NIU Beats BGSU In MAC Championship Rematch

Tuesday, November 1

DeKalb, Ill.

8:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

1-8 , 0-5

Northern Illinois

3-6 , 3-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Bowling Green

NIU

Photo by: BGSU Marketing and Communications

November 02, 2016 | Football

Box Score

By: by Matt Daley, BGSU Athletic Communications

Press Conference Audio (Jinks, Bozeman, Moore)
Final Statistics: HTML

DEKALB, Ill. – James Morgan threw for three touchdown passes for the third straight game, but the effort was not enough to overcome a strong Northern Illinois rushing attack as the Bowling Green State University football fell to the Huskies 45-20 on Tuesday, Nov. 1. The game was held in DeKalb, Ill. at NIU's Huskie Stadium.

Bowling Green opened the game with a three-and-out, and Northern Illinois responded with a nine-play, 75-yard drive for the game's first score.

Following the 14-yard touchdown run from Joel Bouagnon, Morgan led the Falcons on a 75-yard drive of their own. The ten-play march was capped by a two-yard touchdown pass from Morgan to Scott Miller to even the game at seven. It was Miller's tenth touchdown reception of the season.

The Huskies scored twice to take a ten-point lead early in the second quarter, but BGSU answered again. This time, it took the Falcons just three plays to blaze a 72-yard trail. Morgan connected with Teo Redding for 29 yards, then one play later, he threw a rainbow to Ronnie Moore. Moore caught the ball while falling to the turf for a 37-yard score.

The scoring catch was the first of the season for Moore and the 19th of his career. Moore's other touchdown in 2016 was a rushing play. The touchdown brought BGSU within 17-13, but that was as close as they would get.

The Falcons' final score of the game occurred in the third quarter. On third down from the NIU 5, Morgan tossed the ball to Redding in the left corner of the end zone. Redding tapped both feet in while catching the ball, then fell to the ground and maintained control for the score.

Morgan completed 21 of 41 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns. He has 200 or more yards in each of his five starts and three or more touchdowns in three straight games. In those five starts, he has 1,451 yards and 14 touchdown passes.

In addition to his touchdown, Moore extended his active consecutive games streak with at least one catch to 39 games. With four catches, he moved past Ryan Burbrink into fifth on BGSU's all-time receptions list.

Scott Miller caught six passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Miller has six or more receptions in seven straight games and 50 or more yards in five straight. He now leads the team with 64 catches and 849 yards, and he is 151 yards shy of the tenth 1,000-yard season in Falcon history.

Will Watson accumulated 90 kickoff return yards and 33 punt return yards on five total attempts for a 24.6 average. It is Watson's career high for all-purpose yards.

Jamari Bozeman led BGSU with 15 tackles and hauled in the Falcons' sixth interception of the season. It is a career-high in tackles for Bozeman, who now has 61 in 2016. The pick was the first of the season for Bozeman and the second of his career (vs. Akron, Oct. 17, 2015).

Trenton Greene brought down NIU players 13 times for his fourth game of the season with double-digit tackles. He leads BGSU with 40 unassisted and 87 total tackles in 2016.
Bowling Green is now 1-8 overall and 0-5 in Mid-American Conference games. The Huskies are 3-6 and 3-2 in the MAC. The Falcons' next game is Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 8:00 p.m. against the Akron Zips. It will be BGSU's final road contest of 2016 and will be held at InfoCision Stadium in Akron, Ohio. Fans can view the nationally-televised game on ESPNU.