No. 3 Florida State holds on for 31-29 win over Boston College

It was an escape.

That’s the only way to describe it.

The No. 3 Florida State Seminoles built a 31-10 lead midway through the third quarter, then hung on for dear life on Saturday in Chestnut Hill for an eventual 31-29 win over the Boston College Eagles.

On third-and-7 at their own 37, nursing a two-point lead, Lawrance Toafili came up two yards short of a first down with 90 seconds remaining. But Boston College was flagged for a facemask, its school-record 18th penalty of the game, to give the Seminoles the first down and wrap up a win that almost got away.

Quarterback Jordan Travis took a knee three times and Florida State improved to 3-0 on the season as it prepares for next week’s showdown at Clemson.

Travis, who was injured late in the second quarter but stayed in the game, finished 16 of 24 for 212 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing for 38 yards. But it was Boston College’s sophomore quarterback, Thomas Castellanos, who was making just the second start of his career, that stole the show and almost stole the win.

His 7-yard TD run on 4th-and-2, with 5:19 left, cut the Seminoles’ lead to 31-29.

He finished with exactly 400 yards of offense. And he routinely converted third-and-long situations on Saturday afternoon.

It was the last one, though, that wound up being the difference in the game.

After the B.C. defense, which scored on a Toafili fumble earlier in the quarter, got yet another stop the Eagles’ offense took over at its own 22-yard line.

Castellanos converted a 3rd-and-20 with a 28-yard pass down the right sideline. But on the final third down of the game, another 3rd-and-10, the shifty Boston College QB was sacked by Azareye’h Thomas and Kalen Deloach for a 14-yard loss.

The Eagles punted on 4th and 24. And thanks to that 18th penalty – which included seven false starts – they never got the ball back.

As bad as the final quarter and a half was for Florida State, the game didn’t start much better either.

Castellanos ripped through the Florida State defense for a 75-yard scoring drive on the first possession of the game. On second-and-15, the Seminoles allowed Joe Griffin to get wide open for a 35-yard gain. Later in the drive, Castellanos hit Lewis Bond, who was wide open in the middle of the field on third down, and Bond raced into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

The Florida State offense played well in the first half. But it only got three possessions in the first 29 minutes of the game. Travis did plenty with them, leading a field goal drive and two straight touchdown drives. One culminated with a Jaheim Bell 19-yard TD catch and the other on a Trey Benson 2-yard run late in the first half — after Boston College was called for pass interference on Toafili in the end zone.

The FSU defense, despite giving up numerous big plays to Castellanos in the first half, seemed to right the ship in the second quarter. The Seminoles got three straight stops to close out the half, including one that gave Travis and the offense the ball back at its own 21 with a minute to go and all three timeouts.

Unfortunately, that’s when the injury to Travis occurred. On third-and-10, after incompletions to Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman, Travis scrambled to his right, by the sideline, then scrambled back to the middle of the field where he took a shot that left him laying on the field in the pain. He was helped off, but was clearly not right — holding his shoulder and chest as the clock ticked down to zeroes to end the first half.

Castellanos finished the first half 10 of 16 passing for 131 yards and added another 88 on the ground, including a 45-yarder in the second quarter when the Eagles had a 3rd-and-14 at their own 5. Boston College was also called for a whopping 11 penalties for 81 yards in the first two quarters. Florida State was called for one, a hold on the play Travis got hurt, but it was declined.

The Seminoles then scored the first 14 points of the second half and seemed well on their way to another rout. After Travis led another TD drive that was capped by a short TD pass to Preston Daniel, D.J. Lundy intercepted Castellanos, who was hit by Jared Verse as he threw the ball, on the Eagles’ first play of the third quarter.

After a 40-yard completion to Bell, Lundy then finished off the drive himself with a one-yard TD plunge.

That score gave the Seminoles a 31-10 lead.

From there, almost nothing went right. But in the end, Florida State still left Boston with an undefeated record as a monumental showdown with Clemson awaits next Saturday in Death Valley.

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