BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University football team rallied from a three-touchdown deficit on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 11), scoring 28 unanswered points en route to a 28-23 win over the University of Toledo. The latest "Battle of I-75" took place at a sold-out Doyt L. Perry Stadium.

Cameron Pettaway certainly made the most of his receptions for the Falcons (3-3, 1-1 MAC). Pettaway had two catches for a total of 118 yards and two touchdowns. His second score tied the game with 7:03 remaining in the fourth quarter, and BGSU then forced a turnover by Toledo (3-3, 1-2 MAC), taking over at the Rockets' one-yard line.

Chris McMillian scored on the following play, and less than one minute after Pettaway's score, the Falcons had a 28-21 lead.

The Rockets' final drive saw the visitors reach the BG 32-yard line, but MJ Cannon intercepted a Tucker Gleason pass with 1:06 left, and the Falcons ran out the clock. BG quarterback Lucian Anderson III took a safety on the final play of the game.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• The Rockets scored on the opening drive of the game, going 75 yards in six plays. Junior Vandeross III had three receptions for 61 yards on the drive, and Chip Trayanum carried the ball the final 14 yards for the score.
• After a BGSU punt, the Rockets' next drive began at the Falcons' 41-yard line. On a fourth-and-7 play from the BG 27, UT quarterback Tucker Gleason was hurried and fired a pass to Eric Holley III, but Holley was tackled a yard short of the first-down marker by MJ Cannon and BGSU took over on downs.
• But, the visitors added to the lead on their next drive, as Gleason capped a 67-yard drive with a 12-yard run. The point-after touchdown gave the Rockets a 14-0 lead with 3:39 left in the opening quarter.
• The Falcons' first drive of the second quarter saw Lucian Anderson III pick up a first down with a third-down run, before the BG QB found Jyrin Johnson for a 16-yard gain to the UT 38. The drive was stopped, but John Henderson's punt was downed at the Rockets' 4-yard line.
• UT proceeded to go on a long, but ultimately unsuccessful, drive. Three Trayanum runs got the Rockets near midfield before Gleason found Kenji Christian down the right side of the field for 42 yards.
• The Rockets had a first-and-goal situation at the 9-yard line, and three plays got UT to the 2. But, on fourth down, Gleason overthrew his would-be receiver and BG took over on downs. The 94-yard drive produced zero points.
• But, UT took over in Falcon territory after forcing a punt on the next possession, and Gleason's pass to Jacob Peterson (along with the PAT) gave the visitors a 21-0 lead with 1:29 to go before halftime.
• The Falcons struck late in the first half. BGSU went 70 yards in six plays, with a catch-and-run by Cameron Pettaway covering the final 45. Pettaway took a short Anderson pass down the middle, raced downfield and bounced off of a host of hopeful Rocket tacklers over the final 15 yards to find the end zone with just 13 seconds left before halftime. Jackson Kleather's kick cut the Rockets' lead to 21-7.
• The first four drives of the third quarter ended in punts. After the fourth drive in that time, UT's Emilio Duran's kick went just 15 yards, and went out of bounds at the BG 49-yard line.
• The Falcons' next drive saw BG pick up a first down when a UT defender purposely committed pass interference to prevent RJ Garcia II from catching a long Anderson pass down the middle of the field. Then, on a third-and-12 play, Anderson rushed left for 14 yards and a first down.
• The next play saw the Falcon QB find Kaderris Roberts for 15 yards to the UT 8-yard line, and on the play after that, Anderson hit Jacob Harris in the front corner of the end zone. Kleather's PAT cut the Rockets' lead to 21-14.
• On the next drive, which extended into the fourth quarter, UT picked up a third-down conversion over midfield, but David Afogho sacked Gleason for a loss of eight on the next play, thwarting that drive, and Duran's punt went into the end zone with 13:05 to go.
• On the next play, a long pass was intercepted by UT's Braden Awls at the Rockets' 30-yard line. Toledo's next drive, however, saw the Rockets lose a yard, and BG got the ball back at the Falcons' 43-yard line via another punt.
• Again, the Falcons were forced to punt, but again, BG held UT to a three-and-out as well, with Isaiah Thomison stopping Trayanum short of the marker on a third-and-short play.
• And, the Falcons struck with 7:03 to go. Garcia took a pitch from Anderson, stopped and threw a pass to Pettaway on the left sideline. Pettaway caught the ball at the Toledo 40, broke a tackle and went all the way to the end zone. The 73-yard play, followed by Kleather's PAT, tied the game at 21-21.
• The ensuing kickoff saw a UT block-in-the-back penalty force the Rockets to start the drive at their own 4-yard line. And, on the second play of the drive, Myles Bradley sacked Gleason, who fumbled. The ball was recovered by Thomison at the 1-yard line, and one play later, Chris McMillian was in the end zone and the Falcons had the lead with 6:07 remaining.
• The BG defense forced another punt, and took over at the Falcons' 35 with 4;44 remaining. The first play saw Roberts go up the middle for 15 yards to midfield. BG forced to punt, and the Rockets took over at the UT 27 with 2:33 to go.
• The next drive saw UT advance to the BG 32, but Caden Marshall nearly picked off a Gleason pass after the Rocket QB was hurried by Bradley, then MJ Cannon came up with an interception on the next play, giving the Falcons the ball back with 1:06 to go. The Rockets held, using their remaining timeouts, and BG took a delay-of-game penalty after a third-down play, with six seconds remaining. On fourth down, Anderson ran into the end zone and out of the southwest corner, taking a safety as the clock ran out.

STAT LEADERS

• Lucian Anderson III: 2 passing touchdowns, 92 passing yards, 25 rushing yards
• RJ Garcia II: 1 passing touchdown, 73 passing yards, 2 receptions
• Cameron Pettaway: 2 receptions, 118 receiving yards, 2 receiving touchdowns
• Gideon Lampron: 13 tackles, 3.5 TFL
• MJ Cannon: 7 tackles, 1 interception, 1 QBH
• Kal-El Pascal: 6 tackles, 1 forced fumble
• Chris McMillian: 12 carries, 22 yards, 1 rushing touchdown
• Myles Bradley: 3 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 FF

GAME NOTES

• Saturday was the 300th all-time game at Doyt Perry Stadium.
• Eddie George is the 10th Bowling Green head coach to beat Toledo the first time he faced them. The previous nine also won their first game at the helm of the Falcons.
• Trailing 21-0, BGSU's win marks the first time the Falcons trailed in a game by 20+ points and came back to win. It is the first time they trailed by 15+ points and came back to win since beating Toledo in 1973 after trailing 18 points.
• BGSU beat Toledo in back-to-back years for the first time since winning three straight from 2007-09. BGSU has won three of the last four meetings in the series.
• BGSU's win at home was the first at Doyt Perry Stadium since 2019 (20-7).
• BGSU beat Toledo with less than 300 yards of total offense for the first time since recording 289 in the 2009 win (38-24).
• BGSU finished with two sacks, giving the Falcons at least one in 39 of the last 45 games.
• Bowling Green scored 28 points. The Falcons are 309-100-4 all-time when scoring at least 21 points. BGSU is 233-36 all-tie when scoring 28 points or more.
• BGSU's 28-23 win was a Scorigami. It is the 478th unique score in BGSU Football History.
• QB Lucian Anderson III and CB JoJo Johnson made their first collegiate starts.
• With three receptions, TE Jyrin Johnson extends his active streak with at least one catch to 39 games. He entered the weekend with the nation's second-longest streak.
• QB Lucian Anderson III had a career-high 92 passing yards and a career-high two passing touchdowns.
• RB Cameron Pettaway had a career-high 118 receiving yards and a career-high two touchdowns.
• RJ Garcia II threw a 73-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to Pettaway. It is Garcia's first career passing touchdown. He is the first non-quarterback to throw a touchdown pass for the Falcons since Jordan Hopgood (RB) tossed a 53-yard touchdown to Shaun Joplin against Eastern Michigan on Oct. 27, 2012.
• LB Gideon Lampron tied his career high with 13 tackles and set a new career standard with 3.5 tackles for loss.

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM
"I'm just really proud of our boys and how we handled adversity. We talk a lot about guts, ethos, having faith, built for the fourth quarter, you know? I grind those kids for moments like that. It wasn't pretty, it was not pretty at all in the beginning. You kind of think, are going, in front of a sell out home crowd, get boat raced here? But, we settled down, we continued to believe, we stayed positive on the sidelines and we had to overcome adversity. It's toughness through adversity and that's where I watched the team grow up today. I watched them evolve. I watched them come to life today. Because you have to be able to win games like that. Wasn't pretty offensively, defensively, you couldn't figure it out in the first couple of few quarters. But we settled down and continued to chop wood and carry water, and we were able to chip away at it and find a way to win."