OWENSBORO – All good things must come to an end. For Bowling Green, that ending relates to football in November and a long streak snapped against its oldest rival.

The hot streak of Owensboro was too much for Bowling Green, and the Purples couldn’t help themselves either in a 28-21 defeat to the Red Devils in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs Friday night at Rash Stadium.

Bowling Green (9-3) won’t reach the regional final for the first time since 2010. That honor goes to Owensboro (10-2), and its reward is an undefeated South Warren squad next week. The Red Devils haven’t lost since falling to Bowling Green by nine points in Week 4. Their eighth straight win of the year Friday also snapped a 14-game losing streak to Bowling Green dating back to 2008, including six straight at Rash Stadium.

“It’s a big rivalry and we knew it was going to be tough coming in here to try and play them,” BGHS senior linebacker Miles Smith said.

Bowling Green missed its own chances by coming up empty on three red zone trips. The Purples even reached the Owensboro 1-yard line on two occasions, but never once could punch it in. All three Bowling Green touchdowns were set up by long passing plays followed immediately by a score on the next play.

Bowling Green tied Owensboro at 7 in the second quarter, but trailed 14-7 at halftime. The Red Devils led 28-14 before Beau Buchanan’s 35-yard touchdown pass to Elvin Fofanah cut it within one score with 2:34 left.

Bowling Green couldn’t stop Owensboro’s offense as time expired.

“It was a night where we just created so much adversity for ourselves,” BGHS coach Mark Spader said. “They’re a great team and, on top of that, we had penalties and drops and missed assignments on defense. I’m proud of us. We continued to battle and continued to give ourselves a chance and looked like things might be getting out of hand, our kids pulled together and showed great character and we made some plays here and there.”

Bowling Green did what it could to stop an Owensboro offense averaging 43.2 points per game in its winning streak. Quarterback Will Warren met his average of 250 yards passing and four touchdowns. He threw two to Imonte Owsley on 35- and 41-yard completions. Owsley finished the night with over 150 yards receiving.

He caught the first one running by DeVito Tisdale on the left sideline to go up 7-0 late in the first quarter.

His second score came on a short reception on a crossing route, then turned upfield with one blocker in front of him for an easy 41-yard score to go up 21-7 in the third quarter.

“They have great athletes on that side of the ball,” Smith said. “Just couldn’t tackle in space and make the plays we needed to make. That’s kind of what led to our downfall tonight.”

Bowling Green’s offense was stagnant in the first half. The Purples punted on the first three drives before being given its best field position at the Owensboro 14 thanks to a fumble recovery from William Gray.

But Bowling Green couldn’t find the end zone on four straight runs inside the 2 and turned it over on downs when Buchanan’s keeper was stopped at the 1.

Buchanan found the end zone on the next drive with three straight completions. His 20-yard connection to Zack Brassel set up his 7-yard dump off to Jordan Dingle in the end zone to tie the score with 4:42 left in the quarter.

But Owensboro immediately retook the lead. Two personal foul penalties helped the Red Devils march to the red zone. Warren then scrambled right and threw across his body to Aireon Phillips for a 12-yard score and a 14-7 halftime lead.

Bowling Green received the ball to start the second half and marched into the red zone only to have Dalton Major’s 31-yard field goal attempt blocked.

Bowling Green played catch up from that point forward.

Trailing by two scores, Jordan Dingle caught a 23-yard pass from Buchanan and was ruled out at the goal line to give Bowling Green a first-and-goal. An incomplete pass and three runs negating nearly 20 yards kept Bowling Green out of the end zone.

“I always say the measure of a championship level team is can they play defense in the red zone,” Spader said. “Their kids were really getting after it tonight. I’m not questioning the overall effort of ours. They were keeping us out of the end zone and it was tough for us to score. They’ve improved on that throughout the season.”

Bowling Green 0 7 7 7 – 21

Owensboro 7 7 14 0 – 28

First quarter

OW – Imonte Owsley 35 pass from Will Warren (Grayson McFarland kick), 1:35

Second quarter

BG – Jordan Dingle 7 pass from Beau Buchanan (Dalton Major kick), 4:42

OW – Aireon Phillips 12 pass from Warren (McFarland kick), 1:57

Third quarter

OW – Owsley 41 pass from Warren (McFarland kick), 3:52

BG – Jamil Smith 1 run (Major kick), 1:24

OW – Hunter Morris 28 pass from Warren (McFarland kick), 0:55

Fourth quarter

BG – Elvin Fofanah 35 pass from Buchanan (Major kick), 2:34{&end}