Monthly Archives: September 2023

Cards double up Eagles

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QB Thomas Castellanos runs 39 yards for a touchdown against Louisville.

It’s somewhat difficult to refer to the BC unit that played against Louisville’s offense yesterday as a “defense.” The Cardinals had the ball six times in the first half. They scored six touchdowns.

Louisville also continued a BC 2023 football season tradition by becoming the fourth opponent in succession to score after receiving the second half kickoff. They didn’t waste any time, either. On the first play after a fair catch put the ball on the 25, running back Jawhar Jordon took a short pass from QB Jack Plummer and ran 75 yards for the Birds’ seventh touchdown in seven possessions.

The Eagles showed signs of offense occasionally. With less than six minutes left in the second quarter, Louisville held a 28-0 lead. BC then scored on a 39-yard run by QB Thomas Castellanos and on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Castellanos to Ryan O’Keefe. After each touchdown, however, the Eagles had to give the ball back to the Cardinals, who also scored two touchdowns. No closing of the scoring gap.

Each team scored two touchdowns and two PATs — 28 points in total — in the last 5:47 of the first half. The last, by Louisville, was especially embarrassing for the Eagles. With the ball on the 25 because of a touchback and only 32 seconds on the clock, Louisville lined up in a formation that implied they would run out the clock with a kneel-down.

They didn’t kneel down. Jordan ran for 42 yards to the BC 33. After a one-yard run, Cardinal QB Plummer threw a 42-yard touchdown pass. BC got the ball back at their 37 on the kickoff with two seconds left. They did the kneel-down.

Louisville led 42-14. The Cardinals gained 371 yards in the half, compared to 199 yards for BC.

As noted, the Cardinals jumped out to a 49-14 lead on their first play of the third quarter. After that, BC won the quarter statistically. They had the ball for nine minutes, 13 seconds, and ran 25 plays compared to eight for Louisville. The Cardinals actually had to punt twice, with their first punt coming 4:58 into the second half.

Louisville, however, scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and BC scored one, on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Castellanos to Lewis Bond. The Cardinals extended their lead to 56-21.

The Eagles opened the final quarter with a touchdown in the first minute, with Castellano passing 11 yards to Bond in the endzone. BC had the ball for only two minutes, 32 seconds, in the quarter and the game ended with a 56-28 Louisville win.

The Cardinals gained 582 yards total offense, 388 yards through the air. They averaged 9.4 yards per play. BC gained 427 yards total, 295 passing. For the first time this year, the Eagles’s penalties were in the single-digit category, but they still committed seven, three more than Louisville.

Louisville quarterback Plummer had a good game. He was 18 of 21 passing for 388 yards and five touchdowns, no interceptions. BC’s Castellanos again led the team in rushing as well as passing, running 10 times for a net 49 yards and going 17 of 33 for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cardinals advanced to 4-0 for the season, 2-0 in conference play. BC fell to 1-3, 0-2 in the ACC. The Eagles have the same conference record as Clemson. :)

The headline in The Boston Globe was “Boston College takes big step backward with embarrassing blowout loss to Louisville.” In the article, beleaguered BC coach Jeff Hafley said, “I haven’t seen us play like that since we’ve been here. I wish I had an answer. Clearly, I’ve got to find one, but I do not have a great one right now.”

Highlights (7:13)

BC plays Virginia next Saturday. Kickoff at 11 am PT.

Penalties stifle Eagles

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BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos

It was disappointing, and yet fitting, that the Eagles lost their chance to win the game against #3 Florida State yesterday because of a penalty. Down 31-29 with less than two minutes to go, BC appeared to stop the Seminoles short of a first down on third down, likely bringing about a change of possession.

Instead, BC was called for a facemask penalty, giving Florida State an automatic first down and the opportunity to run out the clock and secure the win.

After committing 10 penalties against Northern Illinois in the Eagles’ opening loss and 11 penalties in a close win over Holy Cross, BC head coach Jeff Hafley said those performances kept opponents in the game and “It’s not going to work like that.”

BC committed 11 penalties again yesterday, in the first half. The penalty that erased BC’s final chance was their 18th, a team record. They lost 131 yards because of penalties. In comparison, the Seminoles were called for five penalties and were moved back 45 yards.

Echoing his coach, BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos told the Boston Globe, “That’s something we have to clean up. If we don’t have those [penalties], I feel like we win this game.”

The Eagles began the game as three-touchdown-plus underdogs to the undefeated Seminoles. They also began the game with a strong first quarter, scoring first on a 75-yard drive ending with a 32-yard pass from Castellanos to Lewis Bond for a touchdown. Florida State responded with a field goal to make the first quarter score 7-3 BC.

During the quarter, the Eagles possessed the ball for just over 10 minutes, more than doubling FSU’s time of possession. BC’s offense gained 165 yards in the opening quarter, 103 yards more than the Seminoles.

BC ended the opening quarter on an 11-play drive that took them to the Florida State 6. Converting a fourth-down to the 4, the Eagles stalled on two incomplete passes and a one-yard run. Less than two minutes into the quarter, Liam Connor kicked a 21-yard field goal to put BC up 10-3.

Two long drives by the Seminoles for touchdowns bracketed an unsuccessful BC possession in the second quarter and the teams went into halftime with the Seminoles ahead 17-10.

Florida State’s comeback in the second quarter was aided by eight BC penalties extending Seminole drives and thwarting Eagle possessions. In the first half overall, the Eagles had five false starts, two delay of games, two holding calls, one personal foul, and one pass interference. While BC gained 245 yards in the half, compared to 161 for Florida State, the Eagles trailed by a touchdown.

For the third consecutive game, BC’s opponent opened the second half with an efficient drive for a touchdown. This time, the Seminoles took only six plays to score, highlighted by a 44-yard pass from Jordan Travis to Johnny Wilson to the BC 29. Florida State never faced third down on the drive.

On BC’s next possession, Castellanos’s pass was intercepted at the BC 40. Next play, 39-yard pass from Travis to the 1, then a touchdown run to extend the FSU lead to 31-10. The TV commentator said the game had become “a rout.” There was little reason to argue. Those points, however, were the last ones scored by the Seminoles in the game.

After the teams exchanged punts following short possessions, that mystical thing called “momentum” wafted from the Seminoles and was cheerfully grabbed by the Eagles. Starting on their 20, BC faced a fourth-and-one on their 29. Two-yard run for a first down. Eight plays later, including a 52-yard pass to Dino Tomlin, Eagles scored on a one-yard run by Kye Robichaux to cut the score to 31-16. Connor missed the point-after.

Florida State fumbled the kickoff, recovered by BC on the Seminoles’s 26. The Eagles made it to the 5 before Robichaux was stuffed on a fourth-down run attempt. Florida State moved to their 18, where they fumbled back toward their goal line. BC’s Khari Johnson scooped up the ball and scored. Point after was good and the score was 31-22.

After five plays, the Seminoles punted from the BC 44, putting the ball out of bounds on the BC 5. The Eagles then went on an impressive 95-yard drive that took only two minutes, 11 seconds. Castellanos passed for 42 yards to Bond and 25 yards to Ryan O’Keefe, then finished the drive with a seven-yard run to the end zone. Score 31-29.

Both teams punted after short possessions and Florida State ran out the clock as described at the beginning of this post.

BC had scored 13 points and held the Seminoles scoreless in the final quarter. Overall, the Eagles gained 457 yards on 75 plays, the most this season, compared to 340 yards on 58 plays by Florida State. Castellanos was 20 of 33 passing for 305 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He also rushed for 95 yards net on 16 carries, leading the team. O’Keefe had six receptions for 64 yards, while Bond had three receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown.

Here are highlights (11:59).

 It looked like “Family Day” at yesterday’s gamewatch. Kids galore.

The Eagles play at Louisville next Saturday, kickoff at 12:30 pm PT, first midday game of the year our time.

 

Escaping the Crusaders

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Running back Kye Robichaux powers into the endzone.

The threat was there all day, but it took until only 1:58 remained on the clock for lightning to force a delay in yesterday’s BC-Holy Cross game. The threat posed by the Crusaders was also there all day. As the players went to their locker rooms, Holy Cross had the ball on their 25 yard line, down only 31-28.

When play resumed two hours and 13 minutes later, Crusader quarterback Matthew Sluka immediately ripped off a 35-yard run to move into Eagle territory. Three plays later, BC defensive end Neto Okpala knocked the ball from Sluka’s hands and it was recovered by linebacker Vinny DePalma on the BC 33. QB Thomas Castellanos took three kneeldowns to run out the last 1:10 and the Eagles had their first win of the season.

(We invited local grads of Holy Cross to join us for the gamewatch and they responded in earnest. There was more purple than maroon-and-gold in attendance. See below for photo and more.)

This was the 84th meeting between the two teams, the longest rivalry in BC football history. Starting in 1896, the teams played almost annually until 1986 after BC became a member of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Holy Cross went to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Since then, the two teams have only met in 2018, with BC winning 62-14. A game scheduled for 2020 was canceled because of Covid.

BC leads in the series overall, 50-31-3. At least that’s BC’s version. There are a few games, at least, “in dispute.”

The Crusaders came into the game yesterday on a roll, ranked #5 in FCS and without a regular season loss since Harvard in 2021. Holy Cross was undefeated in the regular season last year and lost only to #1 and eventual FCS national champion South Dakota State in the championship quarterfinals.

The Eagles began the game strong, going 85 yards in 14 plays and scoring on a three-yard rush by Kye Robichaux. On another long, time-consuming drive, Holy Cross came back with 15 plays covering 75 yards to tie the score at seven, the touchdown being the first play of the second quarter. One drive by each team in the first quarter.

BC opened its play in the second quarter going 91 yards in 14 plays, topped off by a 14-yard TD run by Ryan O’Keefe. After stopping Holy Cross on the only non-scoring possession by either team in the first half, the Eagles had another nine-play drive for a touchdown, highlighted by Castellanos’s 47-yard pass to Jaden Williams to the Holy Cross six. The touchdown came on a two-yard pass from Castellanos to TE George Takacs, with 1:23 remaining.

A kickoff out of bounds and a BC personal foul brought the Crusaders to the 50-yard line. In three plays and 37 seconds, Holy Cross scored a touchdown — an eight-yard run by QB Sluka to cut the score to 21-14 BC.

That left 46 seconds in the half. Helped immensely by two pass interference penalties and one roughing the passer penalty by Holy Cross, the Eagles moved to the HC 19, where Liam Connor kicked a 37-yard field goal to make the halftime score 24-14.

In a disappointing repeat from BC’s opening game, its opponent began the second half with a quick and easy drive. Holy Cross took five plays and two minutes, 17 seconds to score, ending with an eight-yard run by QB Sluka to cut the score to 24-21.

A scoreless third quarter ended with BC at the Holy Cross five. The fourth quarter began with a five-yard TD pass from Castellanos to Jeremiah Franklin. Score 31-21 BC.

For the next seven-and-a-half minutes, the Crusaders marched 75 yards, finishing with a 15-yard run up the middle for the touchdown and a 31-28 game with 7:26 left.

Getting the ball back at their 25, the Eagles made two first downs, including a conversion on fourth down, to bring the ball to the Holy Cross 49. On fourth-and-four at the 43 and 2:03 remaining, BC chose to punt. The Crusaders were at their 25 when the lightning came.

According to the Boston Globe this morning, most BC fans left the stands during the delay, but a large group of Holy Cross students stayed behind the end zone seats and “partied in the rain.” When BC quarterback Castellanos came on the field after the delay, he said, according to the Globe, “I was like ‘Where did all our fans go?’ It was crazy. All I seen was purple.”

Castellanos, after replacing first game starter Emmett Morehead in the opener, played the entire game and played well. He was 17-of-23 for 201 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran 16 times for a net 69 yards. (At the same time, Castellanos was, on at least one occasion, “undisciplined.” Running toward the first down marker on the sideline in the third quarter, he pointed a finger at the approaching Holy Cross defender and then ran out of bounds short of the first down. He not only failed to get the first down, he drew a penalty that pushed BC back 15 yards and forced a punt soon thereafter.) Robichaux was BC’s leading rusher with 19 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown.

HC quarterback Sluka was the game’s leading rusher, gaining 131 yards net on 19 carries.

The stats, as was the game, were pretty even. The Eagles had 403 yards offense on 68 plays, while the Crusaders gained 394 yards in 54 plays. Both teams were penalized often. BC, for the second game in a row, had 10 penalties, for 109 yards this game. Holy Cross had 11 penalties for 99 yards. Both teams were perfect in the red zone: Holy Cross 4-4, BC 5-5.

Here are highlights (11:48).

The Eagles meet undefeated and highly ranked Florida State next Saturday in their ACC opener. It’s the “Red Bandana” game. Game is in Alumni Stadium. Kickoff 9 am PT.

College ‘kin’
San Diego Crusaders and Eagles at the gamewatch yesterday. Even some grads from the “early years,” the sixties, when Boston College and Holy Cross were enthusiastic rivals. Even “blended” families, where granddad went to Holy Cross, daughter went to Cal, married a BC grad, and their son, a BC student, was at the game.