TOLEDO, OH ? In the final game of Tom Amstutz's career as head coach, the Toledo Rockets would have liked nothing better than to win one final game for their leader, especially against arch-rival Bowling Green.
Unfortunately, the Falcons had other ideas, defeating Toledo, 38-10, in the season finale for both teams at the Glass Bowl on Friday.
Bowling Green (6-6, 4-4 MAC) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the opening minutes and never let Toledo (3-9, 2-6 MAC) back into the game. The Rockets trailed at the half, 17-0, gaining only one first down and compiling -1 yards in total offense in the opening 30 minutes.
Things didn't get much better in the second half. Junior Alex Steigerwald hit a 24-yard field goal to pull Toledo to within two touchdowns, 17-3, with 10:31 to play in the third quarter. But Bowling Green countered with a pair of TDs to put the game away and claim the “Peace Pipe,” the series trophy given to the winner of the contest in a series dating back to 1919. It was the Rockets' worst defeat in the series in the at home since a 38-0 loss in 1981.
Junior QB Aaron Opelt finished 7-of-20 passing for 67 yards. The Rockets were led on the ground by redshirt freshman Morgan Williams' 153 yards, just a week after he broke the school record with 330 yards rushing in a 42-14 win over Miami.
Bowling Green opened the game with a quick five-play drive, capped by a 17-yard TD pass from Tyler Sheehan to Tyrone Pronty, to go up, 7-0. On Toledo's first play from scrimmage, Opelt fumbled after a sack by Joe Schaefer, the ball was scooped by Diyral Biggs and returned 33 yards to the UT five-yard line. Andrew Beam ran it in on the next play to put BG up, 14-0. The Falcons added a second quarter field goal to go up 17-0 at the half.
After Steigerwald's third-quarter field goal, the Falcons came back with a fury in the third quarter, first on a 33-yard TD pass from Sheehan to Jermiah Kelley, then a 70-yard run by Willie Geter. In the fourth quarter, BG struck again with a six-yard TD pass from Sheehan to Corey Partridge with 11:32 to play in the fourth.
The loss was the final game for Toledo head coach Tom Amstutz, who finished his eight-year career with a 58-41 record, 4-4 against Bowling Green. Amstutz announced his resignation on Nov. 2.
After the game, Amstutz walked out to midfield and placed his shoes and whistle at midfield, a symbolic gesture to indicate he was finished as the Rockets' head coach.
“In sports that's a thing you do when you're ready to hang it up," he explained later. "So I hung them up. That's a symbol that you've done everything you can do.”
