BC-Holy Cross off the Table in 20 After Patriot League Cancels Fall Sports
Boston College’s blowout win over Holy Cross in September 2018 marked the teams’ first meeting since 1986—the end of a 32-year hiatus from what used to be one of college football’s most storied rivalries. The New England foes were supposed to reunite for another nostalgic matchup this fall, but now they’re in for another, albeit shorter, break from play.
The Patriot League followed in the Ivy League’s footsteps on Monday, canceling all fall sports, while remaining open to the idea of possibly moving competition to the spring.
“From a health and well-being standpoint, things are not getting better in this country,” Patriot League commissioner Jennifer Heppel told ESPN. “As we get closer to the point where students are going to be making plans to how they travel back to our campuses as well as student-athletes, it became clear for us that this wasn’t going to be in the best interest of our communities to have athletics this fall. … It’s sad. It’s gut-wrenching.”
As a result, BC’s Week 9 (Oct. 31) home contest against Holy Cross—the back half of a tw0-game series scheduled in 2014—is off the table for 2020. This is the Eagles’ second game that has been canceled in the past week. When the Big Ten moved to a conference-only schedule on Thursday, BC’s Week 4 home game against Purdue was also called off.
Regardless, the Eagles are set to play Holy Cross again in 2023, as the teams scheduled an additional Chestnut Hill matchup back in 2019 after the previous season’s reunion drew a crowd of 40,311 people to Alumni Stadium—just 4,189 seats short of a sellout.
Hoards of purple migrated into Alumni for the series restart, yet there wasn’t much of a spectacle on the field. One week removed from a season-opening beatdown of UMass, BC routed Holy Cross, 62-14. The Crusaders’ only points came off two blocked punt returns.
AJ Dillon, the 2018 ACC Preseason Player of the Year, recorded a trio of touchdowns in the first quarter. Both he and Anthony Brown were done for the day at the 1:13 mark in the opening frame. By that point, Dillon had already logged 149 rushing yards on just six carries. That’s 24.8 yards per rush. What’s more, BC kicked off the day with three consecutive touchdown drives, all of which required fewer than five plays and 80 seconds of game time.
The rest of the game saw Hamp Cheevers take an interception 81 yards to the house, EJ Perry and Matt McDonald shine at quarterback, and CJ Lewis, Noah Jordan-Williams, as well as Hunter Long all score their first touchdowns in BC uniforms.
Dillon was awarded the Eddie O'Melia Trophy—given to the most valuable player of the BC-Holy Cross matchup—which, like the series, is now more about tradition than anything else. The Eagles have won 18 of the teams’ last 21 meetings and lead the all-time series, 49-31-3.