It was even early. The teams traded touchdowns for a 7-7 first quarter, and Kent matched Bowling Green's 7 points in the second. The Falcons got 3 more before the break and went in up 17-14. The Kent offense the preview was worried about, the one that hits 1 big play and then punts all night, actually kept drives going for a half. That was more than it did in the 2, 7 and 10-point games that filled out its October.
The third quarter decided it. Bowling Green won it 10-0 and led 27-14 going into the 4th. Kent State had been shut out in a third quarter before. At Sacramento State the Hornets scored 25 straight in the second half, and this looked like the same script. The Flashes did not let it happen again, which says something about a team that has lost 4 of its last 5.
Kent State scored 14 in the 4th and got it to a 1-score game. Bowling Green answered with 6 points of its own, and that was the difference. Every time the Flashes scored, the Falcons got some points back, and Kent never had the ball with a chance to take the lead. Kent's 28 points were its most since the 35-20 home win over Akron. The comeback pulled the Flashes inside the closing number, but they lost by 5. Kent State is 1-4 in its last 5 and has lost 2 straight.
The preview's headliners stay an open question for this recap. The box-score search turned up the line score but no individual stat lines. Wayne Harris, the 92-yard threat who carried the Kent passing game into this one, gets no number here. Neither do the Bowling Green skill players listed as game-day concerns, WR Trey Johnson and RB T. Blackmon. The scoring still says something about both rosters. Kent was supposed to be playing without its regular kicker and still scored 4 times. Bowling Green was supposed to be thin at receiver and running back and still scored in every quarter.
For Bowling Green, the result fits the common-opponent case the preview made: the Falcons beat Sacramento State by 28 and lost to Western Michigan by 13, both better than Kent did. A 1-point loss to Ball State and a 7-point loss at Buffalo had shown they could stay in close games. This time they won one. It was 53 and clear at kickoff and 43 by the end, so the weather had nothing to do with the result. These were 2 offenses having their best night in weeks on the same field.
