught his third touchdown pass of the season on the night.

*Travis Greene had 129 rushing yards on Friday, the eighth time this season he has surpassed that mark. The eight 100-yard games are the most by a Falcon since Dave Preston had eight in 1974.

*Greene's 30 carries in the game were a career high, surpassing his previous high of 24 rushing attempts set earlier in the season.

*The 260 rushing yards by the Falcons were the fifth most in the Dave Clawson era.

*Buffalo's seven points were the fewest they have scored in a game this season.

*The 9-3 record marks the first time that BGSU has won nine games since 2004.

*Bowling Green will make their first appearance in the MAC Championship game since 2003.

*Matt Johnson now has 2,802 yards on the season, eighth most in school history for a single season.

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