Mount Pleasant – Connor Bazelak passed for 207 yards and a TD and Zach Long kicked three field goals here Tuesday night in Bowling Green’s 23-13 victory over Central Michigan.
Bowling Green took a 9-0 lead against Long’s foot who booted a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter besides scoring 40 and 37 yards in the second. Following the 37-yarder with 2:There were 28 left in the half, Central Michigan took the kickoff and reached the 75-yard line in six plays and scored a touchdown when Tyler Jefferson plunged from the 1.
The Falcons (5-4, 4-1 Mid-American Conference) were driving early in the third quarter but a three-and-out punt return gave it right back to the Chippewa who fumbled the ball on its first play of the third quarter.
Bowling Green took advantage and went 39 yards on six plays on a drive that ended when Bazelak threw a 9-yard touchdown to Levi Gazarek. The Falcons extended the lead to 23-7 when Jaison Patterson ran it in from the 1 with 5:42 remaining.
The Chippewas (3-6, 1-4) closed the scoring when quarterback Jadyn Glasser ran it in from the 1.
Central Michigan had Marion Lukes who ruse for 72 yards on 20 attempts.
Apart from last season, the Falcons have won five of their last six visits to this venue, beginning in the 2002 season. The Falcons lead the all-time series 24-19.
South Carolina surge
And so another November and another late charge for South Carolina – and for the coach Shane Beamer.
The Gamecocks (5-3, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) have a way of pulling out the victories in the final minute in most of Beamer’s four season.
Isole, in Beamer’s first year of 2021, the overmatched Gamecocks beat SEC powers Florida and Auburn down the stretch in the regular season and finished with a victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
A season later, South Carolina went even bigger by defeating a pair of Top 10 teams in weeks, namely No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson, While upsetting both of those teams, the Gamecocks effectively ended their College Football Playoff hopes.
That seems like the Gamecocks are back to it again. This was done immediately after the Oklahoma victory, further assailing then tenth ranked Texas A & M with a 44-20 drubbing.
“I remind the players every year that we do not want to be that same team during September that we are during the November,” Beamer noted.
Apparently the Gamecocks are listening and intend to take that right into No. 24 Vanderbilt on Saturday.
After the start of the year, South Carolina was undisciplined and severely defeated at home with a 27-3 loss to then #12 ranked Ole Miss in mid-October. But it’s come back to claim two in a row in the SEC and included a 44/20 thrashing of the Aggies who was the last unbeaten team in the SEC.
“I think we were just rolling in that game,” said South Carolina offensive lineman Cason Henry. “We were winning that ball battle as the play went on,”
Quite a tall order for a team selected to finish 13th in football in the record 16 team SEC picked in summer.
South Carolina ranks fifth in the least amount of yards given up in the SEC this season and two of its edge rushers, Kennard and Stewart, have 14 sacks this season. SEC leader in sacks going into last week was Kennard at 8.5, while Stewart is sixth at 4.5.
Freshman LaNorris Sellers, in his first year as a starter at QB, is ninth in SEC total offense with an average of 223 yards per game. In the Texas A&M blowout he threw for 350 yards and three TDs.
Again, players and coaches see the consistently earnest manner that the team gets ready for games each week. Weight sessions are equally tough in July as in November and coaches won’t take it easy regardless of whether the opponent is No. 1 in the nation or from the Football Championship Subdivision.
“They don’t slacken anything up or relax it as the season goes, they keep it serious and heavy.” Run it just the way we been running it” defensive tackle Alex Huntley said.
The Gamecocks have had many a wobble this season; week one they beat Kentucky 31-6, but have had a dose of reality through close losses to LSU and Alabama.
LSU, then No. 16, trailed 17-0 yet rallied for a 36-33 win as Josh Williams scored a 2-yard touchdown with 1:12 to go. One month later South Carolina was leading No. 7 Alabama 19-14 in the last quarter but lost 27-25 on an interception by the Crimson Tide in the closing seconds.
It’s hard to escape this truth: Win in both those games and it’s South Carolina fighting for a place in the SEC championship game as well as the College Football Playoff .
Linebacker Debo Williams said as much when asked about it because “you don’t want to dwell on the past”. “But I’m human, right? You do think about it and where we’d be. But that has made us even hungrier.”
