Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd goes over BC safety Sean Sylvia (19) to score a touchdown in the first quarter of Saturday's game in Chestnut Hill. (AP)

After three games and one win over an FCS opponent, Boston College had yet to find a spark offensively, especially early on. However, against the most dynamic offense they’ve seen this season, the Eagles did just that in the early going of their 45-31 loss to Clemson on Saturday at Alumni Stadium.

The Eagles led 21-17 late in the first half before Clemson turned on the jets as quarterback Tahj Boyd and the Tigers racked up 576 yards of offense, finishing the game on a 28-10 run. The Eagles showed they could do some damage on offense, but they couldn’t keep up with this type of performance from the Tigers, something Eagles coach Frank Spaziani knew well going into the game.

“Those Clemson payers are very good players and they’ve done it to a lot of people,” Spaziani said. “I don’t think we were too complicated. If anything, we tried to make sure we were fundamentally sound and not be too vanilla but also got our guys lined up and let recognition go.”

Junior quarterback Chase Rettig finished the day 25-of-43 for 341 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. BC’s solid aerial attack produced a career-high 193 yards receiving for junior Alex Amidon (the third-highest total in school history). Where BC struggled, though, was in its attempt to establish a consistent ground attack. The Eagles finished the day with 51 rushing yards on 28 attempts, good for an average of 1.8 yards per carry.

“Any game where we’re moving the ball well is a fun game to be in, regardless of what they’re doing on the other side,” Rettig said of the high-scoring affair. “It puts a little edge on it, when it goes back and forth. It was fun, but we just have to do better, execute better.”

Clemson had a chance pull away from BC early, bursting out to a 17-7 lead with momentum after scoring on the first play of the second quarter. However, after his offense sputtered once again, BC sophomore safety Sean Sylvia picked off a deep bomb from Boyd that triggered two straight scoring drives from the Eagles. It was a huge stop for the BC defense that spent much of the game trying to contain the Tigers and give its offense a chance to respond.

“It kind of puts more on our shoulders because the offense is putting points on the board,” Sylvia said. “We have to take more ownership, start stopping some people.”

Read the rest of this entry »

CHESTNUT HILL — Frank Spaziani made no bones about it Saturday after his team’s 34-3 cakewalk over Maine. The win is great but the Eagles have to play a lot better over the course of their remaining 10 games if they have any chance of seeing positive results.

They trailed 3-0 after 15 minutes despite dominating play. They couldn’t convert yards into points and, as a matter of fact, they gave Maine its only points on red zone turnover.

“I have a new bald spot in the back of my head,” Spaziani said. “It was an inauspicious start. Those things are there. They need to be corrected. We are not going to be able to go the rest of the season, playing the schedule that we play, doing that. [After the first quarter] we tried to let our players know it’s a football game. It’s 60 minutes and you’ve got to keep playing.”

And that starts with Northwestern on the road at Evanston, Ill. next Saturday.

“We’re going to a different stratosphere now,” Spaziani said. “We’ve got two games under our belt. We’re going on the road. It’s a game that we need to play well. We took some steps forward in areas, but we’ve got 10 tough games coming up and we’ve got to get better. There are some good things out there but we’ve got to get better.”

One area where the Eagles most certainly took steps forward was on defense, starting with a red zone stand when running back Duece Finch fumbled at the BC 18, giving Maine the ball at the Eagles 10.

But the defense allowed only a 19-yard field goal, Maine’s only points of the day.

“Anytime you give up the ball in the red zone like that, a field goal [allowed] is palatable, depending on the situation,” Spaziani said. “The defense did a good job keeping Maine out of the end zone.

BC also dug in on third down, allowing Maine just three first downs on 18 third-down tries.

“That is always one of our MOs,” Junior linebacker Steele Divitto said. “You want to stop them on third down, get off the field and get the offense in and give them a shot. The offense did an awesome job taking care of the ball. They were a little sloppy in the beginning but they responded well.”

BC allowed just 193 yards on 73 defensive snaps. BC’s offense compiled 385 yards on 74 snaps.

NOTES: X-rays on Chase Rettig‘s back following Saturday’s game were negative. He has taken several big hits near the sidelines in the first two weeks and his back became sore in the second half. “It’s fine,” Rettig said afterward. “I took some hits last week and today and I just need to get in the tub this week.” Rettig finished 16-of-32 for 219 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. “Chase was fine,” Spaziani said. “He had a winning effort. There is a lot of improvement he needs to make off of this one. He’s a good player but he made a few mistakes that we need not to make. We need him to be almost perfect. That’s what we’re looking for.” … Fullback Jake Sinkovec also had X-rays on his right foot after the game. Those were also negative.

Second-year QB Josh Bordner hooked up with junior wideout Johnathan Coleman for a 13-yard touchdown pass, ending the Eagles’ fourth and final scrimmage on Wednesday positively.

Last season’s starting QB Chase Rettig connected on seven of his 13 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. Rettig hit Bobby Swigert with a 50-yard bomb on the opening drive. The junior quarterback passed for 1,960 yards last season.

“The defense was in a cover-2, and he had the middle read,” Rettig said, according to a school release. “It worked out well. He ended up making a good run and catch.”

Bordner finished 4-for-1o with 36 yards and the touchdown connection which happened in the overtime simulation.

Senior wideout Colin Lamond Jr. led all receivers with 61 yards on three catches while Swigert followed up with two receptions, 58 yards and a touchdown.

Tahj Kimble led the scrimmage in rushing with 26 yards on seven carries. Mike Javorski and Ted Davenport each had five carries, while Paul Maglio rushed for 11 yards on three carries.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coach Frank Spaziani's Eagles are preparing for their Sept. 1 season opener against Miami. (AP)

The BC football team took the field for a situational scrimmage Sunday at Alumni Stadium.

The third scrimmage of preseason training camp featured six game-simulated end-of-half/fourth-quarter situations in which the offense and defense squared off with limited time on the clock as well as a limited number of timeouts.

Junior wide receiver Alex Amidon led all receivers with seven receptions for 84 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Chase Rettig. Rettig completed 18-of-32 passing attempts for 168 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions to lead the first-team offense. Freshman defensive back Justin Simmons highlighted the team’s defensive effort, picking off a pair of second-team quarterback Josh Bordner passing attempts. Bordner completed 6-of-9 attempts for 55 yards.

In all, a total of 12 receivers caught at least one pass, including four tight ends: sophomore Jarrett Darmstatter, sophomore C.J. Parsons, freshman Dan Crimmins and redshirt freshman (and Andover native) Brian Miller.

“Some of the tight ends have stepped up,” coach Frank Spaziani said in a press release. “Those guys have been better. C.J. Parsons has been productive.”

Senior running back Mike Javorski (eight carries) and converted tailback Ted Davenport (10 carries) shouldered the bulk of the afternoon’s rushing attempts. Javorski also registered four receptions for 24 yards on Sunday.

In addition to Simmons, sophomore defensive back Manuel Asprilla intercepted a Rettig pass intended for Amidon at the goal line, and senior linebacker Nick Clancy picked off a Rettig pass that was deflected by Mehdi Abdesmad a few plays later.

“We’ve got a lot of nice young guys on this football team, and if they come through and play well, good things can happen, and Justin is one of them,” Spaziani said. “He’s as advertised.  We did our homework and everything that you do on kids. He’s a good prospect.”

From Boston College media relations:

Sophomore quarterback Chase Rettig completed 11-of-16 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns Saturday in the Boston College football team’s first intrasquad scrimmage of the 2011 spring practice season. The air attack was on display all afternoon in new offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers’ debut as junior QB Dave Shinskie completed 8-of-10 passes for 97 yards and three touchdowns. Junior Mike Marscovetra (11-13, 86 yards) and redshirt freshman Josh Bordner (5-13, 32 yards) also saw action.

Sophomore Alex Amidon led all receivers with four catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Senior Ifeanyi Momah also had four catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns.

All-America linebacker Luke Kuechly led the defense with eight tackles, followed closely by sophomore linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, who had seven tackles and a pass breakup.

The Eagles will scrimmage again next Saturday at noon in Alumni Stadium. The annual Jay McGillis Memorial Spring game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, April 16. Admission is free.

CHESTNUT HILL — Frank Spaziani had bigger expectations for his team this season.

Back in the summer, when the team was getting ready for the season, the Eagles head football coach didn’t expect to be celebrating the fact that his team became merely bowl-eligible with a win on Nov. 20 to improve to 6-5. Usually, the standards are much higher, beginning with making the ACC title game and then hopefully a related BCS Bowl bid as ACC champion.

But after five losses in a row, the Eagles head coach had to re-asses his expectations.

“The players and myself, we didn’t start the year out to be 6-6. We certainly have higher aspirations every year around here. Are we happy now to have won four games in a row? Absolutely. We have another game to play. We move on to the next week and then we’ll figure it out at the end.”

BC ends its regular season next Saturday in Syracuse, a former end-of-the-season rival from their Big East Conference days.

“It’s definitely good, but you’re not satisfied until the end of the season,” added sophomore linebacker Luke Kuechly. “If we keep winning, and that’s all that were concerned about is continuing to win. You can never be satisfied because once you’re satisfied, everything else in the future kind of goes away.

It’s ironic that Montel Harris wasn’t available after Saturday’s 17-13 win over Virginia for several reasons. First, his 114 yards on 24 carries put him at exactly 3,600 for his career, good for second all-time on the BC rushing list behind Derrick Knight. But perhaps more than that, it was the junior tailback Harris, when the team lost its fifth straight to Maryland, 24-21, who said, “We’ll win the rest of our games and get to a bowl. I feel very confident of that.”

Unfortunately, call it fate or just bad timing, Harris was not available to say, “I told you so” on Saturday. Instead, he was at a nearby hospital having an MRI on his left knee, injured late in the third quarter, minutes after his four-yard cut back run put the Eagles ahead to stay.

Kuechly did manage to stay until the end and knocked down a “Hail Mary” on the game’s final play to preserve victory.

“It feels great,” Kuechly said. “The past couple of games have come down to the wire. I joke around with the coaches that we’re making them get older and taking years off their life because these games have come down to the wire. So, it was good that we were able to bat the ball down at the end of the game. We got good pressure by our guys up front and he threw it kind of short so it helped us out.”

Kuechly was in the room after the gut-wrenching loss to Maryland at Alumni on Oct. 23 and heard Harris’ prediction.

“We knew we had a great team,” Kuechly said. “We knew we had to just get things rolling. It took a few games in the middle of the season to figure things out. Now that we are figuring things out, we’re starting to roll again.”

Quarterback Chase Rettig started out 0-4 as a starter and has rebounded to win his last four starts and can feel momentum building.

“I definitely thought it was there for us to take,” Rettig said. “This whole week, we have been talking about ‘what team wants it more.’ Every game, it’s a new week and all you’re trying to do is win that game and not worry about anything else. We had that streak when we were losing. But, each week, I feel like our coaches instill is us that it’s yours to take. The older guys have definitely helped out. The captains are telling us that we’re alright and if we want this, like I said before, it’s ours. So it’s nice to be on a streak right now and we’re just trying to continue it into next week.

CHESTNUT HILL — Chase Rettig earned his first win as the starting quarterback and tailback Montel Harris had 178 yards of total offense, as Boston College snapped a five-game losing streak with a 16-10 victory over Clemson Saturday at Alumni Stadium.

With Harris rushing 36 times for 142 yards on the day, Rettig passed only 16 times, completing nine. One of those completions was 36 yards to a wide-open Harris for second-quarter touchdown, giving BC its first lead at home since Kent State on Sept. 11. Rettig overcame another struggling effort early, throwing an interception to Rashard Hall, returned 52 yards for Clemson’s only touchdown of the day.

Kicker Nate Freese hit all three of his field goal attempts – twice from 36 yards and once from 21 – in support of a staunch defensive effort. All-American linebacker candidate Luke Kuechly picked off a pass near midfield with 1:42 left in the fourth and then knocked down a “Hail Mary” attempt as time expired to seal the win for the Eagles.

BC improved to 3-5, 1-4 in the ACC and visit Wake Forest next Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C.

CHESTNUT HILL–  This is what the Eagles should look like.

Amidst their recent struggles, the BC team has played solid football on every side of the ball. After throwing an early interception, Chase Rettig regained his form to make some big throws and Montel Harris continued his elusive running to give BC a 16-10 lead at halftime over Clemson. The Eagles defense also played well against a potent Clemson attack and refused to give up big plays, holding Clemson to only one third-down conversion in the half. Even the special teams units have pitched in, with three field goals from Nate Freese and a fumble recovery on a second-quarter kickoff.

BC (2-5, 0-4 ACC) and Clemson (4-3, 2-2 ACC) met in Chestnut Hill for this year’s battle of the O’Rourke-McFadden Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually to the winner of the BC-Clemson football game to commemorate the rich football traditions of both schools. The Eagles have won four of the last six meeting but have lost two consecutive games to Clemson. The Boston College Gridiron Club initiated the award in recognition of Clemson’s welcoming of BC into the ACC.

Since 2003, BC has been one of the conference’s top teams — but this year is proving to be an exception. BC, trying to snap a five-game losing streak, will have to go through a Clemson team that has had played well this year but lost a few close games to high-ranked teams like Miami (FL) and Auburn.

Last week’s game against Maryland was one of BC’s better performances, as the Eagles rallied in the second half but fell just short.The BC offense has been sparked by the rejuvenated play of Harris in the past two weeks as he passed 3,000 career yards against Maryland but inconsistent quarterback play has given opposing teams too many scoring chances in recent weeks.

This week started no differently. With 11:59 in the first quarter, Rettig threw a pass intercepted by Rashard Hall for a 52-yard touchdown return.

Rettig recovered nicely and on the next BC drive, threw a 40-yard pass to Ifeanyi Momah to bring the Eagles to the 2-yard line. However, Clemson executed a strong goal line stand and forced BC to settle for a 21-yard Freese field goal to bring the game to 7-3.

Clemson responded with a 64-yard drive that ended in a Chandler Catanzaro field goal to bring the Clemson lead to 10-3.

In the second quarter, BC mounted a 62-yard drive that encompassed over nine minutes but once again failed to score in the red zone, leading to a 36-yard Freese field goal.

The next Ryan Quigley kickoff was fumbled by Clemson and recovered by BC linebacker Steele Divitto at the Clemson 36-yard line. The resulting play led to a 36-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Harris to give the Eagles a 13-10 lead. It was the Eagles’ first lead at home since a Sept. 11 win against Kent State.

Possibly the most surprising statistics were that BC did not punt once in the first half and recorded 220 offensive yards while holding Clemson to only 92.

The half ended strangely as coach Frank Spaziani and the Eagles made the call to let the clock run down while inside the Clemson 20-yard line. The BC offense had established a solid rhythm after Catanzaro missed a Clemson field goal from the 26-yard line. Fans booed, hoping for a more aggressive approach to finish the half. Freese nailed another 36-yard kick to bring the lead to 16-10 as the half expired.

Rettig finished the first half going 4-for-6 attempts with 91 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Harris had another big half, carrying 23 times for 109 yards and his only reception came on his 36-yard touchdown catch. Harris recorded his fifth game of the season with over 100 yards to continue his assault on the BC record books.

Notes from the game:

Right tackle Rich Lapham was taken out of the game with a left knee injury and he will not return. Lapham is a 6’8’’ sophomore who is a crucial member of the strong BC offensive line.

Standout linebacker Luke Kuechly recorded six tackles, including his 100^th tackle of the season. A true freshman, Kuechly has been amongst the nation’s best and vital member of a strong linebacker trio in Chestnut Hill.

CHESTNUT HILL– This is getting old for BC.

A fourth-down rushing attempt by Montel Harris fell just short of the first down, sealing the Maryland victory. Harris, who put up a great game with 27 rushes for 116 yards and two touchdowns, also committed a game-changing fumble at his own 38 in the first half. It resulted in a go-ahead touchdown. Chase Rettig threw a pair of interceptions.

The first set up Maryland’s third touchdown and the second killed a momentum-generating drive late in the first half. Despite a fourth quarter rally from the Eagles, the BC offense fell short of the comeback with a 24-21 loss—their fifth straight defeat.

Three BC starters were also injured in the game, included safety Wes Davis who was rolled off the field on a stretcher. Senior DE Alex Albright suffered what appeared to be a serious right ankle injury in the first quarter. He was spotted on crutches on the sidelines in the second half and didn’t return.

“I didn’t get the official word from the doc but it did not look like he was going to be out there pretty soon,” Spaziani sounding an ominous tone.

Turnovers have killed BC all year and this game was no different.

“Obviously three turnovers to zero was a tilting factor in the game. We just don’t have the winning edge right now,” said coach Frank Spaziani. “Until we get it, we’re going to be doing the horseshoe thing…getting close.”

The Maryland offense responded to the challenge thanks to some BC miscues and an impressive first half by quarterback Danny O’Brien, taking a 21-7 lead into halftime. Maryland struck first with a 48-yard drive that finished with a 2-yard touchdown pass from O’Brien to wide receiver Torrey Smith. The Terrapins converted two fourth downs on the drive against a BC defense that had been stingy up until Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »

CHESTNUT HILL — For the second straight week, it was a matter of inches. And for the second straight week, Boston College came up just short.

On Saturday, as BC was trying to avoid its first five-game losing streak since 1998, a fourth-down rushing attempt by Montel Harris fell just short of the first down, sealing a 24-21 Maryland victory. Harris who put up a great game with 27 rushes for 116 yards and two touchdowns, also committed a game-changing fumble at his own 38 in the first half. It resulted in a go-ahead touchdown.

True-freshman quarterback Chase Rettig threw a pair of interceptions. The first set up Maryland’s third touchdown and the second killed a momentum-generating drive late in the first half. Despite a fourth quarter rally from the Eagles (2-5, 0-4 ACC), the BC offense fell just short of the comeback, failing to move the ball with two chances after cutting the deficit to three.

Three BC starters were injured in the game, included safety Wes Davis who was rolled off the field on a stretcher with a neck injury. He was taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for precautionary tests after reporting movement in all extremities.

Maryland (5-2, 2-1 ACC) won in New England for the first time since beating BC at Foxboro Stadium, 31-13, on Sept. 14, 1985. A crowd of 36,078 turned out at Alumni Stadium, as the Eagles dropped their third straight game at Chestnut Hill.