After early stumble, BC gets serious in win
The Boston College football players said all the right things during the week leading up to yesterday's sun-kissed 44-7 home-opening victory over Army before an Alumni Stadium crowd of 40,166. The Eagles vowed, to a man, not to fall into the same trap they had at the end of last season.
With its inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference contest looming against 11th-ranked Florida State next weekend at home, BC was not going to look past Army the way it had looked past Syracuse in last year's regular-season finale, squandering a Big East title and Bowl Championship Series berth in a crushing setback.
So there was no way history was going to repeat itself, right?
Well, after the first 7 minutes 9 seconds had elapsed, it appeared BC had stumbled into the same trap.
Army took the first possession of the game and roared 80 yards in 12 plays, converting five first downs along the way, to take a 7-0 lead on Zac Dahman's 6-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Trimble.
''We worked all week to take these guys seriously," said BC quarterback Quinton Porter, who completed 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns -- a 31-yard strike to Tony Gonzalez and a quick 6-yard out to Will Blackmon that turned into a dazzling 41-yard TD. ''But all the smiles we had during the week were gone after that drive."
To make matters worse, the best player on BC's defense, senior defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, got benched for two plays on Army's opening drive after he was penalized for roughing the passer (15 yards, and an automatic first down) and being offside on consecutive plays.
''It was slap in the face," senior linebacker Ray Henderson said of Army's opening march. ''I mean, it was a wake-up call to everybody. We were a little sloppy in practice this week.
''I think everybody realized, 'Oh, we got a game to play today,' and it was not next Saturday, it was today. After that, we regrouped and we called each other out and said, 'Let's get going,' and we fixed it from there."
The Eagles, who improved to 2-0 following last week's 20-3 victory at Brigham Young, responded with 44 unanswered points and rolled up 464 yards total offense while BC's defense held Army scoreless, forced three turnovers (2 interceptions, 1 fumble), and limited the Black Knights to 170 yards offense after their initial 80-yard scoring drive.
''We are happy to walk off the field with a victory," said BC coach Tom O'Brien, who, despite being a 1971 graduate of the Naval Academy, seemed to take little joy out of defeating his bitter college rival. ''I don't think it was a very good first half on our part. I thought we were much better in the third period offensively, defensively, and on the sidelines.
''At the end we had the opportunity to play a lot of kids. It worked out well for us."
Sophomore linebacker Brian Toal, an accomplished running back in high school at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., scored the first two touchdowns of his BC career yesterday. Toal scored the first on a bullish 2-yard run that tied the game, 7-7, with 3:47 to go in the first quarter, then overcame an apparent concussion while playing on BC's punt coverage unit to score his second TD on a 1-yard plunge that gave BC a 37-7 point lead with 5:02 left in the third quarter.
''It felt great just to get in the end zone and help the team out," Toal said. ''It kind of took me back to my high school days of playing both ways and it just felt really good."
BC's receiving corps, though, was not about to be outdone. Gonzalez (3 catches, 75 yards) converted a fourth-and-9 situation by hauling in a 31-yard TD from Porter to put BC ahead, 13-7. The Eagles erupted for 17 second-quarter points to take a commanding 30-7 halftime lead.
L.V. Whitworth (17 carries, 74 yards, 1 TD) capped a six-play, 47-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run. Then, after Robert Francois recovered a Jacob Murphy fumble caused by BC freshman Paul Anderson (who stymied another Army scoring threat with a 15-yard interception return out of the Eagles' end zone), Blackmon hauled in a quick 6-yard out from Porter and turned it into the game's most dazzling score.
He shimmied his way past a pair of tacklers, then turned to his left and made a serpentine run across the width of the field, picking up a key block from Porter that turned him loose on the corner for a 41-yard score.
''I was trying to be brave on that one," said a smiling Blackmon, who also rushed for 31 yards on a pair of reverses to give him 72 all-purpose yards. ''It was a simple 6-yard out and was trying to take what I could get."
After Army kicker Joe Riley missed wide right on a 37-yard field goal attempt, BC kicker Ryan Ohliger converted from 22 yards out as the first half expired to give the Eagles the 23-point halftime lead.
BC then went to its ground game to chew up the clock, with Toal's 1-yard TD making it 37-7. Junior running back Survival Ross put an exclamation point on the victory when he tallied the first TD of his BC career on a gutsy 17-yard run, one play after having a 12-yard TD nullified by a 5-yard illegal procedure penalty.
''We tried to preach it all week, to not think about any games down the road," Henderson said. ''But it was tough. I'm sure kids were still thinking about [Florida State], but we did the best we could to focus on Army and get through them first. They were the task at hand and we take one game at a time. That's what our coaches preach to us and what we preach to each other as players.
''But, I think, maybe, some of the guys possibly [were looking ahead]. But I think we did a fairly good job of just focusing on Army and getting ready for them. Now we can get our eyes on Florida State and get ready for them and put all our concentration on them."
