TOLEDO – Rivalry games bring energy and passion to sports, and Saturday’s Battle of I-75 certainly met that expectation.
Saturday marked the 90th match-up between the Bowling Green Falcons and Toledo Rockets, and it was Bowling Green State University’s first sold out game of the season. For historical context, the very first meeting between these two teams was in October of 1919; on Saturday, BGSU tied the record at 43-43-4.
While the final score portrays a shoot-out, this was not the case. The Rockets marched right down to Bowling Green’s end zone in approximately four minutes. Toledo Rockets’ senior running back Chip Trayanum started up the scoring on a 14-yard rush early in the game. After a long Falcon drive, Toledo prevailed on the defensive end to take back possession of the ball. Late in the first quarter, Rockets senior quarterback Tucker Gleason took matters into his own hands for a 12-yard rushing touchdown. At that point, the Rockets were dominating.
A quarter of the way through the game, Toledo was leading the Falcons 14 to 0, but they weren’t finished yet. Gleason took his offense down to the red zone and completed a pass to Jacob Petersen for a 17-yard reception and touchdown.
Before the athletes headed to their respective locker rooms, conversations were buzzing about leaving early, the Falcons feeling despair. With 13 seconds remaining in the half, Head Coach Eddie George’s offense called for the screen pass. Sophomore quarterback Lucian Anderson III threw the ball to Redshirt freshman Cameron Pettaway, who turned the short pass into a 45-yard touchdown, breathing a little bit of life back into the quiet Doyt Perry Stadium. The Falcons had found some momentum, a renewed hope for a win.
The third quarter was entirely silent for the Toledo Rockets, while the Falcon’s Anderson completed a second touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Jacob Harris to cut down on the deficit and create a 21-13 score. Junior Jackson Kleather added on the extra point to make the score 21-14 heading into the final quarter.
Tension was building for the Toledo defense, while Bowling Green kept rolling, opting to pull off some trickery for their third touchdown. Anderson took the snap, pitched it back to RJ Garcia II, who threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Pettaway. An extra point attempt was again made by Kleather and Eddie George’s Falcons tied it up at home.
Not even a full minute later, the junior running back Chris McMillian punched the ball in for a one-yard rushing touchdown to give the Falcons their first lead of the night, with 6:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.
In these last six minutes, Bowling Green held the Rockets away from the end zone. This last stand was led by junior cornerback MJ Cannon who intercepted the ball of a Toledo receivers back after a dropped pass. Now on offense, with under 10 seconds left, Falcon quarterback Anderson took the snap, booking it toward the Rockets’ endzone. This decision took 23 rushing yards away from his game and added a safety to Toledo’s score, but sealed the win for the Bowling Green Falcons, who got to keep the trophy of I-75 for a second year in a row. The final score of Saturday’s game was 28-23.
As a result of this stunning win at home, the stands emptied as family, friends and fans rushed to the 50-yard line to celebrate with the Falcons.
