From staff and wire reports
BLACKSBURG, Va. —Not much went right for Bowling Green Saturday afternoon as Virginia
Tech blanked the Falcons, 37-0.
It was a bounce-back game for both teams after losses the previous Saturday — BG
27-15 to Toledo and Virginia Tech 35-17 to Pittsburgh.
The Hokies made the most of their opportunity as the Falcons (1-3 overall) did not
fare well in all aspects of the game.
“We didn’t play well. At times our defense made stops. We couldn’t sustain anything
on offense. Obviously when you get shut out it’s not a good day,” BG head coach
Dave Clawson said. “We’re not where we need to be, and we’re not where we want
to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”
“We just talked about playing better, getting back to playing the way Virginia Tech
plays, flying around to the football and playing with intelligent recklessness,”
Hokies’ head coach Frank Beamer said.
Offensively the Falcons managed just 266 total yards as Matt Schilz and Matt Johnson
both saw time at quarterback.
“What struggle didn’t we have? We didn’t play well across the board,’’ Clawson said.
“We don’t have receivers that are getting open; we’re not throwing the ball
accurately … We had one-on-one matchups we didn’t win. We tried to throw the
ball short and they covered us. We tried to go behind them and they covered us.
I can’t remember a receiver making a play today.
“They beat us up-front, they covered us in the secondary. We didn’t play well at
quarterback.”
Schilz, who has now started 26 games for the Falcons, was replaced after he threw an
interception in the third quarter. He was 9-of-25 passing for 87 yards.
When asked to rate the performance by Schilz, Clawson said: “When you don’t score
points and you lose the game your quarterback didn’t play well enough to win.”

It was the second collegiate game action for Johnson, who was 5-of-17 for 46 yards.
With Johnson at quarterback, the Falcons failed to convert fourth-down plays
from the Hokies’ 15-, 28- and 18-yard lines.
“We wanted to give him a chance and let him play and see if he could give us a little
spark,” Clawson said about Johnson.
BG had two scoring chances in the first half, but Schilz overthrew a wide open Je’Ron
Stokes in the end zone and Stephen Stein missed a 43-yard field goal, the ball
hitting the into the right upright. It was the Falcons’ fourth miss in five
field goal tries this year.
“Missing that one pass to Stokes in the back of the end zone was painful,” Clawson
said. “You scheme something, you get that open and works it exactly the way you
want and you throw it with the wind a second late. Instead of a touchdown it’s
an incomplete pass.”
The Falcons were 4-of-16 on third-down conversions and 0-of-3 on fourth-down
conversions.
“We have got to be able to finish drives,” said Alex Bayer, BG’s starting tight end.
“We get in the red zone and we get stuck. That is something that we’re going to
have to focus on this week.
“They are a good defense and we knew that coming in,” Bayer continued. “They
out-worked us today. It was frustrating for us.”
Quarterback Logan Thomas helped Virginia Tech find its running game as the Hokies
finished with 396 total yards, including 246 yards on the ground. Virginia Tech
had only 96 yards rushing in the loss to PItt.
Thomas had key runs on three consecutive drives in the second quarter. Each ended
with a touchdown as the Hokies (3-1) built a 21-0 lead.
“We had some success in the first quarter and the game rolled on and they scored on
us and just kept scoring,” said BG linebacker Paul Swan. “Frustration set in;
guys have just got to keep believing and know we can do it.’’
In the second half, Virginia scored two TDs on short runs around a 35-yard field
goals.
Thomas finished with 144 yards passing (11-of-26) and 65 yards rushing on 15 carries.

“He’s a big, strong, powerful guy,” Clawson said about Thomas. “He’s bigger than just
about anybody on our defense. When he got going downhill, we had a hard time
tackling him; he’s an over-powering guy.”
VIRGINIA TECH 37, BOWLING GREEN 0
Bowling Green 0 0 0 0 — 0
Virginia Tech 0 21 6 10 — 37
Second Quarter
VT—Coleman 10 pass from Thomas (Journell kick), 9:25.
VT—Roberts 42 pass from Thomas (Journell kick), 6:42.
VT—Thomas 1 run (Journell kick), 1:10.
Third Quarter
VT—Holmes 2 run (kick failed), 8:58.
Fourth Quarter
VT—FG Journell 35, 13:30.
VT—Scales 4 run (Journell kick), 9:22.
A—65,632.
BG VT
First downs 12 22
Rushes-yards 26-133 43-246
Passing 133 150
Comp-Att-Int 14-42-1 12-29-1
Return Yards 0 45
Punts-Avg. 8-43.1 6-39.2
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-Yards 9-74 9-60
Time of Possession 27:53 32:07
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Bowling Green, Givens 2-55, Samuel 9-32, J.Martin 6-31, M.Johnson 5-12,
Pettigrew 1-5, Schilz 3-(minus 2). Virginia Tech, Gregory 11-68, Thomas 15-65,
Holmes 4-51, Coleman 4-45, Scales 3-15, Leal 2-5, Dyer 1-1, Team 3-(minus 4).

PASSING—Bowling Green, Schilz 9-25-1-87, M.Johnson 5-17-0-46. Virginia Tech, Thomas
11-26-1-144, Leal 1-3-0-6.
RECEIVING—Bowling Green, Jackson 3-32, Samuel 2-31, Burbrink 2-13, Gallon 2-12,
Joplin 1-18, J.Martin 1-16, Bayer 1-8, Beck 1-3, J.Stokes 1-0. Virginia Tech,
Roberts 3-63, M.Davis 2-29, Gregory 2-20, C.Fuller 1-14, Coleman 1-10, Reeves
1-6, Dunn 1-5, Beiro 1-3.