UMass Minutemen vs Boston College Eagles Match Player Stats On Sep 01, 2018

Boston College kicked off the campaign in dominant fashion, jumping out to a 41-point halftime lead on in-state rival Massachusetts and never looking back on the way to a 55-21 win over the Minutemen at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Anthony Brown passed for 279 yards and four touchdowns for the Eagles (1-0).

Boston College outgained UMass 452-146 in the first half, including a 176-42 advantage on the ground led by AJ Dillon (20 carries, 98 yards), who sat the second half. In all, the Eagles totaled 622 yards of offense, with reserves playing most of the final two quarters.

After a promising first drive, UMass (1-1) struggled for most of the afternoon. Coming off a 63-15 rout of Duquesne last week, the Minutemen were sacked six times and committed three turnovers that the Eagles turned into 14 points.

BC ran in seemingly any direction it wanted for most of the first half. The Eagles capped an 80-yard game-opening drive with a touchdown strike from Brown to Dillon, dumping off to him in the flat with plenty of room for an easy 15-yard catch-and-run.

On the ensuing Minutemen drive, Andy Isabella hauled in a 49-yard catch that set up Marquis Young's 3-yard scoring plunge two plays later, to knot it at 7 midway through the opening quarter.

But from there, the Eagles tilted the field, ending the first half with 41 unanswered points. Brown's 34-yard strike to Kobay White was followed by two short-yardage plunges from Davon Jones and a 33-yard strike to tight end Ray Marten. The backbreaker came when BC's Hamp Cheevers forced and recovered a UMass fumble at his own 3, and the Eagles responded with a 97-yard scoring drive, capped with a 27-yard pass to White for a 41-7 advantage.

The finishing touch came with no time left in the second quarter, when BC's Lukas Denis came up with a pick at his own sideline and scampered all the way to the opposite sideline unscathed, en route to a 59-yard interception return touchdown and 48-7 halftime advantage.

--Field Level Media