Darcy Fenwick here, former club goalie, current Falcons fanatic, and the only person in Wood County who grades pass defense by save percentage. If you're new: every pass the other team completes is a shot on goal. Every incompletion is a save. Every interception is a glove save. And an interception returned for a touchdown is what I call a shorty. Lace 'em up.
Part 1: The Overtime Loss That Hurt Like a Puck Off the Shin
Ball State beat Bowling Green 32-31 in overtime on Saturday at Doyt L. Perry Stadium, in front of 19,875 people. We're 2-5 and 2-1 in the MAC. That's going to sting for a while.
The first period... I mean quarter... was quiet. Ball State hit a field goal and then scored on an 8-yard run to go up 10-0. Then Jay Kastantin hit Brennan Ridley for a 77-yard touchdown, just 17 seconds later. That's a breakaway goal. Travis Kenner tied it at 10 on a 49-yard field goal before halftime.
Ball State went up 17-10 in the third quarter. Then came the wildest two minutes of the season. With 1:12 left, Kastantin finished an 80-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Eli Jacon-Duffy. 17-17. And on the very next play from scrimmage, Keldric Luster scrambled, the ball came loose, and D'kyah Banks scooped it and went 35 yards for a touchdown. 24-17, Falcons, with 1:01 left. That's a short-handed goal in a playoff game, friends.
Then Ball State drove 78 yards in seven plays, and AP says the Cardinals scored on a snap with five seconds left, on a pass to a wide-open Eli Hohlt in the right side of the end zone. We had six defensive backs out there, per AP. That's six skaters back, and the puck still found the net. In overtime, Austyn Dendy scored from 4 yards out to put us up again, but Ball State answered and went for two, and the try was good. 32-31.
Here's the honest scoresheet. Kastantin went 17 of 24 for 215 yards and two touchdowns, a 70.8% completion rate. Ridley had two catches for 84. Dorian Pringle made 10 tackles, and Will Yates picked off Kastantin for Ball State. Ball State ran for 240 yards on us, and Luster ran for 125 by himself. Our run defense has to tighten up its gap control. That's not a goalie problem. That's a defensemen problem.
But we're 2-1 in the MAC, after beating Miami (Ohio) 24-20 on the road and Sac State 38-10 at home. We're right in the middle of the MAC race. In hockey terms, we're still in playoff position.
And I want to give some love to the special teams. Ryan Kingston punted four times and put three inside the 20. In hockey, that's a penalty kill that keeps the other team pinned in its own zone. Kenner hit his 49-yarder and all four extra points. Nakai Amachree and Leo Kemp gave us decent field position on returns. Those things don't show up in the highlight package, but a goalie notices. You win a lot of games in this league by flipping the ice.
Part 2: Road Trip to Amherst
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN+, Bowling Green visits Buffalo at Broadview Stadium.
Let me tip my mask to the Bulls. Buffalo is 4-3 and 2-1 in the league, and it's won two straight. It beat UMass 25-18 in overtime on Saturday, and it won 23-8 at Toledo the week before. Messiah Burch ran for a career-high 172 yards against UMass and has 661 for the season. Chance Morrow has 37 catches and six touchdowns. SaVeon Brown has 59 tackles. That's a solid team.
Now let's check Buffalo's shooting percentage. All numbers from AP's preview.
Buffalo's passing offense is 128th in FBS, at 159 yards a game. Jason Wright completes 48.2% of his passes. Against UMass, he went 16 of 35. If those are shots on goal, that's a .543 save percentage for the UMass secondary, and that's without a great goalie. Now Buffalo faces a BG pass defense that AP ranks 28th in FBS, at 178 yards allowed a game. And on third down, our defense ranks 23rd, holding opponents to 32%. Save percentage says no.
And Buffalo's offense overall ranks 120th in yards and 111th in scoring. Its turnover margin of minus-4 ranks 113th. That's a team that gives the puck away.
The Bulls do run the ball well, 58th in FBS. So the game plan is simple: stop Burch, and make Buffalo throw. Myles Bradley has seven sacks this year. Seven! That's a hat trick, plus four.
And here's what I like most. According to CollegeFootballData.com, the last two times Bowling Green played at Buffalo, BG won both: 56-44 in 2021 and 24-14 in 2023. The Bulls won the last meeting, 28-3, in Bowling Green last season, and I'll admit that one was a blowout. But on the road in Western New York, the Falcons have been sharp.
Also, I couldn't help noticing that ESPN listed Buffalo's attendance on Saturday at 6,037, in a stadium that Wikipedia says holds about 25,000. That's more empty seats than a 7 a.m. practice at the rink. I'll bring a few friends.
Tales From Two Towns
Bowling Green. Bowling Green is home, a college town of 30,808 and the seat of Wood County. Wikipedia says it was settled in 1832 on land that was once the Great Black Swamp, which got drained in the 1800s. An oil boom around the turn of the 20th century built the big old homes you still see along Wooster Street. Every year, the first full weekend after Labor Day, we throw the Black Swamp Arts Festival, a free arts and live-music party downtown. And the Falcons have played at Doyt Perry Stadium since 1966, with 12 MAC championships and a 1959 UPI national championship to show for it, per Wikipedia. Twelve MAC titles. That's a dynasty. The program started in 1919 on a field behind the Ridge Street School, and Wikipedia says one of the players on that first roster, Ivan "Doc" Lake, later gave the Falcons their nickname. That's a guy who showed up to the first practice and named the franchise. Legend.
Buffalo. Buffalo is a big city on Lake Erie, and it's famous for wings, snow and the Bills. But here's the thing. The University at Buffalo doesn't play football in Buffalo. Wikipedia says Broadview Stadium is in Amherst, a town just north of the city, on UB's North Campus. The team moved there in 1985. So the Buffalo Bulls play in Amherst. That's like a hockey team named after one rink and playing at another one down the road.
And Wikipedia says the stadium was renamed Broadview Stadium in March 2026, after a credit union bought the naming rights. It was UB Stadium before that. So Buffalo's stadium has a new name, in a different town, for a team named after a city it doesn't play in. Bowling Green plays in Bowling Green. Simple as a wrist shot.
Darcy's Shift Change... Er, Game Plan
1. Stop the run. Burch is Buffalo's whole power play. 2. Pressure Wright. Bradley, go get him. 3. Finish the game. Sixty minutes, not 59.
Lace 'em up, Falcons.
My call: Buffalo Bulls 27, Bowling Green Falcons 20.