On Saturday morning, when no one really knew the outcome of the game to follow that evening, the BC campus was quite excited as ESPN’s GameDay experience came to Chestnut Hill. It was the third time ever and first since 2009.
As “the dustbowl” as a term describing the open area surrounded by McElroy, Carney, Fulton, and Lyons halls seems to have gone into the dustbowl of history, GameDay’s stage and crowd were on Stokes Lawn.
And such a crowd!
Sam Apuzzo, center, and Walker-Weinstein, right.
In addition to the somewhat routine perusal of college football games coming up that day, GameDay also took a bit of time to acknowledge one of BC’s very successful women’s teams — lacrosse — ranked #1 nationally preseason. GameDay interviewed senior Sam Apuzzo, winner of last season’s Tewaarton Award as the nation’s best collegiate female lacrosse player, and BC coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein.
Chris O’Donnell ’92
And GameDay finished, as it traditionally does, with one of the host school’s graduates participating in game predictions. For BC Saturday, it was Chris O’Donnell ’92, current star of NCIS: Los Angeles.
And eight hours after GameDay, BC-Clemson kicked off.
San Diego’s own Ray Smith (96) joins teammates in saluting BC fans at VaTech. Frank Selden photo
After playing one of the sorriest second quarters ever(?), falling behind 14-7 at the half, #22 BC turned it on in the second half, outscoring Virginia Tech 24-7 in Blacksburg, Va., yesterday to make the final score 31-21.
The 7-2 Eagles will likely move up into the top 20 in the College Football Playoff rankings. They meet #2 Clemson Saturday night in Alumni Stadium on national television, preceded that morning by the third appearance ever by ESPN’s GameDay crew on Chestnut Hill, first since 2009. Can you say Big Game!?
Following unsuccessful drives by each team to open the game, the Eagles actually scored first, a 3-yard run by AJ Dillon concluding a 13-play, 75-yard drive. VaTech went right back down the field to tie the game, 7-7, as the first quarter ended. QB Anthony Brown was 4-8 for 35 yards and Dillon had rushed for 54 yards. Things didn’t look that bad.
Brown opened the second quarter by overthrowing a wide open Michael Walker on a deep pass, a portent of things to come. In the quarter, Brown ended up 4-10 for 24 yards. Dillon added 3 yards rushing. At halftime, the Hokies had pretty much doubled BC’s number of 1st downs and offensive yardage, as well as the score, to lead 14-7. The Eagles had gained 126 yards in the half.
RB Travis Levy. Frank Selden photo
BC held the Hokies on their first two drives of the second half, but Brown fumbled on BC’s possession to squelch the Eagles’ drive. On BC’s next possession, things looked like they could go badly for the Eagles when Dillon appeared to be injured on being knocked out of bounds on the Hokies’ 29. (Dillon played sparingly in the rest of the third quarter and sat out the fourth.) On the next play, however, RB Travis Levy blew through the VaTech line and scored on a 29-yard run.
BC scored another touchdown in the third quarter and added another in the fourth on a 1-yard Levy plunge, in which he appeared stopped short but, not being down, lunged over the goal line. Following a VaTech touchdown with less than 5 minutes remaining, the Eagles added an insurance field goal for the final score.
Levy went on to gain 70 yards in the second half, getting 75 total for the game. After falling behind VaTech, to the tune of 119 yards in offense, in the first half, the Eagles gained 270 yards in the second half, finishing with 396 yards total offense, 4 more than the Hokies.
