Rutgers can’t keep pace with Boston College
PISCATAWAY >> AJ Dillon ran for 150 yards and two touchdowns and Boston College bounced back from a horrible performance a week ago to beat Rutgers 30-16 on Saturday.
New Jersey native Anthony Brown scored on a quarterback sneak and running back David Bailey tallied on a career-long 42-yard run as the Eagles (3-1) used their big offensive line to hand Rutgers (1-2) its second straight loss. Dillon scored on second-half runs of 1 and 4 yards.
The win was Boston’s College’s 11th straight over the Scarlet Knights, and it extended its unbeaten streak against them to 14 games (130-1). This was the first game between the two founding members of the Big East Conference since 2004. The Eagles left the following year to join the ACC. Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t play well enough to win a game,” Rutgers coach Chris Ash said. “That’s my fault. It is all on me. I have to do a better job of getting the team ready. They did a better job than I did.”
Aaron Boumerhi kicked a 37-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to give the Eagles a 17-13 lead. Dillon scored from a yard out on Boston’s College’s next offensive series to cap a 13-play, 82yard drive on which he ran eight times for 44 yards. The junior added a 4-yard TD run with 6:32 to play, his 30th career rushing touchdown.
Art Sitkowski, who started at quarterback with McLane Carter out with a concussion, connected with halfback Raheem Blackshear on a short first-quarter swing pass for a 74-yard scoring pass. Justin Davidovicz kicked field goal of 23, 28 and 50 yards for Rutgers, which is coming off a 1-11 season.
Davidovicz’s short field goal gave the Scarlet Knights a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter, but Brown scored from a yard out with 9:48 left in the half, shortly after Medhi El Attrach recovered a Blackshear fumble at the Rutgers 12.
Boston College never lost the lead.
Sitkowski, who struggled starting as a true freshman, played especially well in filling in for Carter, a graduate transfer from Texas Tech. Sitkowski was 23 of 33 for career best 304 yards. He had a late interception trying to force a play. Ash may have to think who starts next week.
“He worked really, really hard to improve,” Ash said. “We talk a lot about that in these sessions. And hopefully he saw a lot of that improvement today. He had his best game that he’s had since he’s been here at Rutgers.”