Tyler Shough connected with Nate Kurisky for two touchdowns in the second half and finished with 333 yards passing as Louisville climbed out of a 20-point deficit to defeat Boston College 31-27 on Friday night in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
After being held scoreless until just before halftime, the Cardinals (5-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) scored the game’s final three touchdowns and held on for their second win in a three-game span.
Shough, who completed 28 of 38 passes, surpassed the 300-yard mark for the fourth time this season.
Isaac Brown led Louisville’s rushing attack with 85 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, while Ja’Corey Brooks had eight catches for 120 yards.
Aided by consecutive short punts, the Cardinals needed only four plays on each ensuring drive to cut the game to one possession — on Brown’s 18-yard run — and then take the lead.
Shough led off the Cardinals’ following drive with a 34-yard pass to Ahmari Huggins-Bruce before finding Kurisky for a 6-yard score to take a 31-27 lead with 7:12 left.
The Eagles (4-4, 1-3) punted on their next possession, but flipped the field with an interception by KP Price at the Boston College 47-yard line with 3:43 left. However, Thomas Castellanos (13-for-28, 164 yards, three touchdowns) was unable to orchestrate a winner.
Treshaun Ward, Kamari Morales and Jeremiah Franklin all caught touchdown passes for Boston College, which has lost three straight games.
An interception by Boston College’s Quintavious Hutchins set up the game’s opening score. On fourth-and-1, Castellanos found Morales on a play-action pass to the left, scoring a 54-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter.
After Louisville’s Brock Travelstead missed a 56-yard field goal to start the second, the hosts made it 14-0 after a 10-play, 61-yard march. Ward rushed for 35 yards along the way and, after an offsides penalty on Liam Connor’s field goal attempt allowed the offense to go for it on fourth down, Ward caught a 4-yard scoring pass in the left corner.
Hutchins then corralled Huggins-Bruce’s fumble, and with 6:30 left before half, Kye Robichaux capped a rush-exclusive drive with a 4-yard score. Connor missed the PAT, keeping the score at 20-0.
The Cardinals scored on Brown’s 4-yard rush to the far-left corner with 1:19 remaining in the half, finalizing a 10-play, 76-yard drive.
Louisville put together 11 plays in 4:10 out of halftime, but a red-zone stand forced the Cardinals to settle for Travelstead’s 23-yard field goal.
Boston College needed just five plays to respond, thanks to Castellanos’ 6-yard pass to Franklin over the top with 7:58 left in the third. A 59-yard completion to Ward helped to set up the play.
Shough hit Kurisky for Louisville’s third straight score, a 4-yard touchdown, at 3:50 of the third. On the prior play, Price appeared to score a 90-yard fumble recovery, but the runner was deemed down to allow the visitors to continue the 9-play, 83-yard drive.
–Field Level Media
