BW Football Falls to #10 John Carroll in 31st Gold Bowl Game

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BEREA, Ohio  – The Baldwin Wallace University football team closed the 2019 season as it fell to No. 10 nationally-ranked  John Carroll University in an Ohio Athletic Conference, Seniors' Day and 31st Cuyahoga Gold Bowl Game on the Tressel Field inside The George Finnie Stadium. 

BW (7-3, 6-3 OAC) fell to 25-30-4 in the all-time series and 13-18 on the Cuyahoga Gold Bowl series against John Carroll (9-1, 8-1).

Offensively for the Yellow Jackets, sophomore quarterback Jack Gibbons (Willoughby/Lake Catholic) completed 11-of-21 passes for 119 yards with one touchdown and one interception.  Gibbons also led the rushing attack as he had 78 yards on 17 carries with a long of 15 yards.  Junior wide out Iyan Mitchell (Tampa, Fla./Robinson) led the aerial assault as he caught six passes for 60 yards.  Defensively, senior Academic All-OAC linebacker Josh Liberati (Lisbon/David Anderson) and junior linebacker Brenton Miller (Carrollton) each had a game-high tying 12 tackles.

The Blue Streaks were led by junior quarterback Jake Floriea as he completed 5-of-10 passes for 55 yards with one touchdown.  Junior All-OAC running back Michael Canganelli led the ground game with a game-high 130 yards on 34 carries.  Senior wideout Evan Nugent led the receiving corps as he caught two passes for 29 yards with one touchdown. Defensively,  sophomore linebacker Hunter Orlando tallied nine stops.

BW opened the scoring when Gibbons found sophomore wide receiver Darius Stokes (Canton/GlenOak) in the corner of the end zone for the 6-yard touchdown.  Senior Academic All-OAC placekicker Jimmy Marshall (Lakewood) added the extra point to make the score 7-0 at the 3:56 mark of the first quarter.

John Carroll tied the game at 7-7 as the Blue Streaks used a trick play when freshman wide receiver Joe Torok hit Nugent with a 16-yard pass with 58 seconds left.   Sophomore placekicker Anthony Lupo tacked on the extra point. The Yellow Jackets regained the lead at 10-7 when freshman placekicker Dean Sarris (Canton/GlenOak) hit a Finnie Stadium-record and school-record 49-yard field goal with one second remaining in the opening half.

The Blue Streaks tied the game at 10-10 when Lupo hit a 33-yard field goal at the 4:28 mark of the third quarter. 

John Carroll took its first lead of the game when Floriea hit sophomore wide receiver Keyshawn Coleman between two BW defenders for the game-winning 28-yard touchdown.  Lupo tacked on the point after to make the final score 17-10 with 23.6 seconds left in the game.