Al-Shadee Salaam’s 22-yard touchdown run with 2:43 remaining lifted Rutgers to a 22-21 season-opening victory Saturday over host Boston College at Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Rutgers shared its quarterback load with Evan Simon going 8 of 12, for 63 yards and Gavin Wimsatt going 5 of 9 for 47 yards as the Scarlet Knights overcame the absence of QB Noah Vedral, who has an undisclosed injury.
Nine receivers made catches and six backs had carries for Rutgers, which earned its first head-to-head win over Boston College since 1991. Kyle Monangai (78 yards) also had a rushing touchdown.
BC’s Zay Flowers caught a pair of first-half touchdown passes from Phil Jurkovec, who was 23 of 41 for 283 yards and three touchdowns. Flowers had 141 yards of offense, 125 receiving.
Notre Dame transfer George Takacs logged 84 yards on seven receptions for the Eagles.
While forcing Rutgers to go thee-and-out on back-to-back series, BC found the end zone four plays into its second drive to take a 7-0 lead. Jurkovec found a familiar target for his first touchdown pass of the season as Flowers scored from 11 yards.
The Scarlet Knights responded after Christian Braswell intercepted a Jurkovec pass and turned it into six points on Aron Cruickshank’s 26-yard run on the third play of the second quarter. Jude McAtamney’s PAT hit the left upright to keep BC ahead 7-6.
Jurkovec and Flowers connected for another BC score with 5:22 left in the first half. The two-time All-ACC receiver had a 26-yard catch and run to cap a 10-play, 79-yard drive.
Flowers caught six passes for 88 of the Eagles’ 202 first-half yards.
After Wesley Bailey recovered a fumbled snap by Jurkovec at BC’s 6-yard line, Monangai scored on a 1-yard run 1:57 into the third quarter. A conversion attempt failed.
The Eagles widened their lead with 8:33 left in the third when Jurkovec found Jaden Williams for an 11-yard touchdown reception.
McAtamney’s 33-yard field goal brought Rutgers within a 21-15 entering the fourth quarter.
–Field Level Media
