Harold Fannin Jr. was nearly unstoppable Saturday for Bowling Green in a 27-20 Mid-American Conference win over Akron at FirstEnergy Stadium.
A junior tight end from Canton McKinley, Fannin capped his performance with a 31-yard touchdown run for the game-winning score with 2:39 to play. That came after the Zips (1-5, 0-2) had rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie it 20-20 on Garrison Smith 's 38-yard field goal with 7:13 left.
Fannin, 6-foot, 4-inches and 230 pounds, caught all nine passes thrown to him for 135 yards, with a long gain of 63 yards. All were game highs. He also carried the ball twice for 37 yards, including the game-winner.
Still, even after Fannin's late TD, the Zips weren't done. After a touchback on the ensuing kickoff, UA marched 58 yards to the Falcons 17 on six plays, including a 17-yard pass from quarterback Ben Finley to wide receiver Ahmarian Granger and an 18-yard run by Finley.
But the drive stall there, and the Zips turned the ball over on downs when Finley threw incomplete passes on third and fourth downs.
Finley finished 21-of-32 passing for 206 yards and added 32 yards on eight rushes.
Jaison Patterson, who led Bowling Green (2-3, 1-0) with 58 yards on 18 carries, opened the scoring with a 2-yard run with 7:03 to play in the first quarter.
Zips special teams then gave UA the lead. First, Smith made it 7-3 with a 47-yard field goal with 4:31 left in the quarter, and long snapper Liam Reardon then recovered a muffed punt in the end zone on the final play of the quarter to put the Zips ahead 10-7.
The Falcons answered late in the second quarter with a 45-yard field goal by Jackson Kleather (1:55) and a 9-yard TD run by Patterson (0:22) to lead 17-10 at halftime.
Bowling Green widened its lead to 10 when Kleather kicked a 31-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, but the Zips responded when Tahj Bullock ran for a 5-yard TD with 13:13 to play and Smith tied it with his second field goal midway through the quarter.
Jordan Simmons led the Akron with 73 yards on nine carries and added 32 yards on five catches. Adrian Norton paced the Zips with three catches for 78 yards.
Falcons quarterback Connor Bazelak completed 24 of 30 passes for 268 yards.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Zips lose to Bowling Green in Mid-American Conference football
