Category Archives: Football

Bowl ends with a bang

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But it was the bang associated with lightning. In what the NCAA says is apparently the first such occurrence, the bowl game today between Boston College and Boise State in Dallas, Texas, was canceled because of a series of delays brought about by lightning.

San Diego’s own Ray Smith (96), from Cathedral Catholic, leads the Eagles off the field as nearby lightning forces the first game delay. Smith and other BC seniors had no way to know it would be their last trot off the field as an Eagle.

Otherwise the game was a whimper. Play ended after nine minutes and 52 seconds had gone by on the game clock. It was declared “no contest” and nothing that occurred during the game will count in personal or team statistics. Like it never happened.

For what it’s worth, and it’s worth nothing except to BC fans, the Eagles were leading 7-0 because of a 19-yard touchdown run by AJ Dillon.

BC ends the season with a 7-5 record, 4-4 in the ACC. The bowl game had been seen as an opportunity for the Eagles to reach 8 wins for the first time since 2009.

This was New England Sports Network’s video report today. If video of the game itself shows up, I’ll replace this.

San Diego Eagles showed up for a gamewatch, though the numbers were “inflated” a bit by the presence of two entire families — Mary ’80 and Ray ’78 Berube, with Peter ’17 and Paige ’13; and Sarah ’88 and John Roughneen, along with Caroline ’18, Katie ’20, Sam  ’22, and Lily. They were excellent company for me and Zeke Oliwa ’14. :)

 

Bowling with Boise

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Boise State Broncos

Boston College and Boise State University will meet for the second time in football on Wednesday, December 26, in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl, Dallas, Texas. The 7-5 Eagles will go up against the 10-3 and 25th-ranked Broncos in the Cotton Bowl in a game that starts at 10:30 am PT.

Boise State lost in overtime to #21 Fresno State, 19-16, in Saturday’s Mountain West Conference championship game. For local reference, on October 6, San Diego State beat Boise 19-13.

Among victories by the Broncos this season are wins over Air Force, BYU, Fresno State (in an earlier regular conference game), and, in a 62-7 trouncing, UConn.

Brett Rypien

Boise State is led by senior quarterback Brett Rypien and junior running back Alexander Mattison. Rypien, 6-2, 202, passed this season for 3,705 yards and 30 touchdowns. Mattison, 5-11, 211, rushed for 1,415 yards, averaging 108 yards per game, and scored 17 touchdowns. As a team, the Broncos averaged just under 460 yards, mostly through the air, and just over 35 points a game.

Just in statistical comparison, BC QB Anthony Brown, who missed a portion of the season due to injury, threw for 2,121 yards and 20 touchdowns. RB AJ Dillon, also hampered by injury, ran for 1,108 yards and scored 10 touchdowns. Teamwise, BC averaged 404 yards in total offense and 32 points per game.

The 2018 bowl game is BC’s 27th in its history and 17th in the last 20 seasons. The Eagles are 14-12 in bowl games, 1-3 in their last 4 bowl appearances. In 2005, sophomore QB Matt Ryan led the Eagles to a 27-21 win over Boise State in the MPC Computers Bowl, in Bronco Stadium, Boise, Idaho.

 

Overcome by Orange

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BC seniors and family members before Saturday’s last regular season game. John Quackenbos photo

Hard to describe BC’s 42-21 loss to Syracuse yesterday in the regular season finale as anything but a classic beat-down.

The Eagles were certainly competitive at the beginning, scoring first to go up 7-0 with a little over three minutes to go in the first quarter. BC had more first downs and total offense than Syracuse up to that point. “That point,” however, lasted only another 11 seconds.

Syracuse QB Eric Dungey. John Quackenbos photo

On Syracuse’s first play after receiving the BC kickoff following the touchdown, QB Eric Dungey threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to tie the game, 7-7. Pretty much from then on, it was an Orange crush.

Syracuse kicked off on the next play and recovered a fumble by BC’s Michael Walker on the BC 36. Six plays later, Dungey ran in for his first of three rushing touchdowns for the day.

At halftime, the score was 28-14 in favor of Syracuse. An interception by the Eagles in the third quarter led to a 29-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Brown to Ben Glines to close the score to 28-21. The Orange, however, added two more touchdowns to double the Eagles’ score.

Possessing the ball for nearly 15 minutes more than the Eagles, Syracuse gained 559 yards total offense on 93 plays, to 356 yards on 69 plays for BC.

Star running back AJ Dillon played only in the first half, gaining 56 yards on 12 carries. BC gained only 105 yards rushing overall. QB Brown was 17 of 37 for 251 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Syracuse’s Dungey was 21 of 34 for 362 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Video highlights

BC finishes the regular season at 7-5, as it has in four of the last six seasons in which Steve Addazio has been head coach. The other two seasons saw 3-9 (2015) and 6-6 (2016) records. Overall, Addazio’s record is 38-38, 18-30 in ACC play.

There is a likely bowl game on the horizon, though, in an unusual circumstance, 10 ACC teams are bowl eligible and Virginia Tech, which had a game canceled earlier because of a hurricane, will play Marshall next Saturday and may become the 11th ACC team to be bowl eligible. The ACC has affiliations with 10 bowls. Could be musical chairs. Stay tuned!