Author Archives: Bill McDonald '68

Day at the races

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(L-R) Pat Nascenzi ’80, Bob Nascenzi ’78. Tim Schinhofen, Mary-Lou Kiley ’77, Zeynep Barakat ’99, Bryan Boulton, Mary Berube ’80, Michael Carson ’00, Ellen Bronchetti ’00, Bill McDonald ’68, Michael Scott, and Mary Ann Scott ’75. Thanks to Maria DeSantis ’75 for taking the photos in this post. Absent from the photo were Jocelyn Campese ’02, Ami Strutin Belanoff, Narges Sadighian, Catherine Senoyuit ’18, Riley Peterson, Rebecca Wade ’89, and Patrick Wade.

San Diego Eagles gathered for a day at the races Saturday. It was the penultimate day of the fall or Bing Crosby (or, to us, BC) season at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, “where the turf meets the surf.”

View from our Turf Club Seats

The chapter was able to fill five tables in the track’s Turf Club, which offers an excellent view of the track and finish line, as well as food and other refreshments. Even with the view, each table had a monitor, which enabled all to watch what was right in front of us. :)

There was no tally of wins and losses, but many in attendance expressed their enjoyment of the afternoon.

Racing season doesn’t come again until mid-July, with the next BC Season beginning in early November. We’ll look at have another event in one or both of the seasons next year.

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!