Cole Cabana's 82-Yard Run and Three Dieter Kelly Field Goals Carry Western Michigan Past Bowling Green 23-10

Some wins are works of art. This one was a Halloween costume held together with duct tape, and Western Michigan will wear it proudly anyway.

Western Michigan beat Bowling Green 23-10 on Saturday at Waldo Stadium, leaning on one explosive run, a reliable kicker and a defense that came up with three interceptions when the Falcons were still within shouting distance. The Broncos improved to 6-3 and 4-1 in the Mid-American Conference on senior day. Bowling Green fell to 2-7 and 2-3.

It also snapped a streak that had been bugging Kalamazoo. Bowling Green had won the previous three meetings, including a 31-13 decision in the most recent one, and Broncos coach Lance Taylor had never beaten the Falcons. Bowling Green still leads the all-time series, which dates back 59 meetings, but this one goes in the Western Michigan column.

Bowling Green lands the first punch

Eddie George's team came in on a two-game skid after a pair of one-score losses, and the Falcons played the first quarter like a team tired of hearing about close calls. They opened with an 11-play, 69-yard drive that ate 6:27 off the clock, and Jay Kastantin finished it with a 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kentrell White. Bowling Green led 7-0 and had the Broncos defense chasing for most of a quarter.

That lead lasted 11 seconds of game clock.

One snap, 82 yards

On Western Michigan's next possession, Cole Cabana took a handoff, found a crease and outran the Bowling Green secondary for an 82-yard touchdown with 3:12 left in the first quarter. One play, 82 yards, 11 seconds. Just like that, it was 7-7, and the Falcons' best drive of the half had been erased in the time it takes to read this sentence.

Cabana finished with 110 rushing yards on only seven carries, an average of nearly 16 yards a touch. That is an absurd number, even accounting for the one long run. In a game where neither offense could build much rhythm, Cabana was the guy who could change the scoreboard in a blink.

Western Michigan took the lead in the second quarter. Broc Lowry led a six-play, 69-yard drive and capped it with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Brotherton with 6:36 left before the half, making it 14-7. The Broncos then gave the Falcons an opening when Lowry was sacked and lost a fumble at the Western Michigan 42 with 4:37 left in the quarter. Bowling Green came away empty from the short field, but on its final possession of the half it moved 51 yards in just over a minute and Travis Kenner hit a 48-yard field goal with five seconds left. It was 14-10 at the break.

Dieter Kelly takes over

The second half was a field-position fight, and Western Michigan had the better weapon in it. Dieter Kelly made a 32-yard field goal midway through the third quarter to finish a nine-play, 64-yard drive, then drilled a 50-yarder early in the fourth to stretch the lead to 20-10.

Kelly had one more. With the game nearly over, a 36-yard attempt was wiped out by a Western Michigan holding penalty. Kelly simply backed up 10 yards and made it again with 15 seconds left. Three field goals, one of them from 50, and a do-over from 10 yards deeper under pressure. On a day when the Broncos offense finished with 336 total yards and went 4 of 14 on third down, Kelly turned trips into points.

The turning point: a trick play in the red zone

For all of Western Michigan's control, the Falcons had a real chance to make this a one-score game midway through the fourth quarter. After Aveion Chenault fumbled at the end of a 14-yard catch and Bowling Green's Andrew Hines III recovered at the Falcons' 39, Bowling Green drove deep into Broncos territory.

Then it went for the trick play. It was the kind of call a team makes when it has lost one-score games all season and is tired of waiting for a break, and in a vacuum it was not a bad idea. With 6:29 left, receiver Brennan Ridley threw a pass that Western Michigan linebacker Justyce Betts intercepted at the Broncos' 7. A drive that could have made it 20-17 ended with zero points, and the Falcons never got that close again. The aggressiveness was understandable for a team that had lost close games all year. The result was costly.

Kastantin was intercepted twice more in the final two minutes as Bowling Green chased the game. The last one came from safety Daeh McCullough at the Falcons' 49 with 12 seconds left, the exclamation point on a big afternoon for McCullough, who also had eight tackles.

The defense deserves its own paragraph. A week after Toledo hung 45 points on it, Western Michigan allowed one touchdown drive all day, and it came on the opening possession. After that, Bowling Green's possessions produced a field goal, a missed 32-yard try by Kenner late in the third quarter, a pick in the red zone, two late interceptions and a lot of punts. Taylor's group made the Falcons earn every yard and then took the ball away when it mattered most.

The numbers that matter

Western Michigan outgained Bowling Green 336 to 274 and ran for 190 yards to the Falcons' 125. Lowry did not have to do much, going 9 of 18 for 146 yards and the touchdown, but the Broncos quarterback did hit the big shots when they were there. Chenault caught five passes for 109 yards, topping the career high of 105 set at Toledo a week earlier.

Bowling Green actually had more first downs (16 to 15) and held the ball for 32:18. Kastantin completed 20 of 32 passes for 149 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Nakai Amachree ran 11 times for 61 yards, and tight end Eli Jacon-Duffy caught four passes for 41 yards. Defensive end Myles Bradley, who came in as one of the MAC's most productive pass rushers, picked up another sack. Linebacker Dorian Pringle was everywhere for the Falcons with 12 tackles, and Western Michigan's DeJuan Echoles Jr. had two sacks.

The difference was turnovers that mattered. Western Michigan lost two fumbles, and Bowling Green turned them into zero points. The Falcons threw three interceptions, and two of them came in the final two minutes with the game still technically in reach. Every snap is in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Western Michigan, this was a bounce-back after a 45-38 loss at Toledo in which the defense gave up a season-high 595 yards. Holding Bowling Green to 274 total yards and 10 points on senior day is a solid answer, even against one of the lower-scoring offenses in the country. At 6-3 overall and 4-1 in league play, the Broncos have six wins and are firmly in the MAC race. Next up is a Tuesday night trip to Akron on Nov. 10.

For Bowling Green, the season is getting harder to salvage. The Falcons have now lost three straight, including a 31-24 loss at Buffalo a week ago, and the offense has a ceiling problem. They came in averaging 18.8 points per game, and 10 points against a defense that was coming off a 595-yard performance is not going to fix that perception. Bowling Green hosts Kent State on Nov. 10.

The last word

Western Michigan did not play a pretty game. It lost two fumbles, went 4 of 14 on third down and needed a mulligan on its final field goal. But it had the best player on the field in Cabana for one snap that mattered, the best kicker on the field for three that mattered, and a defense that finished the job.

On Halloween, Bowling Green brought the tricks. Western Michigan got the treat.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, The Associated Press, Western Michigan Athletics game preview, Bleacher Report game page, theScore's game preview and Ourlads rosters. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Western Michigan Athletics (file photo).