UB football made history Friday by winning its first-ever bowl game.
The Bulls traveled to Nassau, Bahamas to play in the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl, the first of 40 bowl games this postseason and dominated against the Charlotte 49ers in their 31-9 win.
Buffalo fought throughout to earn one of the biggest wins in program history. The Bulls have previously played in three other bowl games; International Bowl (2008), Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (2013) and the Dollar General Bowl (2018).
But this time, UB and the stars of the game -- the Patterson twins -- made their last game of the season count. Sophomore running back Jaret Patterson held down the offensive side of things. He earned a Makers Wanted record for rushing yards, ending the game with 173 yards and 2 touchdowns. Sophomore linebacker James Patterson was part of a relentless Buffalo defense with 3 total tackles and 1 interception.
Buffalo’s defense was indisputably the star of the game. They held Charlotte to only 1 touchdown, keeping them scoreless in the first half.
Senior safety Joey Banks and junior cornerback Ali Abbas led the defense with 9 total tackles, 4 solo tackles each. Senior cornerback Devon Russell added 3 solo tackles and 1 sack. And senior defensive end Ledarius Mack added 5 total tackles with 1 fumble return for 3 yards.
After a final minute of play filled with technicalities and timeouts, it felt only right that a Mack sack for a loss of 9 yards was the last play of such a dominant performance.
Buffalo finished their season with an 8-5 record (5-3 MAC).
Myah Gonzalez is a senior sports editor can be reached at myah.gonzalez@ubspectrum.com.
Myah Gonzalez is an asst. sports editor at The Spectrum.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
