Redshirt-freshman Robert Council got his first career start at quarterback.
Boxscore
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO – In the end, the Bowling Green State (FBS member) did exactly what they were supposed to do against a lower-division FCS team.
A dominating 58-13 victory over Morgan State (0-2) extended the Falcons' record to 2-0, yet the Bears may have come out of the game with a new starting quarterback in Robert Council.
Council, a redshirt-freshman who received the first start of his career, completed 4-of-19 passes for 32 yards and gained 51 yards on the ground. Council's single glaring mistake was when he had his pass intercepted by Jerry "Boo Boo" Gates on the third play of MSU's second drive and returned it to the Bears' 12. Two plays later, Schilz threw to Kamar Jorden for a ten-yard touchdown, Kyle Burkhart notched the extra point for a 14-0 lead.
A week after giving up over 500 total yards to Towson, the Falcons' hung 572 yards on the Bears defense, 268 on the ground. Anthon Samuel had 122 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Jordan Hopgood also had a touchdown among his 12 carries for 90 yards. Redshirt freshman Jamel Martin saw his first career action and scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Schilz finished 16-for-23 for 258 yards with 5 touchdowns and one interception in just over 2 quarters of work. He threw 4 of his 5 touchdowns in the first quarter.
Eugene “Binky” Cooper emerged as a serious threat for the Falcons. Cooper finished the game with 6 catches for 134 yards and was on the receiving end Schilz's touchdown passes.
MSU backup running back Travis Davidson scored on a broken play when he mishandled a hand-off, picked it up and raced 61-yards for a touchdown. Abraham Mercado hit the extra point to trim Bowling Green's lead to 14-7. From that point forward, the Falcons' outscored the Bears 21-3 and held a commanding 35-10 lead at the intermission.
Bowling Green scored 14 in the third and nine in the fourth quarter, while Morgan State just managed a Mercado field goal.
“The things we set out to do, we didn't win,” said MSU coach Donald Hill-Eley, “but one of things that I saw is that the guys didn't quit.”
“There's a lot of good things that we'll definitely take from the game. Our offense did a good job with scheme and moving the ball and was able to get some scores. Our defense did a good job with making some of those corrections that we needed to make in the Towson game. But overall, I thought that the kids really played well and that these two losses should really propel us through the conference.”
“I thought he [Council] played real good. He's definitely our starter. He did a good job and we pulled him in the second half just to see what kind of depth we really have with the other two guys. But again, I thought he did a really good job with moving the offense; we just have to do a better job with making the plays. There were too many dropped balls today.”
The Bears will attempt to get in the win column when they host non-conference opponent Robert Morris in the home-opener next Saturday (Sept. 17). Game time at Hughes Stadium is 1 p.m.
