By Bryce Hudik

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

Bowling Green senior running backs Jackson Shafer and Ja’ceous Shannon combined for four scores Friday night, helping the Bobcats surpass Fostoria, 49-6, at Bobcat Stadium

Bowling Green’s offense was a well-oiled machine, putting up 362 yards of total offense with six touchdowns behind a dominant offensive line. The BG offense averaged 9.2 yards per play and 252 yards of that total offense came on the ground.

“I love my hogs up front,” said Shannon. “I might get the glory for scoring the touchdowns, but I can’t do it without them. I really appreciate those guys.”

While the Bobcats offense was firing on all cylinders, it was slow treading early on. Their first score didn’t come until the very end of the first quarter when Brogan Pasley punched it in for six with 16 seconds left in the opening quarter, capping off a long drive.

At the beginning of the second quarter, a driving Fostoria offense was halted by a fumble, recovered by linebacker Bronson Shobinger. The Bobcat’s offense cashed in on the turnover when Shannon broke loose for a 46-yard touchdown run.

On Fostoria’s ensuing drive, they looked to have life. Quarterback Trenten Smith channeled his inner Johnny Manziel when he scrambled for a 43-yard touchdown, hitting the defense with a few nice moves en route to the end zone. A missed conversion attempt brought the Redmen to within a touchdown, 13-6, with 8:13 left.

“One thing that’s hurting us right now is that we are really young and don’t have the depth that other programs have,” said Fostoria coach Derek Angelone. “Trenten Smith has to be our most important player on offense, we don’t want to look for him to play defense but again you run into the depth issue.”

Cramping was a problem all night for the Redmen as many of their players had to play both sides of the ball. Early on it looked like they would be able to compete but as the game wore on the deeper Bowling Green team squad won the war on attrition.

The Bobcats never looked back after the sole Redmen touchdown. Firing off two more touchdowns to end the first half. BG quarterback Jamison Horst found Shafer for a 22-yard touchdown at 5:10. Then on the following Bowling Green drive Shannon took a sweep into the end zone with two minutes to play, sending the Bobcats into halftime with a commanding 26-6 lead.

“We played physical tonight and that’s what we didn’t do last week. That was our big focus, to come out, push people around, run the ball, and control the line of scrimmage,” said Bowling Green first-year coach Shawn Kiss.

Much of the same physical ball from the Bobcats ensued in the second half. On the very first BG offensive play, Shafer went rumbling and bumbling through a slew of Redmen for a 67-yard touchdown run.

Fostoria turned it over on downs on their following drive giving the Bobcats great field position. A long Shannon run set up a Horst rushing touchdown.

An interception by Bowling Green defensive back Carter Earl sealed the already done deal. Freshman and backup quarterback Grant Gillispie threw a 25-yard dot to Colby Joseph for the Bobcats final touchdown of the night.

But their final points came in the form of a 31-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Alayna Mahan. Her kick from downtown sent the crowd into a frenzy and capped off a great night for the Bowling Green football team.

Bowling Green improves to 1-1 on the year and will face Anthony Wayne in a home game next Friday. As for Fostoria, they fall to 0-2 and will look to notch their first win next Friday when they will take on Toledo Woodward in a home bout.