EAST LANSING- The Michigan State Spartans completed their redemption tour against Boston College. MSU emerged victorious after a rigorous double overtime and won the game 42-40.
Last season, Michigan State lost in a nail biter to the Eagles, 23-19 in Chestnut Hill. This time around was in favor of the Green and White, who had everything to prove.
“I felt like we had a pretty decent season leading up to them last year, but they ended our little three game win streak, so it was real personal,” sophomore wide receiver Nick Marsh said. “I feel like that was kind of the downfall of our season last year, and I took it personally.”
The Spartan defense came out firing, forcing the Eagles to go three-and-out with no yards gained. However, this momentum was halted when senior wide receiver Omari Kelly fumbled the ball on a punt return at the MSU 39 to hand it right back to the Eagles.
The Spartan defense carried over their bend-don’t-break mentality from last week’s game against Western Michigan, after junior linebacker Jordan Hall forced a crucial fumble at the one-yard line to regain control.
The Spartans then went marching down the field, making way for an 11-yard touchdown on third and goal by Marsh, who made the extra effort after the catch, dragging the rock for another five yards to get past the goal line.
“My whole thought process going into the game was, you know (last year) they didn’t have a taste of Nick Marsh, so I was ready,” Marsh said.
Boston College was quick to answer with a performance from sophomore quarterback Dylan Lonergan.The Alabama transfer threw for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns in his first start. The Eagles have been known for their passing game this season, and MSU’s secondary paid the price.
“They challenged us schematically too because they are flooding boundaries some of the times, and you don’t get a lot of people doing that,” Spartans’ head coach Jonathan Smith said. “I know on our end, we did miscommunicate a couple of times, you want the crowd into it, you want it to be nice and loud, but we weren’t on the same page a couple of times and we got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
In a matchup of equal trade, the Eagles would look to capitalize, with a 12-yard reception pass to junior wide receiver Jaedn Skeete, putting BC in front 14-7.
The Spartans once again had an answer with a three-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Aidan Chiles to redshirt sophomore tight end Michael Masunas, for his first ever career touchdown.
Lonergan threw a 14-yard touchdown to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Reed Harris, and the Eagles headed into the locker room up seven.
“The conversation when we got back to the locker room was just like, let’s go back out there, the score is zero-zero,” Marsh said.
In the second half, the Spartan offense came out swinging. Chiles threw to Kelly for 30 yards and connected with Marsh in the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown.
“I had a conversation with coach, I feel like they couldn’t guard me, so I told coach when we got to the locker room, look coach let’s just take a shot, and he trusted me with that,” Marsh said. “It was a little more demanding honestly, I told him coach, I got one-on-one coverage, give me the damn ball.”
Marsh’s second touchdown of the night marked the first multi-touchdown performance of his career.
“I think if that’s the case, he is probably right,” Smith said. “Nick is a competitor, I thought that was huge, you talk about his first touchdown, he’s carrying guys into the end zone on slants like that, we had to find ways to get him the ball.”
With two timeouts and 1:16 left on the clock, the Spartan offense had moved the ball well down the field until Chiles took two sacks, which granted the opportunity for the Eagles to tie it up with a field goal.
With the score tied at 27, this game headed into overtime, and the Spartans would attempt the first test on offense.
Chiles threw a 10-yard pass to Kelly on third and three and finished in the red zone with a five-yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior fullback Jay Coyne.
“We worked that play a lot, and I’m just happy we got it right, it was awesome,” Coyne said.
But the game did not end there, after the Eagles had their shot to throw, they evened the score back at 34 to take this one into double overtime.
An eight-yard rushing touchdown by freshman running back Richard Turbo would put BC back in front, but after Lonergan threw an incomplete pass on the two-point conversion, the Spartans were given the chance to capitalize.
Chiles displayed his speed and athleticism throughout the game, rushing for nearly 40-yards and earning himself a touchdown to even the score.
With one more shot to take the lead, Chiles found Kelly in the end zone, walking it off for the Green and White to complete the two-point conversion.
“We wanted that game, we needed that game, we faced adversity, it’s a great football team we just played against, we just came out to see who the tougher team was, and today we were,” Chiles said.
Michigan State rushed the field and jumped into the stands to celebrate its redemption win with the Spartan faithful.
“I was really just happy because there’s a lot of players in our locker room that have been working now,” Smtih said. “It hasn’t always gone their way, but it came together tonight, and I think we’re going to grow stronger from it.”
The Spartans will remain in East Lansing next Saturday as they take on Youngstown State at 3:30 p.m. Tune into the live broadcast featuring Jacob Maurer and Kyle Keegan locally on 88.9 FM or at https://impact89fm.org/
