CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.—As the ball clanged off the upright for the second time, the Duke sideline erupted in celebration.
For the first time this season, the special teams breaks had gone the way of the Blue Devils, and kicking inaccuracies had helped, not hurt them.
Instead it was Nate Freese of Boston College whose missed extra point and subsequent missed field goal cost his team the game, as Duke (1-2, 1-0 in the ACC) held onto a thin 20-19 margin to beat the Eagles (0-3, 0-1).
“It’s a big weight off our shoulders now,” junior wide receiver Conner Vernon said. “We knew coming into this game it was going to be a dog fight like it was there at the end.”
Boston College got off to the better start, blocking an Alex King punt on the Blue Devils’ second drive of the game. With the ball on their own 45-yard line, it took the Eagles just five plays to find the end zone and jump out to the early lead. Freese then sandwiched a Duke touchdown between field goals of 43 and 47 yards, and Boston College seemed to be in control as it marched down for another touchdown with just over a minute to play in the first half.
The momentum started to turn as Freese lined up for the extra point that would have put the Eagles up by 13. The kick bounced off the right goal post, and the score remained 19-7. Sean Renfree came out and led the Blue Devils on a four play, 63-yard drive in just 51 seconds capped by a perfect strike to Vernon as Vernon crossed the goal line to bring Duke within five at the half. Vernon finished with six catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns in a gritty performance.
The Blue Devils dominated the third quarter but couldn’t find the end zone. On Duke’s first drive of the half, Renfree was picked off by Jim Noel on the six-yard line. Kicker Jeff Ijjas missed a 33-yard field goal on the Blue Devils’ second drive, and it was beginning to look like special teams would spoil Duke’s hopes again.
“Offensively we felt like we were on the right track,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “We had just had a few circumstances where we had stopped ourselves and were a little unlucky in some regards with a tipped pass, barely missing a first down or missing a throw.”
But Renfree wasn’t about to waste a career day on a loss. The quarterback, who finished with a school-record 41 completions on 53 attempts for 368 yards and two touchdowns, reached over the pile on third-and-goal from the Boston College one-yard line to put the Blue Devils up by one with just under ten minutes to play. Duke attempted a two-point conversion after the score, but Vernon came down out of bounds in the back of the end zone to keep the margin at one.
The Blue Devil defense held strong in the final quarter, limiting the Eagles to just three minutes and 25 seconds of possession in the period. Boston College went three-and-out on its first two drives, advancing just 8 yards total through the air.
“Give a lot of credit to our defense,” Renfree said. “Whenever we came off the field it was three and out or maybe they put two series together but that was it…. It gives our offense a lot of confidence to get the ball back quick and in good field position.”
The Eagles finally began moving the ball with 2:24 on the clock and no timeouts remaining. On third-and-10, Chase Rettig found Colin Larmond, Jr. over the middle for a 30 yard gain, extended another 15 yards by a roughing-the-passer penalty on the Blue Devils. With excellent field position, Boston College drove down to the Duke five-yard line where it faced third-and-one with 52 seconds remaining. Running back Andre Williams started to run left around the offensive line and looked like he was going to have a path to the end zone—until Walt Canty came around the line and hit him in the backfield to bring up the fateful fourth down, and the missed field goal that preserved the win for Duke.
The defense was sharpest when it mattered most all day, holding the Eagles to just 4 conversions out of 13 attempts on third down and forcing Boston College to punt six times. Matt Daniels led the way again for the Blue Devils with 9 tackles, and Kenny Anunike was a force on the defensive line with a sack and three tackles for loss.
“I think [the defensive line] got a lot of pressure, especially on a young quarterback,” Anunike said. “You could see that he was frantic at times back there and that’s in part due to our coverage in the backfield. Our secondary was locking their receivers down and then it comes down to us getting the sacks up front because he had nowhere to go—we were just swarming with gap exchanges and we took care of it up front.”
Those numbers paled in comparison, however, to the Eagles’ Luke Kuechly, who proved his status among the nation’s top linebackers with 23 total tackles, including 17 solo efforts. Nobody else on the field recorded more than 11. Kuechly flew to the ball on seemingly every play, but he couldn’t do it alone as Duke’s offense spread the ball around to seven receivers.
In the end, Kuechly’s defensive unit and the Blue Devils’ offense could only stand on the sideline and watch as Freese’s 23-yard attempt sailed through the air and off the left upright, giving Duke a crucial early season conference victory over Boston College.
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