It was a historic night for the Eagles as the True Blue faithful packed the stands and got the show of a lifetime as their Eagles took home the GoDaddy Bowl victory over Bowling Green in a 58-27 contest that broke the previous scoring record in the game’s history.

Bowling Green started the game with an aggressive attack, splitting out five wide receivers and using a no-huddle offense. After picking up a quick first down, they were forced to punt after a would-be first down completion was ruled out of bounds.

The first Eagle drive shocked the Falcons as they went on the run and didn’t look back. Ellison opened the drive with a big 12 yard run and continued to work down the field. Ellison completed a pass to Fields for 17 yards that set up the Eagles for a 1 yard touchdown dive from L.A Ramsby for the first score of the night.

Facing a fourth down and one yard on their ensuing drive, Bowling Green lined up to go for the conversion. On what seemed like a broken play, BGSU’s QB rolled right and found his receiver for a 45 yard touchdown. The Falcons attempted to tie up the game with the PAT but it was blocked and returned by Matt Dobson for a two-point conversion for the Eagles. With 7:29 remaining the Eagles remained in the lead, 9-6.

Both teams went to trading possessions. The Eagles were given excellent field position at the Falcon 42 yard line but failed to get things going. Bowling Green had a drive start from their own four yard line which also ended in a punt. The Falcons figured things out on their next possession as they quickly ran a 7 play 75 yard drive for their second score of the night.

After failing to convert on third down, the Eagles were forced to punt from their own side of the field. Bowling Green took advantage of the field position at midfield scored on the first play of the drive with a 51 yard touchdown pass. The Falcons went ahead by two scores with just under twelve minutes remaining in the first half.

The ensuing Eagle possession put life back into their offense as Matt Breida ripped off a 32 yard run to get his team into opposing territory. A fourth down and short nearly ended the drive, but a conversion followed by Wesley Fields dashing 27 yards for the second score of the night. The Eagles cut it to a one score lead, 20-16. The defense responded by forcing a three and out on the next Falcon possession to give control back to Georgia Southern. What happened next was an 11 play, 92 yard drive that ended with Ellison slinging a 31 yard pass on fourth to Montay Crockett for a touchdown and his first catch of the year. Eagles took back the lead 23-20 with just over a minute to play in the half.

It seemed like the Eagles would enter the half with the lead, but the Falcons weren’t done yet. They began their drive with a 52 yard run to set them up for a short surge into the endzone to regain the lead with 0:36 remaining. Georgia Southern let the clock run out after a short run from Breida and one of the best first halves we’ve seen this bowl season.

The second half opened with an extremely productive drive from the Eagles led by Favian Upshaw. The Eagles worked their way down the field with the quick running of Upshaw and ended with an excellent 18 yard run from Fields followed by a three yard touchdown run from Upshaw. Bowling Green responded by working down the field but failing a fourth down attempt to give the Eagles the ball once again.

Upshaw showed off his wheels on the first play of the ensuing possession with an 80 yard run as he scampered past defenders straight up the middle to extend the lead to 37-27. With the momentum in the Eagles favor, they forced a fumble on the next Bowling Green drive to give themselves possession inside the red zone to start the drive. Breida ended the drive in the endzone with a one yard touchdown run to go up 44-27 with 1:51 in the third quarter.

Things went from bad to worse for the Falcons as they fumbled again on their next drive and gave the Eagles possession at the ten yard line. That drive would end with an 8 yard run from Favian Upshaw for his second score of the night. Both teams traded possessions as the time continued to tick off of the clock in the fourth quarter.

With the lead and plenty of clock, the Eagles began chipping away with run after run up the middle. They continued to grind down the field until Favian Upshaw broke again up the right sideline on a 42 yard run to score again. This gave the Eagles a 58-27 lead over the Falcons with 5:25 remaining. A failed fourth down attempt from Bowling Green gave the Eagles the ball again in their territory.

Upshaw led the offense with Chaz Thornton in the backfield but they elected to kneel down to kill the clock. This would mark the final drive of the game and the Eagles would take home their first bowl win in their first post season appearance in the FBS. The win gave the Sun Belt a 2-2 bowl game record, with its newest two teams (Georgia Southern and Appalachian State) supplying the two wins.