Ohio State Defeats Falcons In Season Opener

Saturday, September 3

Columbus, Ohio

12:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

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Ohio State

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1st

2nd

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4th

Bowling Green

Ohio State

Mike Jinks Clark Clancy Leonard Skattebo

Photo by: BGSU Marketing and Communications

September 03, 2016 | Football

Box Score

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

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Postgame Press Conference Audio
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University football team took an early 7-0 lead but Ohio State rallied to defeat the Falcons 77-10 in front of 107,193 fans at Ohio Stadium to open the 2016 season.

"It's hard to take positives out of a butt-whooping like that," BGSU head coach Mike Jinks said. "We'll go back and evaluate the video and what I want to see is that the kids keep playing hard, because at the end of the day, that's all you can really ask for."

BGSU received the opening kickoff and went three-and-out. After a Joe Davidson punt, Ohio State began their initial series on their own 42 yard line. Four plays later, the Falcons were on the board.
Facing 2nd-and-5 at the BGSU 41, J.T. Barrett rolled left and threw into the flat, where Brandon Harris was occupying space. Harris grabbed the ball out of the air at the 37 and weaved his way 63 yards for a touchdown. It was the first pick-six for Bowling Green since Dernard Turner on Nov. 4, 2014. OSU had not allowed a pick-six since October 2014.

Jake Suder came on for a successful extra point, the first point of his career, and the Falcons led 7-0 just 2:41 into the game.

The Buckeyes needed just four plays and 1:39 to move 72 yards and tie the game at seven. Barrett threw deep down the left side to K.J. Hill, who caught it in stride for the score. OSU took off from there and ended the first quarter with 258 yards and a 21-7 lead.

Barrett led the Buckeyes into BGSU territory again to start the second quarter, but the Falcon defense held on a 4th-and-2 from the Falcons' 21. Bowling Green's offense used that momentum to drive 65 yards for a field goal. Fred Coppet's 28 yard run was the driving force on the series, and Suder's 33-yard field goal made the score 21-10. It was Suder's first career field goal.

OSU added 14 points in the second quarter to take a 35-10 lead into halftime, then posted 21 points in each of the third and fourth quarters for the final 77-10 margin.

Starting quarterback James Knapke completed 12 balls for 110 yards before giving way to redshirt freshman James Morgan in the fourth quarter. Morgan completed nine of ten passes for 65 yards. Seven of those nine completions were to true freshman Marquis Zimmerman. Zimmerman led the Falcons with those seven catches in his first career game. Ronnie Moore led the team with 45 receiving yards.

Janarvis Pough, Deric Phouthavong and Vanel Dossous also had their first catches as Falcons in this game. Each caught one ball: Pough for 17, Phouthavong for 11 and Dossous for six.

In the backfield, Josh Cleveland's first six BGSU carries went for 31 yards, as he led the team with a 5.2 yards per carry average. Coppet's 28-yard jaunt led to a team-high 38 yards on 12 carries.
Trenton Greene led the team with 18 tackles, including nine solos. It exceeded his career high by six. Austin Valdez was next with nine tackles, while Antonio Sotolongo had nine. Six different players, including Sotolongo, registered their first tackles with BGSU.

BGSU totaled 244 yards of offense, while Davidson punted seven times for an average of 46.6. His effort improved his career average to 46.05.

Bowling Green will next take the field on Saturday at 3:30 pm against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. The game will be the season-opener in the 50th-anniversary season of Doyt Perry Stadium.