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!