After their impressive week one performance against FCS Delaware, many wondered how the Pitt Panthers would respond against better competition.
Thanks to another impressive effort from their offense, Paul Chryst’s team passed that test as well, and did so on the road with a 30-20 victory over Boston College, Pitt’s first ACC victory of the season.
Pitt running back James Conner had a 35-carry, 213-yard, one touchdown performance Friday night and Chad Voytik hit Tyler Boyd with a pair of second quarter touchdown passes and that was all the Panthers’ really needed on the night.
A week after rushing for 409 yards in a 62-0 victory over Delaware, the Panthers (2-0, 1-0) ran for 305 against the Eagles (1-1, 0-1), as Conner amounted for more than half of the Pitt offense.
Voytik completed 10-of-21 passes for 111 yards, connecting with Boyd for two touchdowns.
BC’s Tyler Murphy completed 10-of-28 passes for 134 yards, with a touchdown and two interceptions. The Florida transfer also ran 15 times for 92 yards and a two-yard touchdown run.
Murphy gave Pitt a scare early though.
After Pitt’s opening drive stalled, ending with a Chris Blewitt field goal, BC answered when Murphy broke free on a keeper for 51 yards. That resulted in a Tyler Touse one-yard touchdown run to make it 7-3.
The Panthers then had to punt and Voytik threw his first career interception, but then things settled down.
Pitt scored on a 71-yard drive early in the second quarter where they got 41 yards on carries by Conner before Voytik connected with Boyd on a 15-yard jumping catch in the end zone to give the Panthers a 10-7 lead.
After the pick, Voytik really settled down and made the plays he had to, also adding 47 yards on the ground on six carries.
Pitt stretched the lead to 13-7 before Boyd asserted himself once again.
Boyd ran for 19 yards and picked up another 15 on a horse-collar tackle, then Voytik led the Panthers down to the BC five-yard line before hitting Boyd for the touchdown that made it 20-7 at the half.
Pitt upped their lead to 27-7 thanks to a 41-yard pass to Boyd that set up a nine-yard touchdown run from Conner.
BC tried to make it interesting late with a 48-yard touchdown pass to Shakim Phillips to make it 27-14, but Pitt added another Blewitt field goal before Murphy capped the scoring with a two-yard touchdown run.
You couldn’t have scripted a better start to the season for Paul Chryst’s team.
Pitt will try and build on the momentum next Saturday when they travel to take on FIU.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
