Moving along in our Ultimate Boston College Football Game contest, here's Pool B. The contestants: three Atlantic Division road games and a bowl blowout victory.
2008: Boston College 24, @ Wake Forest 21
With the Eagles falling to 2-3 in ACC play with a 27-21 loss to Clemson on November 1, BC's hopes of repeating as ACC Atlantic Division champs seemed all but dashed. Oddly enough, even at 2-3, the Eagles could win out and with a little help from and old friend, repeat as Atlantic Division champs.
Coming off an emotional 27-17 victory at Florida State to keep their ACC title game hopes alive, the Eagles needed two victories at Wake Forest and vs. Maryland to secure their second trip to the Championship Game.
With the Eagles leading 3-0 early in the second quarter, starting QB Chris Crane went down with a devastating injury which turned out to be a broken collarbone. Backup Dominique Davis came on in relief of Crane to finish the drive and put BC up 6-0.
On the ensuing drive, with the Deacons offense on their own 41, All-American LB Mark Herzlich leaped up, picked off Wake QB Riley Skinner and willed his way into the end zone to go up 13-0. BC added three more before the half was out, but Wake got on the board when Kevin Patterson scooped up a Davis fumble and hit paydirt. The Eagles went into the locker room 16-7.
Wake cut the deficit to two early in the third quarter when the Wake D sacked Davis, who coughed up the ball resulting in the Deacons' second defensive fumble recovery for a TD of the game. BC's offense stalled for much of the second half, while a Demon Deacons blocked punt gave Wake the go-ahead TD.
After Wake's Sam Swank missed a 47-yarder to put the Deacons up eight, Dominique Davis put together the drive of his career, hitting Rich Gunnell for 36 and Brandon Robinson for 21 before punching the ball in on a 1-yard QB keeper to put the Eagles up one. After Montel Harris converted on the two-point conversion, the Deacons offense with just a 1:12 left in the game, couldn't get into FG position and the Eagles escaped Winston-Salem with a 24-21 victory on the shoulders of Herzlich and Davis.
2011: Boston College 28, @ Maryland 17
In what was arguably the ACC pillow fight game of the year, the 1-5 Eagles traveled to the 2-6 Maryland Terrapins in a game viewed by a few thousand fans in a snowy Byrd Stadium. In rather miserable conditions, the two teams combined for six turnovers and two missed field goals as the Eagles pounded the Terps 28-17.
BC's Rolandan Finch had career day, rushing for 243 yards and two touchdowns as the Eagles offense had their way with the Terps offensive line. Finch, a sophomore, previously had never rushed for over 100 yards in a game and came in to the game with just 266 yards in six games over the first half of the 2011 season.
Overall, the BC offense had one of the most unbalanced days that I can remember -- 32 passing yards, 372 yards rushing. The final score wasn't really indicative of how close this game was with the Terps scoring a TD in garbage time.
2007: Boston College 20, @ Clemson 17
No words. Only YouTube highlights.
2002: Boston College 51, Toledo 25 - Motor City Bowl
After starting the season a disappoint 0-4 in Big East play, including losses to Miami, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, BC rattled off three straight victories in their final three games to become bowl eligible for the fourth straight season.
The Eagles ended the season in a big way, routing the Toledo Rockets in the 2002 Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Eagles QB Brian St. Pierre lead the BC offense to touchdowns in each of their first six drives, jumping out to a 42-10 lead before halftime. St. Pierre finished the night 25-of-35 passing, a career high 342 yards and three touchdowns to pace the Eagles.
The 51 points was the most scored by the Eagles since a 2000 rout of a transitional UConn program, 55-3.
"I think we came out wanting to earn respect,'' coach Tom O'Brien said. "We wanted to be here, and we wanted to prove how good we were.''
With the victory, the Eagles senior class, led by St. Pierre, matched the 1981-84 teams for most wins in a four year span (32). At the time, the 2002 team became only the ninth team in school history to hit the nine win mark and first since 1993.
The two games that receive the most votes will advance to the Round of 16. Voting will end next Wednesday at 1 PM. Which games will advance?