It was a very windy day in Bowling Green and it was a wind that changed direction periodically. But the general direction of the wind was to one end of the field and that favored Western Michigan in the first half, a favorable wind they did not take advantage of.
In fact early on Bowling Green countered on WMU's kicking and after one such counter the Falcons saw that their scrum was able to shove the Western Michigan pack back. That resulted in a penalty in front of the posts from Joey Apel?and three points.?
A strong break from No. 8 Phil Tracey had Bowling Green on the front foot and some good interplay within the backs saw a nifty offload from Nico Labianca to fullback Beau Abbott, and he was over. This was a good start for a Bowling Green team playing without flyhalf Brian Arnold, who had suffered a broken hand and will be out for some weeks. Joey Apel stepped into the #10 jersey and acquitted himself well.
Western Michigan righted the ship a bit after that. they applied pressure and pinned Bowling Green into their 22, ultimately earning a penalty that scrumhalf Pat Collevy?curled over.
The Broncos still had some work to do but Bowling Green's defense held them in check much of the first half. Collevy missed a long-range penalty kick, but after that WMU got on the front foot. A good run from flanker Nolan Van Loo?set them up close to the lines and, ultimately, prop Ivan Delgado squirmed his way over. ?? slotted the conversion and the teams were level 10-10.
WMU then went ahead when a Bowling Green pass missed its target and the ball was booted ahead by right wing Gabe Spees. He chased after it, toed it ahead once more, and fell on it in a well-taken try to make it 15-10.
It was the kicking, mostly via Abbott, that had the Broncos backpedaling in the second half, and one such kick forced a scrum from which the Falcons attacked. The forwards got it close and scrumhalf Griffin Wilson finished it off. Apel converted and Bowling Green now had a slim 17-15 lead.
Both teams had some chances after that but the final execution wasn't quite there. But a 50-22 from Abbott got Bowling Green on the doorstep again, and while Western was able to clear, they weren't really off the hook and eventually Bowling Green was threatening the line once more. When Van Loo was yellow carded for not retreating 10 on a free kick, the Broncos were really in trouble, and the dominant Bowling Green scrum came to the fore, providing an eight-man shove that gave No. 8 Tracey the easiest of touch-downs.
Up 22-15 Bowling Green was still only a converted try in front, but they played a smart territorial game. A long kick from Abbott forced WMU to tap the ball back into their in-goal, where the ball eventually rolled dead. That produced a scrum five meters out and this time, after the shove was on, Tracey popped off the back and was over, making the score 27-15.
BG now sits atop the Mid American Conference, tied with Louisville with an 8-0 record. The Falcons travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State at 1:00pm on Saturday.
