Final say goes to Eagles

BOISE, Idaho -- They were incensed over disrespectful remarks aimed at their captain, Mathias Kiwanuka, during a banquet Monday that turned into a Boise State pep rally, as speaker after speaker punctuated their remarks with cheers of ''Go Broncos!" And so, yesterday, the Boston College football players resolved to show Boise State exactly where it could go after withstanding a furious second-half comeback (not to mention a hail storm) to post a 27-21 triumph in the MPC Computers Bowl.

''We come out here and all the things we go through, we go to a banquet that turns into a pep rally," fumed BC coach Tom O'Brien. ''I didn't have to say anything to this team. I ought to thank the mayor and people of Boise. They did everything to get this [BC] team ready to play football. I've been to 19 bowl games in my life and I've never seen anything like that in my life when we sat through that banquet here.

''The pep rally was the next night," O'Brien added. ''You don't disrespect the best player on the opposite team by making fun of his name and having everybody in the audience laugh at him."

Despite being tabbed as the ''home" team, the 19th-ranked Eagles overcame a decided home-field disadvantage by snapping Boise State's 31-game home winning streak, the longest in the country, on the famed blue turf of 30,000-seat Bronco Stadium, by extending the nation's longest bowl winning streak to six games.

BC junior strong safety Ryan Glasper clinched the victory when he intercepted Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky (20 of 35, 279 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions) for the second time, this one in the Eagles' end zone with 34 seconds left as the Broncos threatened from the 12.

''We knew it was going to be a battle from the beginning," Glasper said. ''It was one of those deals where the ball was coming and I saw it, it was in slow motion, and I just told myself that I had to come up with a big play."

Glasper's pick enabled BC to send out its 12 departing seniors in style as the winningest class in the modern era of the program with a 35-15 record, tying the 1942 squad for wins over a four-year period. In the process, the Eagles ruined the swan song of Boise State coach Dan Hawkins, who will take over Colorado's embattled program after compiling a 53-11 record and four consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles with the Broncos.

''I would've liked to have the win for the seniors, for the effort they put forth," Hawkins said.

By halftime, though, the Broncos stared at the very real possibility of getting run off their own field after the Eagles rolled to a 24-0 lead. It could have just as easily been 31 points had Will Blackmon (5 catches, 144 yards, 1 TD) not been hauled down at the Boise State 1 by linebacker Colt Brooks after hauling in a 52-yard Hail Mary heave from quarterback Matt Ryan (19 of 36, 256 yards, 3 TDs) as time expired in the half.

The Eagles set the tone early by going 69 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead on Tony Gonzalez's first of two TD receptions. Facing fourth and 4 from the Boise State 24, Ryan dropped back then bailed out of the collapsing pocket and rifled a strike to Gonzalez (4 catches, 45 yards), who broke from his route and streaked across the back of the end zone to make the uncontested grab.

BC then erupted for 17 points in the second quarter to seemingly put the game out of reach.

Ryan Ohliger, who made field goals from 30 and 27 yards, converted his first to give the Eagles a 10-0 lead with 12:22 left in the second quarter. Ray Henderson set up BC's next score when he returned a fumble 55 yards to the Boise State 13, where, one play later, Ryan connected with Gonzalez for the second time for a 17-0 lead.

Blackmon then made a tremendous leaping grab, beating two defenders, to haul in a 35-yard TD strike from Ryan for a 24-0 lead with 1:16 to go in the half.

''We knew they were a great team and that they were going to come back in the second half," Henderson said. ''They're not the No. 8 offense in the nation for nothing. But we were able to hold our ground and make some big plays when we needed to."

After Ohliger tacked on a 27-yarder with 3:52 left in the third quarter to increase BC's lead to 27-0, the Eagles withstood a second-half flurry by the Broncos, who tallied on a 53-yard pass from Zabransky to Drisan James to pull within 27-7, then scored two TDs in the fourth, on Zabransky's 2-yard run (capping a four-play, 33-yard drive) and Quinton Jones's dazzling 92-yard punt return that pulled the Broncos within 6 with 3:51 to go.

''Victory and defeat sleep in the same bed," said Hawkins, philosophical to the end. ''When we got down, I told them not to try and get 24 points on one play. I told them to go out and get one play, then try to get the next play."

BC, however, prevented the Broncos from getting the last play, which enabled the Eagles to have the last word.

''There wasn't anything I had to do to this football team to get them ready to play," O'Brien said in his testy postgame remarks. ''You all did it for us, thank you."