Eagles Pounce on Wildcats, But 'Still Have a Long Way to Go'

If the season-opener against Weber State was supposed to be a barometer for the Boston College football team, the numbers are all over the chart. The Eagles were rarely threatened, and, by the second quarter of their 38-20 win over the Wildcats, they were never in danger of losing the game.

But that's hardly the whole story.

"We showed flashes of a couple things that would lead you to believe there's a lot of potential, but there were some things that just didn't quite run right," said head coach Frank Spaziani. "Once again, we're young in a lot of areas. The receivers made a couple nice catches, and Montel ran well. There are a lot of positive things to build on, but we have a long way to go. The operation didn't run very smoothly."

There were two significant bumps at the beginning of the game. Quarterback Dave Shinskie drew a delay of game penalty on the first play. Then, after lining up under the right guard instead of center, he locked into receiver Ifeyani Momah on a slant route. Weber State linebacker Taylor Sedillo picked it off with ease, and Weber State took over on the BC 17-yard line.

"I was looking in the box and I wasn't paying attention," Shinskie admitted with an embarrassed grimace. "There were a lot of emotions going through my head, and I don't know what I was thinking, actually. I ended up checking it to a throw, and not seeing a linebacker, and that's what happens when you don't see people that you should."

BC finally emerged after that hiccup, resembling the team that some pundits have slotted for the ACC championship game.

 Five straight drives resulted in points – four of them touchdowns – the longest of which took 3 minutes, 28 seconds. On the offense's second drive, Shinskie settled down with a naked bootleg toss to tight end Chris Pantale, who went for 13 yards and his first completion. After receiver Johnathan Coleman rumbled for a 16-yard gain, Shinskie capped the drive with an out to Pantale, who dove for the pylon and scored the season's first touchdown.

"As a quarterback, you have to have a short memory," Shinskie said. "Once I completed that first pass, it was a lot easier to get going."

It was only the beginning for a suddenly prolific Eagles offense.

Two more touchdowns pushed the score to 21-3 in favor of the Eagles, behind a 17-yard strike to Ifeyani Momah and 4-yard weave from Montel Harris, and Weber State had no answer for the defense. The Eagles traded a field goal for a Wildcats touchdown on the next drive, making it 24-10 with 3:40 remaining in the half.

That was plenty of time for the BC offense, which ended with an uncovered Sterlin Phifer running a wheel route along the sidelines and hauling in a pass from backup quarterback Mike Marscovetra.

Yet, as good as the Eagles were in their 31-10 first half, they were equally inept in the second half. BC had two drives in the entire third quarter, both of which ended after three plays. The fourth quarter was even worse, with an interception, another three-and-out, and a fumble comprising their body of work.

Weber State quarterback Cameron Higgins also picked the defense apart, finishing the third quarter 12 of 15 for 92 yards. Though the defense only yielded a field goal, linebacker Luke Kuechly recognized there were screws to be tightened.

"We need to work on our pass game, and they had quite a few passing yards," said Kuechly, who led the team with 11 tackles. "Another thing we need to work on is our third-down efficiency. We had them on third and long a couple of times, but we didn't get off the field. That's one of the big things; if you let teams hang around on third down, that's going to cause some problems."

BC traded pockets of perfection with stretches of inefficiency. Though the Eagles won by 18, it hardly felt as if they dominated in all facets of the game.

But, as a critical Spaziani reminded, the Eagles still started their season 1-0.

"We accomplished what we set out to do and got the first win," he said.