FINAL SCORE:
24 Boston College, 3 Maine
It was a game that Boston College should have won and in the end they got the job done defeating the Maine Black Bears 24-3. A pair of fourth quarter touchdown runs by junior running back Tyler Rouse made the 29,262 spectators at Alumni Stadium forget all about a dismal first three quarters of offensive (pun intended) football.
Midway through the second quarter the Eagles and Black Bears were knotted at three and sophomore quarterback Darius Wade, who was making his first varsity start, looked the part. By the end of the first half, Wade had completed only 10 passes for 89 yards. His last pass of that half was perhaps his best of the day as he found receiver Bobby Swigert for an 11-yard touchdown that was greatly aided by a diving effort by the senior receiver.
Defense ruled the third quarter as both the Eagles and Black Bear defenses completely stymied the opposing offenses. The highlight of the third may very well have been the punting abilities of Maine kicker James De Martin who punted 7 times in the game averaging 43-yards per punt. I had to slip a Maine highlight in and that was pretty much it.
The Eagle offense finally picked things up on their final drive of the third quarter with a 3rd down completion to fullback Bobby Wolford and an end-around run by receiver Thadd Smith that brought the Eagles to midfield. From that point on the game belonged to Rouse who literally carried the home team breaking away from multiple Maine tacklers for a 21-yard touchdown run.
The BC defense was spectacular all day holding the Black Bear offense to 8 first downs and 91 total yards. Senior defensive end Mehdi Abdesmad and junior linebacker Matt Milano set the tone up front combining for 3.5 sacks of Black Bear quarterback Dan Collins, and freshman defensive back William Harris ended the Black Bears afternoon by intercepting a tipped Collins pass which enabled Rouse the opportunity for his best run of the game for a thunderous 45-yard touchdown.
“It was frustrating at times…we played really well but at the same time a bit sloppy. We made elementary mistakes.,” said Eagles Head Coach Steve Addazio.
The Eagles will take on Howard University this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Alumni Stadium. Tickets are available and may be purchased directly at bceagles.com.
Christian A. Guarino, a Boston North End resident, writes about football and soccer for the Boston Post Gazette.
