Four interceptions, and the last two settled it
Boston College intercepted AJ Surace four times and stopped Rutgers twice on downs on Friday night at Chestnut Hill. That was the game. The Eagles won 28-21 in their home opener.
Anthony Palano took two of those interceptions in the fourth quarter alone. The first came on 4th-and-3 from the Boston College 21, ending a Rutgers drive that would have levelled the score. The second ended the contest.
The hosts had built the platform early, racing to 17-0 while gaining 226 of their eventual 402 yards inside the first half.
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McKenzie runs as much as he throws
Mason McKenzie went 18 of 29 for 252 yards with a touchdown, and led the Eagles on the ground with 94 yards from 13 carries. Dawson Pough was his main outlet, four catches for 106 yards including a 78-yard score with 7:06 left that proved decisive.
Boston College opened the scoring after their defence stopped a Surace sneak on 4th-and-1. The Eagles converted a fourth down of their own and Dickens ran in from 19 yards. Charlie Comella’s interception set up the next one, McKenzie finding the front corner of the end zone from 10 yards, two plays after a 53-yard throw to Landon Wright. Luca Lombardo’s 30-yard field goal early in the second quarter stretched it to 17-0, and a 46-yarder as the half expired made it 20-7.
Rutgers 0-2 for the first time since 2017
Rutgers did answer. They chewed 8:29 off the clock on a 15-play, 72-yard drive finished by a four-yard touchdown to Antwan Raymond, and Surace ended 18 of 27 for 230 yards and three touchdowns. KJ Duff Jr. caught two of them across a 137-yard night, including a 60-yard reply two plays after Pough’s score.
It was not enough. Rutgers sit 0-2 for the first time since 2017. Surace started in place of the injured Dylan Lonergan, himself a Boston College transfer.
Eagles linebacker Bodie Kahoun was taken off on a stretcher after a second-quarter stop. The school said afterwards that he had movement in all extremities and had gone to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The game fell on the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001 and was Boston College’s annual Red Bandanna Game, played in memory of alumnus Welles Crowther, credited with saving more than a dozen lives in the South Tower.
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