King of the mountain
Sky-high BC soars over West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The defiant tone was set the moment Boston College's motorcade arrived at the foot of West Virginia's campus yesterday and began chugging its way up the hill on Patteson Drive, escorted by four State Police cruisers, sirens blaring. The caravan of four buses streaked past a queue of cars waiting to make a left turn onto University Avenue when one Mountaineer fan signaled the animosity people here have for BC for its intention to leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Sitting in traffic, the fan thrust his right arm through the sunroof of his sports utility vehicle and greeted the visitors from Chestnut Hill with an obscene gesture.
"I thought it was pretty amusing," said BC senior quarterback Paul Peterson. "I just took it as they were saying hello to us."
The 21st-ranked Eagles bade farewell to a familiar Big East foil with their most complete effort of the season, a 36-17 victory over No. 13 West Virginia before a crowd of 58,113 at Mountaineer Field that saw BC dismantle its team's hopes for an outright Big East title and a berth in the Bowl Championship Series.
The victory put the Eagles (7-2, 3-1) in position to earn their first Big East title, a $2.5 million payout as the league's BCS representative, and a possible berth in the Sugar Bowl or Fiesta Bowl.
"We're still in the Big East right now," said Peterson. "I don't know how other teams are feeling about us leaving. I'm sure they're not happy, but what can we do? We're just going to go out and play. We're still in the Big East. "The ACC is next year. That's all I can say about that."
With games at Temple next week and vs. Syracuse at home Nov. 27, the Eagles have within reach their goals of a league title and BCS berth after recording their first victory in these hostile environs since the inception of Big East play. BC had gone 0-5-1 in its six previous visits to Morgantown, scoring its last victory here in 1990.
"This is big for our program and our school," said BC coach Tom O'Brien. "Like I told our guys all week, `You weren't part of those other BC teams.' They really believed they could win today."
Peterson (18 of 30, 162 yards, 2 touchdowns) directed scoring drives at the start of the game and just before intermission -- throwing TD passes of 10 yards to L.V. Whitworth and 1 yard to Dave Kashetta -- as the Eagles built a 24-7 halftime lead.
Despite allowing a season-high 462 yards, BC's defense held the Mountaineers to just 17 points.
"I don't care about the yards," said defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani after West Virginia quarterback Rasheed Marshall outgained BC's offense (243 yards) with 324 all-purpose yards (224 passing, 100 rushing). "It's the points that matter. That's what wins games."
BC's special teams put the exclamation point on this triumph.
"The special teams were a decisive factor," O'Brien said. "Last year, [the Mountaineers] had a kickoff return and an interception return for a touchdown that ended up being the difference. This year, we had two punt returns and some great kickoffs that were the difference in the game."
DeJuan Tribble and Will Blackmon registered the biggest plays on special teams, with Tribble scoring on a 41-yard punt return to give the Eagles a 14-0 lead and Blackmon scoring on a 71-yarder that cleared the house with 6:02 left.
Driven by the disappointment of three missed field goal attempts in a 17-14 loss at Wake Forest, freshman kicker Ryan Ohliger converted kicks of 44, 47, and 36 yards.
Not to be outdone, freshman punter Johnny Ayers uncorked a career-long 76-yard boot, the third longest in school history. And safety Jamie Silva came up with a fumble recovery by stripping the ball from Vaughn Rivers on the opening kickoff of the second half.
The Eagles seized control with 1:13 left before intermission when they went 70 yards in 10 plays to take the commanding halftime lead.
"That gave us some nice momentum," O'Brien said. "That was a situation where we could either throw a touchdown pass or throw it away and kick a field goal."
BC went for the TD. That forced West Virginia to get away from its league-leading rushing attack and gave BC the buffer it needed to withstand a furious second half by the Mountaineers, who managed only two scores: Marshall's 6-yard TD toss to Chris Henry (capping a monster 18-play, 91-yard drive) and Brad Cooper's 25-yard field goal.
The Eagles answered with a pair of fourth-quarter scores -- Ohliger's 36-yard field goal (set up by Brian Toal's 43-yard kickoff return) and Blackmon's 71-yard punt return -- to silence the Mountaineer Maniacs.
As they bounded off the field, the Eagles responded to their hostile reception with a one-fingered gesture of their own: the No. 1 sign.
"From the beginning, there was a lot of four-lettered words; their fans are crazy," said junior defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka. "You love it, but it's one of those things where it's so intense it can take you out of your game if you let it.
"Personally, I've been down here before and I knew what to expect. But some of the younger guys, we just tried to prepare them all week and let them know it was going to be a hectic place to play.
"But anytime you can come in here and get a stadium full of this many people to sit down and be quiet, that's a thrill, yeah." 