BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green football program entered the final week of the 2018 regular season with seven wins, so experiencing victory isn’t out of the ordinary. But Week 10 was different. The Purples entered their game with Bullitt Central wanting and needing a win.
Check.
Bowling Green ended a two-game losing skid, saying goodbye to the streak with a 52-0 win over Bullitt Central on Friday night.
The Purples in their minds wanted, and needed for that matter, win No. 8. Not for the sake of their record, but for the sake of momentum. Bowling Green had lost in back-to-back weeks to South Warren and Warren Central (Indiana).
“We played two tough games and we kind of lost some confidence at every position,” Bowling Green quarterback Beau Buchanan said after the win. “We needed a game like this to really kick us back in gear.”
Buchanan’s head coach agreed. The Purples needed to put the last couple of weeks past them and look forward with the regular season concluding and the postseason approaching one week from tonight.
“It had been previous to our fall break since we’ve tasted a win,” Purples coach Mark Spader said. “I still contend it’s tough to win. You put a lot of work and time in it. We’re trying to put last Friday behind us with the hopes that we can pull things together and move down the road and maybe see them again, but we have a lot of work to do between now and then. This was a good first step for us.”
Bowling Green regained its confidence from the opening quarter and on.
DeVito Tisdale shook off the last two disappointing performances with an 8-yard touchdown to begin the game. Seconds later, taking advantage of a Bullitt Central fumble, Buchanan connected with Scotty Brown for a 37-yard score, giving the Purples an early 14-0 lead.
The Purple defense came up big on the ensuing drive.
An interception by Tucker Prieskorn set up the Bowling Green offense with another easy scoring chance in the red-zone. The offensive unit wasn’t on the field very long after Buchanan tallied his second passing touchdown to Dez Wilson from 25 yards out.
The Bowling Green quarterback’s spectacular first half performance was capped off with a 35-yard connection with Wilson between two Bullitt Central defensive backs in the middle of the field, giving the Purples a 35-0 lead going into the half.
Buchanan’s first, and only, 24 minutes resulted in 184 yards on 13-of-15 passing and three touchdowns.
“(Buchanan) has a great skillset as a quarterback,” Bullitt Central head coach Matt Kuehn said after the game. “He can put the ball in tight places and he has great vision down the field. Their receivers have a nice connection with (Buchanan). It was evident.”
With touchdown runs from Evan Spader and Jamil Smith, and a 33-yard field goal from Dalton Major, the Purples added 17 points to the scoreboard as the running clock ticked on.
With the regular season done, Bowling Green will face Christian County at home in the opening round of the playoffs.
“It’s going to be a really rough challenge,” said Miles Smith, a senior linebacker for the Purples. “They have a really tough quarterback over there, but we’re ready for the challenge.”
