| Score by Quarters | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| Penn State | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Boston College | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 21 |
| Scoring Summary | ||
| 1st | 08:08 | BC - D. Kashetta 6-yard pass from P. Peterson (Ohliger kick) |
| 2nd | 08:19 | BC - G. Adams 26-yard pass from P. Peterson (Ohliger kick) |
| 3rd | 10:26 | PSU - R. Scott 13-yard pass from Z. Mills (Gould kick) |
| 2:35 | BC - M. Palmer 2-yard pass from P. Peterson (Ohliger kick) | |
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Penn State couldn't run the ball, couldn't handle
the trickery of Boston College quarterback Paul Peterson and, on too many
occasions, couldn't think straight.
If this sounds familiar to Nittany Lions followers who cringed
while watching these guys go through their agonizing 2003 season, that's
because it is.
Any encouragement Penn State was able to draw from its 48-10 opening-day
win over Akron was siphoned away last night as BC knocked off the Nittany
Lions, 21-7, in a nonconference game before a sellout crowd of 44,500
at Alumni Stadium.
Using his scrambling ability to buy himself time and orchestrating
a ball-control offense that kept Penn State off-balance for most of the
game, Peterson tossed three touchdown passes as BC (2-0) defeated the
Nittany Lions for the second straight season and the third consecutive
time overall. There was a time when Penn State owned BC, winning 19 of
the teams' first 20 meetings.
"Turnovers, penalties, and we didn't play very smart,"
dejected coach Joe Paterno said. "When you don't run the ball, it
will hurt you every time."
Penn State continued a bad habit it picked up last season when
it allowed 11 backs to run for more than 100 yards. This time, it was
BC's Andre Callender, a redshirt freshman who gained 114 yards on 27 carries
in the first extensive action of his career.
For the Nittany Lions, the bad omens came early when they were
called for two roughing-the-punter penalties on BC's first possession,
helping the Eagles to an early lead and enabling them to build momentum
they never allowed to slip away.
Penn State committed five turnovers, with Zack Mills being intercepted
four times. The fourth interception came with 2 minutes, 43 seconds remaining,
when the Nittany Lions were threatening to score.
The cool night quickly turned hot for Paterno, who raced up the
sideline fuming at an official over a roughing-the-punter call against
Darien Hardy on BC's first possession. Some of the Nittany Lions were
gesturing that Hardy had gotten a piece of the ball, but their complaints
were to no avail.
"Obviously, we thought the ball was tipped," Paterno
said. "But you've got to put those things behind you."
The two roughing-the-punter penalties kept that long first drive
going for BC, and Peterson pecked away at the Nittany Lions' defense with
short passes. He capped the 80-yard drive with a 6-yard pass to David
Kashetta, his 6-foot-4 tight end, who used his three-inch height advantage
over Penn State cornerback Anwar Phillips to make a leaping catch for
a 7-0 lead. The drive consumed 6:52.
"It was a momentum shift early in the game," said Penn
State receiver Gerald Smith, who made five catches for 74 yards. "I
don't think that first [roughing-the-punter call] was a penalty."
Penn State seemed bent on tying the score when Mills completed
three passes for 31 yards and Tony Hunt made a great spin move for a 12-yard
gain to the BC 16. But after an offside call against Penn State, BC linebacker
Ray Henderson ended the drive with an interception. Brian Toal, a highly
regarded freshman linebacker, tipped the pass to set up the interception.
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BC made it a 14-0 halftime lead by capitalizing on another Penn State mistake. Fullback Paul Jefferson lost a fumble at the Nittany Lions' 26-yard line after he was hit by BC's JoLonn Dunbar. Ricky Brown recovered, and it took Peterson only one play to cash in as he fired a 26-yard scoring pass to Grant Adams with 8:19 remaining in the half.
BC used a short passing game to control the ball for 34:43, nearly 10 minutes longer than Penn State.
"Give their quarterback credit," Paterno said of Peterson, who is 5-0 as a starter. "He came up with some great plays. He scrambles well, and he found people downfield."
"We all call him Pistol," Henderson said. "He runs around like a lunatic and makes us all look stupid in practice [on defense]."
Mills looked sharp in the first half but had nothing to show for it. Trying to make things happen in the second half, he got into trouble with interceptions and finished 23 for 41 for 254 yards. He connected with Ryan Scott for a 13-yard TD early in the third quarter to pull Penn State to within 14-7, but it turned out to be a tease.
The touchdown grab by Scott - the first catch of his college career - didn't shake the Eagles, who responded with another time-consuming drive, one that ended with Peterson's third TD throw, a 2-yarder to Mark Palmer.
Notes: Hardy, a redshirt junior cornerback from Northeast High School, traveled to last night's game after attending funeral services in Philadelphia for his father, Daryal, a detective who died of kidney cancer......Penn State probably could have used the aid of the Big Ten Conference's video replay system late in the first half, when it appeared that BC running back Jeff Ross fumbled, with the Nittany Lions' Matthew Rice recovering inside the Eagles' 10-yard line. But the system was not in effect for the nonconference road game......Penn State's traveling roster of 65 players included seven true freshmen and nine redshirt freshmen.