Etta-Tawo’s Performance Leads Orange to 28-20 Win Over Boston College

By Lauren Walsh CHESTNUT HILL, M.A. — A rainbow of different colored ponchos dotted Alumni Stadium. Syracuse faced a struggling Boston College team and heavy rain in its eighth game of the season.

“For our football team to be able to play in weather like that when three weeks ago we weren’t that good in weather like that, I’m really excited,” head coach Dino Babers said on the inclement weather.

The first score came from a 30-yard field goal from BC kicker Mike Knoll. The Orange trailed by three after the first four minutes of the game.

Syracuse charged down the field, led by sophomore quarterback Eric Dungey, and never looked back. SU scored 14 unanswered points including touchdowns from Ervin Philips and Steve Ishmael, two of which came from Dungey passes.

Dungey finished with 434 passing yards and three passing touchdowns.

One of his favorite targets, Amba Etta-Tawo, contributed a touchdown to the Orange’s point total. More notably, he recorded 144 receiving yards to bring his season total to 1,074 receiving yards.

That performance etched his name in second place on Syracuse’s list of players with more than 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. He trails Marvin Harrison who caught for 1,131 yards in his 1995 season with SU.

“I’ve coached over 30 wide receivers in the NFL,” said Babers on Etta-Tawo’s ranking amongst wide receivers he’s coached. “He’s definitely in top ten.”

Etta-Tawo responded humbly when asked about his historic accomplishment. “I mean it feels good to be named among those greats, but at the end of the day I’m just happy we got the win,” said Etta-Tawo.

Boston College remained within a two-touchdown reach all game, but the true threat to Syracuse’s momentum was its penalties. SU was charged with 16 penalties throughout the contest, nine of which were false starts.

“I think that’s very uncharacteristic to have that many false starts,” said Babers. “They called them on us so I’m sure we must have did it.”

The Orange improved to 4-4 and recorded its second ACC win of the season against Boston College. Syracuse has a bye-week and then continues conference play when it travels down to South Carolina to take on Clemson on Saturday, November 5.