Boston College got its first win of the season Friday night, but the Red Bandanna Game was never really about the final score alone.
The night belonged to Welles Crowther, the BC alumnus who saved as many as 18 people on Sept. 11, 2001, and earlier this week was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His memory was everywhere at Alumni Stadium - from the pregame tribute video to the No. 19 painted on the field at the 19-yard line to the red bandannas and T-shirts handed out to fans as they entered.
It also belonged to linebacker Anthony Palano once the ball was kicked off.
Palano, a 6-foot-1, 230-pound transfer from Washington State, was all over the field in BC’s 28-21 win over Rutgers. He finished with nine tackles, four solo stops, a sack and two interceptions in the final 10 minutes, the kind of closing stretch that sealed the Eagles’ first victory of the year.
Quarterback Mason McKenzie wasn’t far behind in the spotlight. He went 18 of 29 for 252 yards and threw a 78-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Pough in the fourth quarter. McKenzie also ran 13 times for 94 yards and a first-quarter touchdown, accounting for 346 of BC’s 402 yards of total offense.
The Eagles, now 1-1, built a 20-0 lead before Rutgers started clawing back. The Scarlet Knights fell to 0-2.
BC came out with energy from the start, and it showed on the scoreboard. Evan Dickens opened the scoring with a 19-yard touchdown run with 10:42 left in the first quarter.
Soon after, Charlie Comella’s interception set up McKenzie’s 10-yard touchdown run, pushing the lead to 14-0 with 5:15 remaining in the period. Luca Lombardo added a 30-yard field goal to make it 17-0.
Rutgers finally got on the board when AJ Surace hit Antwan Raymond on a 4-yard touchdown pass, but Lombardo answered with a 46-yard field goal as the first half ended, giving BC a 20-7 cushion at the break.
Then came the game’s most difficult moment. With 7:52 left in the first half, redshirt sophomore linebacker Bodie Kahoun, a Notre Dame transfer, suffered an apparent neck injury while making a tackle. He was taken by ambulance to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“On the sideline, obviously, it takes you by shock a little bit. You don’t see somebody get taken out by ambulance every day,” Palano said.
“But there was another level of like, ‘Let’s go.’ It was bigger than just for Welles.
It was for Bodie, too.”
The school later posted that Kahoun, who gave a thumbs-up, had “movement in all extremities” and was “being taken to the hospital for further evaluation.
BC’s defense kept making Rutgers work, with Marcus Upton helping create problems for Surace throughout the night. Upton finished with 10 tackles, two breakups and a quarterback hit. Surace still threw for 230 yards and three touchdowns, but he was intercepted four times.
Rutgers made things tense in the third quarter. Carter Davis picked off Surace early in the period, but Kevyn Humes recovered a fumble and Surace followed with a 4-yard touchdown pass to KJ Duff, trimming the lead to 20-14 with 2:37 left in the quarter. Moses Walker then intercepted a McKenzie pass, but BC safety KP Price came through with a key fourth-and-1 stop to keep the Eagles in front heading into the fourth.
Palano delivered the next big swing. He intercepted a pass at the BC 10-yard line with 9:27 to go, and that set up the closing stretch. McKenzie then found Pough wide open for a 78-yard touchdown to make it 28-14 with 7:06 left.
Rutgers answered again, with Surace hitting Duff on a 60-yard touchdown strike to cut the margin to 28-21 at 6:18. The Scarlet Knights got another chance when Walker stripped Javarius Green at the Rutgers 38 with 3:08 remaining, but Palano shut the door for good with his second interception at the BC 35 with 1:46 left. McKenzie later connected with Dickens for a first down with 1:27 remaining, and BC ran out the clock.
“That dude is just a dog,” McKenzie said of Palano. “He’s a great player.
That’s something that he did all summer and all spring. You just expect that from a guy like that.”
For Price, the atmosphere and the result made this one stand out.
“My fourth Red Bandanna Game,” Price said. “This was probably the best one. I’m not going to lie.”
In Other News...
BC Finally Delivered On A Night That Meant Everything
Boston College walked into a night loaded with meaning and played like a team that understood the weight of it. On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Eagles beat Rutgers 28-21 in a game that also honored Welles Crowther, the former BC lacrosse player remembered for his heroism that day and later recognized with the Medal of Freedom.
Mason McKenzie gave BC the steady quarterback play it needed, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns, while the defense kept turning Rutgers quarterback AJ Surace into a target. Four interceptions told the story of a unit that rose to the occasion, and the result gave the Eagles a badly needed lift on a night when the symbolism mattered as much as the score. [Read more 🡒]
Boston College Finally Showed The Response Fans Needed To See
A much-needed breakthrough finally arrived for Boston College football, and it came in a game that had plenty of the tense, back-and-forth feel fans have been waiting to see this season. The Eagles delivered a steadier, sharper response against Rutgers, leaning on interceptions, timely touchdowns and a field goal to build a win that felt as important for confidence as it did for the record book. Mason McKenzie, Evan Dickens and Antwan Raymond all surfaced in the kind of key moments that can change the tone of a teams early season.
The bigger significance for the Eagles is less about any one splash play and more about how the game unfolded across four quarters, with Boston College answering when Rutgers tried to swing momentum back its way. For a team that has spent much of the season looking for something to hold onto, that kind of closing stretch mattered. There was still plenty left to clean up, and the win does not solve everything, but it gave BC the kind of response its supporters had been waiting to see. [Read more 🡒]
Boston College Fans Had A Scary Bodie Kahoun Moment Saturday Night
Boston College got an unnerving scene Saturday night when linebacker Bodie Kahoun went down in the game against Rutgers and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance. The injury came on a tackle near midfield, cutting short what had been an active night for Kahoun, who had already piled up six tackles before the stoppage.
The immediate concern was obviously bigger than the scoreboard, and the Eagles did get a first encouraging update afterward. Boston College said Kahoun has movement in all extremities and was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, a sign that offered some relief after a frightening delay on the field. [Read more 🡒]