The fight was valiant, right up until the end when Boston College went down with just a whimper.
The Eagles led most of the afternoon against Virginia Tech, but with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter fell behind. They showed their mettle, re-taking the lead barely two minutes later. But that?s when suddenly their aggressiveness disappeared.
The Hokies tied the game on a field goal with 1:05 showing on the clock, and after the subsequent kickoff BC had 59 seconds and two timeouts to work with in an attempt to pull off a thrilling win in the final home game of what?s been a dismal season.
Instead of attacking, the Eagles played for overtime.
The Hokies got the ball first and scored. BC tried to answer, and failed, losing 30-23 to fall to 2-9 overall and 1-6 in the ACC.
"It doesn?t get much worse than that," said senior linebacker Nick Clancy. "Being our last home game, fighting so hard to the very end like that and to fall short, it hurts, man. It really does."
After Virginia Tech (5-6, 3-4 ACC) evened the score at 23 with just over a minute remaining, BC sophomore kickoff returner Spiffy Evans was chased down at the BC 15-yard line as he tried to cut across the field. Less than 50 yards stood between them and kicker Nate Freese?s field-goal range.
BC tried to run a draw on first down. Freshman David Dudeck ? in for junior Rolandan Finch, who had run for 133 yards but was injured ? gained just 2 yards. Then came a 4-yard run. And on third-and-4, junior quarterback Chase Rettig took a knee as the clock ran down.
"You don?t want to give the game away there," said BC coach Frank Spaziani. "Take it into overtime and play some defense. There?s a lot of factors that go into (handling the final possession of regulation). ... We ran the draw hoping we were going to get a good play on first down and we were going to up-tempo it."
"It?s out of my hands," Freese said when asked if he was disappointed BC wasn?t aggressive in the final minute of regulation. "If they put me in certain positions I have to answer those. I can?t put myself in certain situations."
BC won the overtime coin toss and chose to play defense. Starting 25 yards from the end zone by rule, it took Virginia Tech six plays to score, with quarterback Logan Thomas finding tight end Randall Dunn in the back of the end zone for the touchdown.
The Eagles nearly stopped the Hokies on third-and-1 from the 16, but Martin Scales broke the tackle of BC senior defensive tackle Bryan Murray behind the line of scrimmage and gained 3 yards on the play.
With Finch on the sideline, BC went quietly.
Dudeck ran for no gain on first down. Rettig was sacked for a 1-yard loss on second. A blitz up the middle forced an incompletion on third. And Rettig, looking for junior Alex Amidon on fourth-and-11, was forced to check down to Dudeck in the flat where he was tackled well short of the first down.
"The fourth-down play we had a deep in-cut planned for Alex (Amidon), but their defenders all went to him," said Rettig. "I felt like since a lot of their guys went to Alex, I thought David had a chance to make it to the first-down marker."
Prior to the demoralizing finish, BC played with as much aggressiveness and effectiveness as it has all season. The defense, porous against so many opponents, was stout, and the running game, almost nonexistent some weeks, gashed the Hokies? defense.
Clancy stood out among all defenders, making 20 tackles ? including 17 unassisted ? and separating wideout Demitri Knowles from the ball on a fourth-down pass over the middle late in the second quarter, a turnover on downs that led to a BC field goal shortly before halftime.
Finch, meanwhile, stood out on offense, gaining 133 yards on 26 carries after missing five full games before playing sparingly last Saturday against Notre Dame, a benching that was largely the result of a fumbling issue.
Rettig, under constant pressure that resulted in seven sacks and numerous other hurries, was 13-of-30 for 129 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
"We had our chances," said Spaziani. "We had our chances and weren?t able to convert them."
The game began with BC and Virginia Tech trading empty possessions, but then the Eagles went up 3-0 on a 36-yard field goal by Freese that was set up by Evans? 43-yard punt return to the Tech 29.
The Hokies answered immediately with a field goal, but the Eagles scored 10 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 13-3 lead into the intermission. First came a 3-yard touchdown pass from Rettig to Amidon, then a 35-yard field goal from Freese.Virginia Tech scored the next 14 points to take a 17-13 lead into the fourth quarter. BC got within a point on a 35-yard field goal from Freese before the Hokies went back up four on a field goal of their own.
That?s when BC showed its mettle, driving 64 yards to take a 23-20 lead culminating with a 12-yard touchdown run by Dudeck.
But all that was then left was a whimper.
Eric Avidon can be reached at 508-626-3809 or eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twiter @ericavidon.
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