Boston College follows up victory over Florida State by thrashing FCS Duquesne 56-0

Updated Sep. 7, 2024 7:37 p.m. ET

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BOSTON (AP) — Thomas Castellanos threw for 234 yards and four touchdowns in the first half before new Boston College coach Bill O’Brien went to his bench on Saturday as the Eagles followed up their upset of then-No. 10 Florida State by thrashing FCS Duquesne 56-0.

“I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know the difference between FBS, FCS, NCIS, CIA. I have no idea,” O'Brien told reporters after improving to 2-0 in Chestnut Hill. “I just know that Duquesne is a tough football team, and we had to be ready to play them.”

Castellanos completed 9 of 10 passes, including TDs of 72, 49, 30 and 4 yards — all to different receivers. His only incompletion came when he overthrew open receiver Jaedn Skeete for what could have been a touchdown; instead, he hit Lewis Bond for 26 yards on the next play to set up Treshaun Ward's 3-yard run that made it 7-0.

“I’m really mad. I should have hit Skeete on that one,” Castellanos said. “I got on my knees and I apologized to him.”

Bond caught five passes for 98 yards and a 49-yard TD – all in the first half – and Reed Harris caught a 72-yard score.

After going nowhere on its first drive, BC (2-0) scored touchdowns on its next five possessions – and added Khari Johnson’s pick-6 – to end the first half with a 42-0 lead.

“I go against Khari every day,” Bond said. “It was good to see him make a play against somebody else for a change.”

Backup quarterback Jacobe Robinson came on to start the second half for the Eagles and fumbled on his third play before BC took a 49-0 lead on a 47-yard run by Datrell Jones. Robinson ran it in from 9 yards out in the final minutes to make it 56-0.

Ward ran for 55 yards and a touchdown, also all in the first half. Freshman Turbo Richard ran for 74 yards in the second for the Eagles, who opened O’Brien’s tenure with his hometown school by beating the Seminoles 28-13 in Tallahassee last week.

It was the biggest road win over a top-10 team in BC history.

“It was never, ‘Oh, we play Duquesme, we can chill now,’" Bond said. “We were locked in.”

Darius Perrantes completed 8 of 18 passes for 62 yards and two interceptions for Duquesne (0-2).

FILLING IT UP

The announced crowd was 38,441 in Alumni Stadium, which holds 44,500, including a packed student section with more than 6,000 seats. Attendance for BC home games has been a problem as the school competes with pro teams in all four major sports that have won a combined 13 championships since 2001.

O'Brien said he was pleased to see the support from the students and hopes the rest of the community will catch on.

“Boston is the city of champions. Boston loves a winner,” said the former Houston Texans and Penn State head coach and ex-New England Patriots assistant. “We have to continue to be a team that people want to come watch. We can’t be 3 yards and a cloud of dust. If it takes that to win a game, then that’s what we’ll do. But we have to be a team that can make some chunk plays and do some things to get fans that want to come watch us play.”

THE TAKEAWAY

Boston College was second in the “also receiving votes” category in The Associated Press Top 25 last week and could move into the rankings for the first time since 2018.

UP NEXT

Duquesne: After opening against two FBS programs — and losing by a combined 105-10 – the Dukes get back to the FCS when they visit Youngstown State.

Boston College: The Eagles head to the Midwest to face No. 9 Missouri.

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AP college football: Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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