Falcons’ Strong Second Half Effort Falls Short Against Cincinnati

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CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University football team took on the Cincinnati Bearcats at Nippert Stadium on Saturday (Sept. 6). The Falcons made a strong second half push, outscoring Cincinnati 17-13 in the final 30 minutes, but came up short in the 34-20 final. The loss moves Bowling Green to 1-1 through the first two weeks of the season with Liberty up next for Homecoming on Sept. 13.

The Falcons were paced by Drew Pyne under center, going 29-for-36 in the passing game with 274 yards and a touchdown. Jyrin Johnson accumulated 80 of those yards, as well as the touchdown, coming on seven receptions. As for the ground game, the Falcons racked up 98 yards with six different players seeing at least one carry. Cameron Pettaway led the unit with 13 carries for 72 yards.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Cincinnati won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. Bowling Green elected to receive, defending the north end zone.
The opening kickoff was a touchback, but a personal foul against UC after the first play from scrimmage moved the Falcons up to their own 42. However, the Cincinnati defense stood strong and forced a punt from there. The BGSU defense responded in the same manner, forcing a three-and-out.
Five minutes into the first quarter, Cameron Pettaway registered the first chunk-play of the game, breaking free down the sideline for a gain of 30 yards on the ground.
The first points of the game came with 7:23 on the clock in the first quarter with a Cincinnati score through the air, making it a 7-0 score.
The Bearcats added a score to their tally just under two minutes into the second half for a 14-0 advantage.
Bowling Green's offense went to work on the ensuing drive with Drew Pyne finding Mar'Kel Porter for a gain of 22, moving into Cincinnati territory.
Cincinnati took over at their own 11, moving down field for a score to make it a 21-0 with just over six minutes left in the half.
In the closing minutes of the first half, the Falcons worked into the red zone, including a 25-yard screen completion to Kaderris Roberts. Jackson Kleather ended the drive with a 25-yard field goal to put BGSU on the board before the half, 21-3.
After the half, the Bearcats answered the points with a 40-yard field goal, moving the score to 24-3.
Defensively, the Falcons forced a turnover with just under five minutes left in the third quarter. Dorian Pringle punched a ball loose with Jacob Eklund recovering at the Cincinnati 34.
Just two plays after the turnover, Pyne hit Jyrin Johnson down the sideline for a 31-yard receiving touchdown, cutting the score down to 24-10.
Cincinnati's answer came with 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter, pushing their lead to 31-10.
On the next Falcon drive, a 20-yard connection between Pyne and Johnson moved the Falcons down to the 2-yard line. Porter finished off the drive, punching in a one-yard rush to make it 31-17.
The back-and-forth continued with Cincinnati making a 23-yard field goal, extending the score to 34-17 with just over six minutes left.
Bowling Green matched the points with a 30-yard field goal from Kleather, bringing the score to 34-20 with just under two minutes remaining.

Pyne finds Johnson for a 31-yard score!#GUTS x #AyZiggy pic.twitter.com/FRIThaaAFs
— BGSU Football (@BG_Football) September 6, 2025

GAME NOTES

BGSU is now 4-1 all-time against Cincinnati.
BGSU held Cincinnati to 106 yards rushing after the Bearcats went off for 202 rushing yards at Nebraska.
BGSU score on three of its four possessions in the second half. • RB Cameron Pettaway and LB Justin Eklund made their first collegiate starts. • BGSU had a season high with an 18-play drive in the second quarter.
BGSU forced its first turnover a season and scored seven points off the turnover.
TE Jyrin Johnson finished with seven receptions, which extends his active streak to 35 games. He entered the game with the second-longest active streak in the nation.
RB Cameron Pettaway finished with a career-high 72 rushing yards.
QB Drew Pyne found Jyrin Johnson on a 31-yard touchdown in the third quarter. It was the 30th passing touchdown of Pyne's career, and first as a Falcon.
Pyne completed 29-of-36 passing for 274 yards. It was Pyne's seventh career game with 200+ yards. He also found nine-different receivers.
The 31-yard passing TD was his longest since connecting on a 52-yard score against USC in 2023 when he was at Arizona State.
LB Dorian Pringle tied his career high with 10 tackles.
CB MJ Cannon had a career-high 2.0 tackles for loss
RB Mar'Kel Porter caught his first collegiate pass for 22 yards in the second quarter.
He finished with two receptions for 31 yards
WR Reis Stocksdale had a career-high two receptions. • RB Kaderris Roberts had a career-high six receptions.

STAT LEADERS

Drew Pyne: 29-of-36, 274 passing yards, 1 touchdown
Jyrin Johnson: 7 receptions, 80 receiving yards, 1 touchdown
Cameron Pettaway: 13 carries, 72 rushing yards
Dorian Pringle: 10 tackles, 1 forced fumble
Gideon Lampron: 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss
MJ Cannon: 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM
"Of course you're disappointed with the loss, anytime you lose it's not a good feeling. You have to look at the positives, and that's what I told my team. They played hard, they never gave up. I never heard any finger pointing on the sidelines or any negative talk. It was always positive, even until the very end. That's a good sign.

"We left a lot of plays on the football field and there's a lot of areas where we can grow. We have to stay committed to that. I think that's the part I'm excited about. You look at these losses as learning experiences, and we're going to learn. We don't lose, we learn. Now, we have to really take that to heart and grow.

"This is an awesome opportunity for us to grow and get better from learning from our mistakes. We look at a couple plays here or there and it's a different ball game. We never felt the game had gotten out of hand or could have gotten out of hand. I was curious how we were going to respond to adversity, and it showed a lot of things.

"I felt like Drew played well enough for us to win. Our defense gave up some big plays and gave us some things we can correct. Given this unit is relatively young on the back end, this is a learning experience against a really good football team on the road. Now we have to learn and grow from it. Without having looked at the tape, those are my feelings about that.

"My hat really goes off to Cincinnati's head coaches. They played Nebraska tough last week and had seven straight losses coming into the year. We knew they were going to come out and play with an edge, and we had to match that. Our guys never blink in the eye of the storm. That's the one part I'm really proud of but we have to get better. We have to commit to getting better this week."

UP NEXT

Bowling Green returns home to Doyt Perry Stadium on Sept. 13 for Homecoming. The Falcons will host Liberty in a 5 p.m. kick.

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