The Top-10 Boston College Sports Moments of 2024!

Happy New Year, Eagles fans! As is tradition here at BCI, I’m taking a look back at the last 12 months to remember some of the highest highs from the year that was in Boston College athletics. While some years are better than others, every year always gives at least something to celebrate, and this year had a better selection than quite a few others in recent memory.

Let’s take a look back – and feel free to share your own if you have others you enjoyed!

#10: Boston College football wins wild Red Bandana game against Michigan State

The Red Bandana game is a great BC tradition, and the salute to Welles Crowther’s memory is a great moment each year regardless of how the game itself goes. But given that it’s often been played against top-10 opponents, these games can be tough ones for the Eagles.

In this instance, they had a fairly even matchup, but still one against a brand name program in Michigan State; the primetime setting and well-known opponent, combined with BC’s hot start to the season, made for one of the hottest tickets in recent history for BC football, and an absolutely packed house at Alumni even through it was a day full of wind and rain.

BC trailed 19-16 with under two minutes to play – but Thomas Castellanos connected with Lewis Bond on a late game winning TD to give the Eagles a memorable Red Bandana win on home turf:

#9: BC women’s hockey pulls of shocking back to back upsets of #3 Clarkson

It’s been tough sledding the last few years for Boston College’s women’s hockey team; after sending a bevy of alumni to the Olympics and going on a run of Hockey East titles and Frozen Four appearances, BC’s been on a trophy drought, and missed the NCAA tournament in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Things didn’t look much better to start the ‘24-’25 season after an early loss to Holy Cross and two lopsided losses to Wisconsin, but the Eagles turned the year on its head with a shocking sweep out of nowhere of Clarkson, one of women’s hockey’s powers and a team at the time ranked #3 in the nation.

More importantly than the sweep, the team used that weekend as a springboard to a pretty solid first half of the season, including wins at BU and Northeastern, and is now in a dogfight for first place in Hockey East and sitting in an NCAA tournament position. Could the Clarkson series be the start of a new era for the Eagles?

#8: BC football’s three-game ACC home winning streak to end the regular season

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

After a promising 4-1 start, things went south for BC football with a three game losing streak that had the Eagles sitting at 4-4 with bowl eligibility in doubt. On the docket was Syracuse, a solid team that wound up being one of the better teams in the ACC; a trip to SMU; and bowl-bound UNC and Pittsburgh teams, with the Eagles needing to take two to make it back to the postseason.

They did one better than that, with Grayson James taking over for Thomas Castellanos and leading BC to convincing and exciting wins over Syracuse, UNC and Pitt to close out the slate at Alumni Stadium.

Though BC failed to get over the 7-win hump in the Pinstripe Bowl, ending the season on such a high note increased optimism for the program in 2025 and beyond.

#7: BC men’s hockey’s electric sweep of #1 BU

BC and BU have been hockey powers for 100+ years, but in all their years of success and intense rivalry, they never clashed as the #1 and #2 teams in the country – until this year, when they both took their star-studded squads into a late January series. In front of packed houses at both Kelley Rink and Agganis Arena, BC swept the Terriers, with many describing the atmosphere at BC as one of the most electric in the building’s history.

#6: BC football throttles Florida State on Bill O’Brien’s debut

While Florida State’s eventual nightmare season took some of the shine off of this one, there’s no denying that BC’s Labor Day victory in Tallahassee was a thrilling moment – particularly one marking the debut of the Bill O’Brien era with what was (at the time) a big road upset.

This win also came at the end of an emotional weekend for BC fans, with BOB starting his first interview of the night with a salute to the Gaudreau family, just days after the tragic loss of Johnny and Matt Gaudreau.

#5: BC women’s lacrosse repeats as ACC champions

From 2007 to 2023, no BC team won an ACC championship in any sport. With the conference absolutely stacked in just about every Olympic sport, it’s a tough road to the top, and even the great BC teams that made multiple Final Four runs and even won a national title weren’t able to get an ACC crown until 2023.

This spring, however, the BC women’s lacrosse team made sure there’d be no similar drought, emphatically pushing their way to back-to-back conference tournament titles with a 15-8 dismantling of Syracuse.

It’s easy to forget now in the wake of BC’s conference and national titles, but the Eagles went in to the final week of the season as slight underdogs, needing a wild rally and OT win over then-#2 Syracuse to close out the regular season to kickstart their push to more hardware. But once they made it into the postseason,they were a different team.

Kayla Martello’s 6 goals led the way for BC as they took home their first major trophy of 2024 – but not their last.

#4: BC men’s hockey scores a comeback win on an emotional night honoring the Gaudreau and Voce families

The shocking and tragic deaths of Johnny and Matt Gaudreau this summer added more loss to an already difficult time for the BC hockey family, after the unexpected passing of 2001 national champion Tony Voce the previous month.

The Eagles honored Voce and the Gaudreau brothers on an emotional night on November 8, donning #13 and #21 warmup jerseys that were auctioned off to support causes important to each family. The families were honored in an emotional pregame ceremony.

BC then capped off the night by rising to the occasion with an emotional comeback victory, erasing a 2-0 deficit to top Maine 3-2 on a late game winning goal by Ryan Leonard. In addition to being emotionally meaningful, the game was yet another huge win for BC in the Hockey East and pairwise race, handing Maine their first loss of the season.

Adding to the emotions of the night, the PA played “Johnny B. Goode” after BC’s game-tying goal.

#3: BC men’s hockey advances to the Frozen Four on Jack Malone’s golden goal

BC hockey fans have been treated to a lot of great games through the years, but there’s something special about winner-take-all overtime in the NCAA tournament with the season on the line. It happened for the first time since 2008 on a wild Easter Sunday in Providence, when defending national champions Quinnipiac held on to their crown with all of their might in a knock-down, drag-out battle with the Eagles with a Frozen Four berth on the line.

With 4:44 to go, BC’s season was on the brink, but Aram Minnetian stepped up and fired a game-tying goal seemingly out of nowhere to send the game to OT:

Then, in OT, Jack Malone gave us one of the most electrifying plays (and calls) in recent BC history, sending the Eagles to the Frozen Four:

#2: BC defeats BU to win the Hockey East championship

For the first time since 2006, BC clashed with their archrivals BU with the Hockey East title on the line; and for the first time since 2012, the Eagles skated around the Garden ice with the Lamoriello Trophy, ending a 12-year title drought. It was memorable night for Eagles fans, and for Will Smith, who scored 4 goals in the title game en route to being named Hockey East tournament MVP.

#1: BC lacrosse wins national championship in wild fashion

BC’s 2021 national championship in women’s lacrosse was an exorcism after years of near-misses. It would be hard for another championship game to somehow compete with it on a list of all-time thrillers for BC, but they somehow managed to do it this year, edging #1 Northwestern 14-13 in an absolutely titanic NCAA championship game.

In the early stages, it looked like Northwestern would repeat what they did to BC in 2023, smoking out the Eagles in the final. The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and looked to be in cruise control.

They were not.

The Eagles staged a heroic rally, undoing the deficit and battling back and forth with Northwestern until the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, when Andrea Reynolds put BC out front:

Then, Shea Dolce did this in the final seconds of the game:

The Eagles’ second national title cemented their place among the nation’s elite programs in any sport, and once again gave us all something to be proud of.

Here’s hoping for even more great moments in 2025!