Boston College walked out of Saturday afternoon with a win, but not the kind that makes anyone breathe easy.
The Eagles were heavy favorites against Maine, and they looked like they might turn the final non-conference game of the season into a routine one after jumping out to a 16-0 lead. Instead, it turned into a grinder. BC held on for a 22-16 victory after getting pushed all the way to the finish, forced to keep its starters on the field late just to close it out.
The box score tells the story of a team that left plenty on the table. Boston College failed to score a touchdown on five trips inside the red zone and finished 4-for-12 on third down. That kind of sloppiness kept Maine alive long after the Eagles had seized control.
Head coach Bill O'Brien didn’t sugarcoat it.
"Yeah, I would think what would be safe to say is that I have to do a better job. It starts with me, you know. There's some things that we just have to do a better job of, especially offensively," said O'Brien
"But a lot of missed opportunities we had the ball inside the ten yard line. I don't know, probably four or five times.
Didn't do a good job executing down there. Probably need to design some better plays.
But you know in the en, you know what it is? It's a win.
It's a win, and I've been doing this a long time, and you can never take for granted winning, ever, and so there's always things to build on. But I was proud of these guys."
BC’s defense set the tone right away. On the opening kickoff, defensive back Syair Torrence forced a fumble on Maine return man Ty Boone, giving the Eagles an early jolt. But the offense couldn’t cash in, as running back Evan Dickens was stopped on a short fourth-down try deep in Maine territory.
Dickens made up for it a little later, though. After a Maine punt, he broke free for a 39-yard touchdown run down the right sideline to put BC ahead 7-0 with 9:01 left in the first quarter.
The defense kept working. Senior safety KP Price intercepted a tipped pass from Maine quarterback Eddie Buehler, but Boston College again came away empty after reaching the red zone. This time, transfer running back Nolan Ray was stuffed on fourth down at the Maine 5-yard line.
BC did get points from its defense on the next series. KJ Sampson hurried Buehler, Maine was flagged for holding as the quarterback drifted back into his own end zone, and the result was a safety. That pushed the lead to 9-0 with 3:46 left in the first.
Boston College then added to the margin quickly. Mason McKenzie found redshirt receiver Johnathan Montague Jr. down the right sideline for a 31-yard touchdown, and the Eagles were in front 16-0 with just under two minutes left in the quarter.
From there, the game started slipping away from BC’s grip.
McKenzie’s interception midway through the second quarter gave Maine a short field, and Samuel Tremblay finished the possession with a 27-yard field goal. BC still led 16-3, but the Black Bears had life. Lombardo answered with a 27-yarder of his own to make it 19-3, yet Maine came right back with a 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by Buehler’s 5-yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior running back Nick Laughln with 13 seconds left before halftime.
That trimmed the margin to 19-10, and Maine carried that momentum into the second half.
The Black Bears opened the third quarter with an onside kick, and BC recovered, but the Eagles again turned a promising situation into another empty possession. McKenzie threw into double coverage inside the 15, and junior linebacker Sam Oppenheimer picked him off. McKenzie also went down with an apparent lower right leg injury on the play before getting back up and returning after one snap from Grayson Wilson.
Even with the turnover, Boston College’s defense answered again. Three plays later, Price snagged his second interception of the game, setting the Eagles up once more in scoring range. And once more, BC settled for three, taking a 22-10 lead on a 26-yard field goal with 6:22 left in the third.
That ended up being Boston College’s final points.
Maine put together another long march to open the fourth quarter, helped by several big completions and a targeting penalty that sent BC defensive back Charlie Comella out of the game. The Black Bears finished the 80-yard drive with another Buehler-to-Laughln touchdown, this one from 7 yards out, cutting the lead to one score.
The extra point was missed, and BC did just enough from there. The Eagles converted key third downs late and bled the clock to escape with the 22-16 win, even if it felt far messier than the final result should have been.
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Boston College got the result it needed against Maine, but the performance was harder to sell. The Eagles won 22-16 in a game marked by red-zone struggles and turnovers, and head coach Bill OBrien did not pretend there was much to feel good about beyond the final score. He acknowledged the missed opportunities and the need for cleaner execution, while still stressing how important it was to come away with a victory.
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