CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — It took the CMU football team scoring the game’s first points for Boston College to find its stride in a 31-10 win Saturday at Alumni Stadium.

The Eagles did more than find their stride. After falling behind 3-0 on an Andrew Aguila 34-yard field goal with 6:09 remaining in the first half, BC scored 24 points without punting the ball.

BC punted the ball four times prior to CMU’s field goal. After falling behind, it did not punt until the fourth quarter.

Junior linebacker Matt Berning said the sequence after CMU’s field goal was the turning point in the game.

“When we scored, the whole mentality of their football team kind of changed,” he said. “Their sense of urgency picked up, being behind in the second quarter, and you could feel them coming out and wanting to score more than we wanted to protect our own end zone.”

Down 3-0, the Eagles answered with a 11 play, 80-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown and took five minutes, 19 seconds off the clock.

BC running back Montel Harris scored the touchdown. He added another in the third quarter, finishing with 136 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns.

“When you’re able to run the football, it opens up so many other avenues with your play action and your drop-back game,” said CMU coach Butch Jones.

Junior linebacker Nick Bellore said CMU’s inability to stop the run led to BC having success in the passing game.

“When you can’t stop the run, that just sets up the pass game, particularly the play-action-pass game,” he said. “They were just able to boot on us, and you bite up on those play-action plays by them.”

LeFevour leaves game

CMU had more problems than normal keeping key contributors on the field. Senior quarterback Dan LeFevour, junior wide receiver Antonio Brown and senior cornerback Josh Gordy all missed significant playing time to injury.

Jones said LeFevour battled migraine headaches before being pulled for good to start the fourth quarter and Brown suffered a turf-toe injury. Their statuses will not be announced until another time.

When playing, LeFevour completed 20-of-34 passes for 152 yards and an interception. In relieft, redshirt freshman Ryan Radcliff completed 4-of-8 passes for 66 yards and an interception. He added an 11-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds remaining in the game.

BC freshman quarterback Dave Shinskie completed 18-of-28 passes for 262 yards and a touchdown. Senior wide receiver Rich Gunnell had eight catches for 134 yards and a touchdown.

CMU gets a 10-day break before it resumes Mid-American Conference play against Toledo Nov. 11 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

“We can’t leave our season here in Boston,” Jones said. “If we started the season saying we’d be 7-2, undefeated in our conference and three games left, and two out of three are at home, and your chasing the championship, I think we’d all say to a man, ‘We’ll take it.’”

E-mail the author: Andrew Stover