Hopgood's Late Touchdown Gives Falcons 17-14 Win Over CMU

Saturday, October 30

Mt. Pleasant, MI

3:30 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

2-7 , 1-4

Central Michigan

2-7 , 1-5

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Bowling Green

Central Michigan

October 30, 2010 | Football

Box Score

By: by BGSU Athletic Communications

Bowling Green's Jordan Hopgood scored a touchdown with 21 seconds remaining to give the Falcons a 17-14 win in Mount Pleasant, Mich., over the Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday evening. The Mid-American Conference contest was held inside Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

Box Score
Dave Clawson Audio
Matt Schilz Audio
Chris Jones Audio

It was the Falcons first win when scoring less than 20 points since a 17-0 win at Ohio back in 2001.

With the Falcons trailing 14-10 with 5:05 remaining at the CMU 47-yardline Dave Clawson elected to punt the ball back to the Chippewas, putting the pressure on the Falcon defense. After a pair of first downs, sophomore Dwayne Woods forced a fumble at the BGSU 39-yardline to set up Matt Schilz and the BGSU offense.

Schilz took over with 2:26 remaining and led the Orange and Brown down to the Chippewas 35 before finding Kamar Jorden down the middle for a 32-yard reception to set up first-and-goal with just over a minute to go. Hopgood would score two plays later from 1-yard out to snap the Falcons' five-game losing streak.

The story of the night was the Falcon defense and its running game.

Bowling Green allowed just 14 points (six coming on a pick-6) and 231 total yards. CMU was held to just 132 yards through the air, an offense that came into the game averaging 282 yards passing per game. The Falcon defense forced three turnovers, held Central Michigan to 4-of-12 on third down and had 12 tackles for loss (six sacks).

While the Falcons had just 107 yards on the ground, BGSU's run game was more explosive than it has been in some time. Willie Geter ran the ball 26 times for 103 yards, while Calvin Wiley added 10 yards on two carries and Hopgood had just two yards, but did add the winning score.

BGSU (2-7, 1-4 MAC) ended the first half with a 10-0 lead. Calvin Wiley scored on the Falcons' opening drive, scoring from 10 yards out for his first career rushing touchdown. Freshman Kyle Burkhardt drilled a 34-yard field midway through the second quarter.

CMU's (2-7, 1-5 MAC) Jerry Harris scored from 18-yards out from Ryan Radcliff and added its second touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter when Avery Cunningham returned an interception 63 yards to give the Chippewas a 14-10 advantage.

Matt Schilz was 22-of-39 passing for 200 yards. The redshirt freshman hooked up with Kamar Jorden nine times for 92 yards.

Defensively Chris Jones had six tackles, including five for loss and added 3.5 sacks and had one fumble recovery.

Notes
* As mentioned before, the 17-14 win versus Central Michigan is the Falcons' first win when scoring less than 20 points since a 17-0 win at Ohio back in 2001.

* BGSU had six sacks on the night. Chris Jones had 3.5 and was joined by Calvin Marshall, Champ Fells, Angelo Magnone, Darius Smith and Tim Moore, all who combined for 2.5 sacks. The Falcons had seven sacks on the season prior to the CMU contest.

* The Falcons had 16 players record tackles in the game and nine of them had at least one tackle for loss.

* As mentioned, Calvin Wiley had his first career rushing touchdown. Two weeks ago at Temple Wiley added his first career touchdown reception.

* The Falcons are 2-0 on the season when they have a 100-yard rusher. Geter had 100 yards in the win versus Marshall and added 103 yards this week at Central Michigan.

* Calvin Marshall had a career-high nine tackles and Aaron Foster added a career-best eight stops.