Chippewas Dominate on Defense in 27-6 Bounce-Back Win at Bowling Green

Saturday, October 18

Bowling Green, Ohio/Doyt L. Perry Stadium

Noon

Central Michigan University

4-3 , 2-1

Bowling Green

3-4 , 1-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Central Mich.

Bowling Green

Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography

Chippewas Dominate on Defense in 27-6 Bounce-Back Win at Bowling Green

10/18/2025 5:47:00 PM | Football

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Flores scores three touchdowns; CMU defense surrenders just 2 field goals.

By: Andy Sneddon

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Central Michigan football coach Matt Drinkall predicted a good ol' fashioned football game.

He got it. More importantly, he got what his team sorely needed.

Angel Flores scored three touchdowns and the CMU defense was nothing short of superb as the Chippewas downed Bowling Green, 27-6, on Saturday in a Mid-American Conference game in front of 23,105 in the Falcons' Doyt Perry Stadium.

"By far, all three phases, not even close," the first-year Chippewa coach said when asked if Saturday's performance was his team's best of the season.

The win lifts CMU to 4-3 and keeps it in the hunt in the MAC race at 2-1. The Chippewas bounced back from a 24-13 loss at Akron two weeks ago, and they were off last week, giving them a full 14 days to stew over the disappointing defeat.

"Bad taste in our mouth from that Akron loss," said CMU linebacker Jordan Kwiatkowski, who made a season-high 14 tackles and swung momentum in the Chippewas' favor with an interception early in the second quarter. "The bye week really helped us get our bodies back and feel 100 percent.

"Most definitely our best game of the year on the defensive side. I feel like we were hunting the ball, we got vertical, we came down fast, and we had a really good plan. The staff put together a great plan and we executed it."

The Chippewas snapped a 10-game MAC road losing streak.

The Chippewa defense forced two turnovers, stopped the Falcons on their first three fourth-down conversion attempts, and recorded three sacks.

Bowling Green's points came as a result of two first-half field goals. It marked the first time a CMU team has held a MAC opponent without a touchdown since Oct. 21, 2017, when it pounded Ball State, 56-9, in Muncie, Ind.

Kwiatkowski returned his interception – his second of the season and third of his career – to the Bowling Green 1-yard line and then Flores scored from there to give CMU a 7-3 led less than two minutes into the second quarter.

That sequence swung the game in CMU's favor.

The Chippewas held Bowling Green to a three-and-out on its next possession and then CMU went 79 yards in seven plays and extended its lead to 14-3 on a Flores 6-yard TD run with 3:13 left in the half.

The teams exchanged field goals in the waning minutes of the half and then the Chippewas scored on their first possession of the third quarter, marching 75 yards in seven plays with Flores scoring from 3 yards out to make it 24-6.

The sequence was critical in light of the fact that Bowling Green had overcome a three-touchdown deficit one week earlier in downing MAC-favorite Toledo, 28-23.

"Really, we just said to keep our foot on the gas," Kwiatkowski said. "We said as long as we kept doing our thing, we'd be fine. We just played our brand of football and got it done. We were dominant on every down and got them to third-and-longs. We really got after it."

Bowling Green finished with a 310-276 edge in total yardage, but the Falcons were assessed a whopping 125 yards in penalties in a game that had its emotional moments.

"We won every emotional 50-50 situation which I think speaks to our discipline, our maturity, our leadership," Drinkall said. "I'm really, really happy with that. There's no doubt, that's the best we've played, in all three phases, all year."