Runaway

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BC photo by John Quackenbos

A couple of stats for the Eagles Saturday against Notre Dame looked good. They out-gained the Irish in passing 215-96, ran more plays 85-78, and gained more 1st downs 22-19. Notre Dame’s better stats, though, were greater both in number and in scale, culminating in a 49-20 runaway win over BC.

The Irish rushed for 515 yards, falling 1 yard short of the most ever allowed by the Eagles (Army 2012) and tying the same total allowed to Army in 1985. (The Army teams have had a history of marching through Eagle defenses over the years.) Total offense for ND was 611 yards.

BC had allowed 322 yards rushing in its first 2 games. The Irish ran for only 25 yards less than that total in the second half. Notre Dame ran for at least 35 yards 6 times, 3 of them for 60+ yards. In its first 2 games, the Eagles had allowed only one run longer than 29 yards.

“Our bell cow was defense,” BC coach Steve Addazio said in the Boston Globe. “And we don’t give up rushing yards like that. . . . We don’t do that, but we did.”

The game was actually competitive, score-wise, into the middle of the 3rd quarter. BC scored first on a 38-yard field goal by Colton Lichtenberg in the 1st quarter, who had another successful field goal from 41 yards in the 3rd quarter and who has not missed a field goal or point-after yet this season. Notre Dame scored 2 touchdowns in the first half, and the Eagles scored a touchdown on a 22-yard pass from Anthony Brown to WR Charlie Callinan. The teams went into halftime with ND up 14-10.

RB Jon Hilliman. BC photo by John Quackenbos.

Lichtenberg’s 2nd field goal brought the score to a 1-point margin, 14-13. On 5 of their next 7 possessions, the Irish scored touchdowns. The only other BC score during the 2nd half was a 14-yard TD pass again from Brown to Callinan. It was a career high 7 receptions by Callinan for 2 touchdowns on the day.

Junior RB Jon Hilliman gained 122 yards on 22 carries, his 6th career 100-yard game. Freshman A.J. Dillon added another 60 rushing yards on 16 carries. QB Brown was 22-40 for 2 touchdowns, with 2 interceptions.

The Eagles fall to 1-2 and return to conference play Saturday against, ahem, #2 Clemson, which took care of Louisville at Louisville, 47-21, yesterday. Kickoff is again at 12:30 pm PT.

 

 

BC not aWake

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Athletics Director Martin Jarmond greets members of the football team in the pre-game Eagle Walk. Best part of the day.

The statistics from today’s BC home opener against Wake Forest were not very different between the teams . . . except for one prominent and ugly variance — turnovers. The Eagles committed 4 while the Demon deacons had none and that divergence was a major reason for BC’s 34-10 loss.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Anthony Brown accounted for 3 of the 4 turnovers, 2 of his 3 interceptions either immediately or penultimately leading to Wake Forest touchdowns. One was particularly damaging. With Wake ahead 14-7 and less than 2 minutes left in the first half, Brown threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Instead of the possibility of tying the score or cutting it to 14-10, the Eagles went into halftime down 21-7.

Brown, who had shown promise in the opening victory over Northern Illinois, had a much more difficult time against this ACC opponent. Today, he was 11-of-29 for 119 yards, passing for one touchdown and with the aforementioned 3 interceptions. Darius Wade, the senior who lost the starting position to Brown pre-season, replaced Brown with 4:23 left in the 3rd period. Wade finished the game 7-of-12 for 44 yards.

Colton Lichtenburg continued his unblemished field goal performance for the season, with a 30-yard kick in the 3rd to make the score 21-10 in favor of Wake.

The teams were separated by only 4 yards in total offense, 309 to 305 in Wake’s favor. BC gained more yards passing, 163-151, but were short in rushing, 142-158. The Eagles had 19 1st downs to 15 for Wake. The Eagles had 82 offensive plays, 10 fewer than in the opener, but were as mediocre in terms of efficiency, gaining 3.7 yards per play.

Some of the San Diego Eagles at the Wake Forest gamewatch.

Next up, Notre Dame. An early game, 9 am PT.  UPDATE: ACC switches BC-ND kickoff to 12:30 pm PT. Remember, at Striders, fans in BC garb get a 20 percent discount off food and drink. And we will have BC swag to give away to lucky fans. Come on, it’s Notre Dame!

 

 

A win is a win is a . . .

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BC won its opening football game of the 2017 season — barely and butt-ugly.

Colton Lichtenberg was 3-for-3 in field goals.

Colton Lichtenberg’s third field goal of the game, with 2:13 remaining, put the Eagles ahead of Northern Illinois, 23-20. Only a botched field goal attempt by the Huskies at the close of the game kept it that way.

QB Anthony Brown

Redshirt freshman Anthony Brown played the entire game at quarterback for BC. His selection, after a reported competition for the spot with senior Darius Wade, was announced by Coach Steve Addazio immediately prior to the game. Brown was 26 of 42 for 191 yards passing, two touchdowns and one interception.

Overall, the Eagles gained 339 yards in 92 plays, for an average of 3.7 yards a play. Northern Illinois gained a total of 367 yards in 74 plays, gaining an average of 5 yards per play.

The winning 37-yard field goal came at the end of a 13-play, 48-yard drive in which the Eagles converted 2 4th-downs. Lichtenberg had kicked field goals of 42 and 35 yards in the 1st half. He did not miss a field goal.

Northern Illinois scored first to go up 3-0 in the middle of the 1st quarter. BC tied it with Lichtenberg’s first field goal, then fell behind 10-3 with NIU’s 15-yard touchdown pass. Lichtenberg added the second field goal to make it 10-6, but the Eagles took the lead, 13-10, into halftime with a 5-yard Brown pass to junior WR Mike Walker.

BC pushed the lead to 20-10 with a 4-yard TD pass to sophomore tight end Ray Marten in the middle of the 3rd period. NIU came back with a field goal and then touchdown to tie the game early in the final quarter.

Leading rusher for the Eagles was junior Jon Hilliman, who had 25 carries for 77 yards. Defensively, BC had no sacks and 2 tackles for loss. Pre-season all-America defensive end Harold Landry was held to 6 tackles, none for a loss.

New venue

Among the 30+ alumni at Striders last night. From left: Kevin Smosky ’00, Brian Tsu ’00, David Cubeta ’07, Christa Cubeta, Megan Ashley, and Justin Niles ’09.

Thirty-plus alumni and friends enjoyed the opener at a new venue for BC gamewatches — Striders, near the Gaslamp District. Very nice setup and nice attention to the BC group.

Josie Campese ’02, left, shows off the name of the new venue on her shirt. Center is Bill McDonald ’68 and to the right is Team Shepstone — Allison Kuder Shepstone ’06 and husband, Tim.

BC plays Wake Forest next Saturday in the home opener. Join us to check out Striders in the morning.