Beating a top private school once is impressive, but beating them three consecutive times is sublime. The Bowling Green Purples accomplished this feat with a 39-25 win over St. Xavier on Friday night. The win was Bowling Green’s third consecutive win over the Tigers, and their 32nd consecutive win overall.
The Purples were led by their offense on Friday night. Led by quarterback Devin Hayes, the Purples gained 515 yards of total offense against St. Xavier. Hayes used his arm and his legs for the Purples, throwing for 309 yards and running for 100. The majority of Hayes’ rushing yards came on a 74-yard run in the first half, a career long for the Purples’ Quarterback. Hayes had a successful day throwing the ball as well, going 15/27 for 303 yards and four touchdowns. The Purples’ receivers made Hayes’ job easy on Friday night. The Purples finished with three receiving touchdowns of fifty or more yards. Senior Nacarius Fant caught two touchdowns, including a 75-yard score for the Purples. The two touchdowns for Fant brings his season total to six. Along with Fant, senior running backs Blake Pillow and Blue Tisdale also caught long touchdowns. Hayes found Pillow for a 53-yard strike, and Tisdale for an 82-yard score. Tisdale and Pillow set up the passing game with their runs against St. Xavier. Pillow ran for 39 yards and a touchdown, and Tisdale had 78 yards for one touchdown. “It was exciting, I tried to pick my team up when I needed to,” said Tisdale.
None of the offensive success would have occurred had it not been for the Purple offensive line. “What was going right for the Purples tonight was the o-line,” said Hayes. “They protected, they made holes for us to make big plays.” Led by seniors Will Jenkins and Jake Mills, the Purples’ offensive line protected throughout the night, even with St. Xavier rushing five players nearly every play. “We had them where we wanted them,” said Mills. “We had to push like crazy.”
The Purples offense led the team to a third straight win over St. Xavier. The game was an impressive offensive performance for BGHS, but the Purples will need to put this behind them in order to continue winning. “They’re a good team, we’re a good team, it was a great game tonight,” said Pillow. “This was a great game, we’ve got to move on though.” Bowling Green will continue their season next week against Owensboro at home.
