The Dylan Lonergan era of Boston College is off and running. The Eagles took care of business in the home opener, beating down Fordham 66-10.
Things got of to a crisp start. Lonergan found receiver after receiver on the opening drive, going 3/3 on third down and finding Jordan McDonald for the score. Lonergan showed off his big arm and consistent passing during his three quarter of action, going 26/34 for 268 yards and four touchdowns. Will Lawing called a very pass happy offense to get his new quarterback more acclimated to the live game time. BC scored on its first two drives with relative ease, the second to Jaedn Skeete.
Lewis Bond was by far and away the Alabama transfer’s favorite target. The senior captain and pristine route runner was found 10 ties for 121 yards. Bond will certainly be leading the Eagles in receiving for the second year in a row, and will definitely have a shot to push toward the BC all-time receptions record.
Boston College’s defense had the opposite script, where a shaky start saw Fordham’s offense quickly get down the field. They locked things up, courtesy of some sound coverage from sophomore Syair Torrence and the Rams settled for a 46 yard field goal to answer BC’s opening drive. The defense would recover after this forcing five straight punts, three of which were three and outs through the rest of the half.
The Eagles offense began to stall early in the second — consecutive three and outs gave BC fans a chance to see the revamped punting unit, and it delivered. Both Shamus Florio and Andy Quinn made good work with their opportunity to keep Fordham’s at bay and maintain good field position. With under two minutes to go in the first half, BC began to execute at a high level again with Lonergan finding five different receivers en route to Skeete’s second touchdown of the day. Tight end Jeremiah Franklin was another reliable safety blanket for Lonergan, catching five passes for 50 yards.
It took BC’s defense one play in the second half to crush any hope for a potential Fordham comeback. Daveon Bam Crouch picked off Fordham QB Gunnar Smith for a double score out of the half. Kicker Luca Lombardo then eked in a 48 yarder off the crossbar to push the lead to 28. That would be the Eagles last ‘blip’ — touchdown after touchdown would follow. First Lonergan showed fans what the hype is all about putting the ball up for Reed Harris to haul it down in the endzone.
A blocked punt by Charlie Comella set up the BC ground game to get an opportunity which Turbo Richard happily took to close the third quarter.
Grayson James had the fourth quarter to showcase on his own and he certainly delivered. With two big passes to true freshman Dawson Pough, James set up Alex Broome for a short rushing touchdown. But that was too many passes. On his next drive, it took just one 55 yard bomb to VJ ‘Rocket’ Wilkins for another true freshman Bo MacCormack to rush in for another score. After a Fordham touchdown answer to make it 59-10, James decided to get on the board himself for BC’s last score. He found the freshman Pough again for a 22-yard touchdown after a big toss to captain Luke McLaughlin to get the Eagles in range.
All in all, it was a solid start to the season. Alumni was buzzing, the uniforms looked stellar, but the jury’s out on the Superfan shirts for the students. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but BC’s offense put a whole lot of points on the board and didn’t have to dig to deep into the playbook. The defense took a minute but quickly remembered how to shut a team down. The team avoided injuries and players across the board were able to see meaningful playing time and get on the scoreboard.
