DETROIT — Bowling Green State University drove 75 yards in three plays on the game’s opening possession, scoring on a 46-yard pass play from senior quarterback Connor Bazelak to senior wide receiver Odieu Hiliare in the Quick Lane Bowl Tuesday.

The Falcons still led Minnesota 10-9 at the half, but then came the steady pound-the-rock running of Minnesota back Darius Taylor, who gained 208 yards on 35 carries.

Minnesota pounded the BGSU defense with their running game the entire second half and held on to defeat the Falcons, 30-24, in front of 28,251 fans at Ford Field in downtown Detroit.

“I thought both teams played extremely hard,” BGSU coach Scot Loeffler said. “Both teams had some adversity they had to overcome, with people not playing, but my hat’s off to Minnesota.”

“They were able to make a few more plays than us, but overall, we can’t look at this as a negative. We lost a football game, but we played our tails off.”

The Golden Gophers, who finish the season 6-7, won their fifth straight bowl game under coach P.J. Fleck, while the Falcons see their season end at 7-6.

“I want to give credit to Bowling Green — they are a good football team. They are hard to stop defensively,” Fleck said.

“They do a lot of things on offense, especially when you give them four weeks to prepare. Coach Scot, I think, is one of the better offensive minds in the country.”

BGSU outgained Minnesota 303-281 in total yards, but it was a contrast of styles as the Gophers finished with 255 yards on the ground and the Falcons with 221 yards through the air.

Bazelak completed 21-of-37 passes for 221 yards, while Minnesota senior quarterback Kramer Cole completed 8-of-16 for 26 yards with his longest reception going for eight yards, but Cole threw two touchdown passes.

For Bazelak, it was the fifth time this season he threw for over 200 yards. Hiliare caught 10 passes for 152 yards, giving him eight career 100 yard-plus receiving games.

Hiliare concludes his BGSU career with 103 catches and he had 206 for his career, including a stint at Alabama A&M before transferring.

“It feels great making plays and having everybody believe in you,” Hiliare said.

As well as the Falcons threw the ball, they did have late success running the ball behind senior back PaSean Wimberly, who finished with a career high 63 yards rushing.

The Falcons trailing 23-10, Wimberly broke free down the right side for a 42-yard scamper to take the Falcons into Minnesota territory, then six plays later Wimberly broke free again for an 18-yard TD run.

“Going into that drive, I knew what I was going into, and explosion was the biggest thing for our offense,” said Wimberly, a Toledo Whitmer product.

“Me being the difference-maker, I wanted to be the kick-start for that drive, and then obviously coming away with a touchdown. It gave us hope and obviously we had time to go back down and score again.”

However, Minnesota kickoff return man Lemeke Brockington brought back the ensuing kickoff 51 yards to the BGSU 48 and seven plays later Taylor scored on a 17-yard run, putting the Gophers back up by two scores, 30-17.

BGSU followed with a 14-play, 75-yard drive, highlighted by a 29-yard pass from Bazelak to sophomore tight end Harold Fannin Jr.

Bazelak scored from two yards out with 2:33 remaining, but the Gophers fell on the ensuing onside kick and Taylor and Kramer had little trouble running out the clock.

“We were out-manned a little bit, with their defensive front on our offensive front, but our offensive front battled and were able to put us in position to attempt to get an onside kick,” Loeffler said.

For the Falcons, Fannin finished with five catches for 50 yards, and receivers Austin Osborne, Ibrahim Abdul-Fatai, Jamal Johnson, Jalon Tillman and Jaison Patterson had catches. Johnson also ran for 20 yards on two carries.

Loeffler said the plan all along was to throw the ball because of the talent on his receiving corps and injuries to his running back corps.

“We said all week long we were in a tough position with our running back position. We chip-held, we slid, we full-turned, you name the protection, we were trying to get into it.

“I’m not putting it on the offensive line whatsoever — no way. We’re playing against a good defensive front here and they battled, and the guys up front gave us a chance, plain and simple.

“We knew that we were better than them with our skill guys, and that is why the passing game is hard. Everyone has to do their part, it’s got to be perfect, and whenever we protected well and the quarterback was on rhythm and receivers got the proper releases, good things happen in the throw game.”

Defensively, BGSU safety Darius Lorfils notched his second career interception in the second quarter, returning it 28 yards to set up place kicker Alan Anayi’s 33-yard field goal that gave the Falcons the one-point lead before the half.

For Lorfil, who also had five tackles, it was his second interception of the season and he now has interceptions in back-to-back games.

Safety Patrick Day had 10 tackles, including eight solo and one pass break-up, linebacker Joseph Sipp Jr. had seven tackles, including one for a loss, and cornerback Deshawn Jones Jr., linebacker Charles Rosser, and cornerback Jalen Burton had five tackles apiece for BGSU.

It is the second straight year BGSU lost in the Quick Lane Bowl, but Loeffler said the Falcons’ ability to be competitive with a Big Ten Conference school showed how far the BGSU program has come. Minnesota now leads the all-time series with BGSU, 3-2.

“We had a couple opportunities early that we missed, but I’m happy with what we tried to accomplish on both sides of the ball,” Loeffler said.

“I’m really proud of the seniors, I’m proud of where this program is going. I told the guys that we’ve come up short twice in Ford Field now, and these were dress rehearsals. We’ll be back. We’ll be back to Ford Field.”