STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Ticker) -- Boston College scored three touchdowns in just over seven minutes and Derrick Knight wore down 25th-ranked Penn State in the second half of a 27-14 victory.
Quinton Porter passed for two touchdowns and Knight ran for 156 yards and a score to lead Boston College.
Porter completed 6-of-10 passes for 118 yards in the first half, when Boston College (1-1) dominated en route to taking a 24-7 lead. Knight started slowly, but carried 17 times for 130 yards in the second half as the Eagles held on for just their third victory in 22 all-time meetings with Penn State.
"We know what we can do as an offense and we came and showed it today," said Porter, who completed 22-of-39 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown in last week's 32-28 loss to Wake Forest. "It's a lot better feeling than last week. We've got to remember how this feels vs. last week. A win's going to feel better than a loss obviously, but we know how it felt and how we came out and the energy that we had today vs. how we felt last week."
The schools were meeting for the first time since 1992, when then-No. 20 Boston College posted a 35-32 win over the then-No. 9 Nittany Lions.
Zack Mills was 15-of-28 for 144 yards and a TD for Penn State (1-1), which was coming off a lackluster 23-10 season-opening win over Temple.
"We weren't pass protecting," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "Our offensive line will get better, but they had a tough time with those guys. To their credit, the B.C. people did a did a nice job of blitzing and their kids did a good job."
Boston College converted on the first possession of the game with Porter tossing an 18-yard pass to Grant Adams to cap an eight-play, 80-yard drive.
Will Blackmon had a 22-yard punt return to set up Porter's 37-yard TD pass to Tony Gonzalez, giving the Eagles a 14-0 lead just 5:11 into the contest.
"We felt we could throw the ball and we were able to throw the ball early on and that helped us untrack the running game," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said. "They are a big powerful team now. They've got some players. But we were able to contain them and hold them in there."
Defensive tackle Tom Martin picked off a screen pass from Mills and returned it 25 yards to the Penn State 1 before Horace Dodd burst through the middle to push Boston College's lead to 21-0 with 7:50 left in the opening quarter.
Dodd, who played two seasons at Penn State before transferring in 2001, rushed 13 times for 62 yards.
"This is everything I envisioned," Dodd said. "Whenever I thought about playing in the game, I just envisioned us beating them up and down the field. There was no doubt in my mind that we couldn't dominate them and that's what I told the guys before the game."
Sandro Sciortino booted a 31-yard field goal to cap a 13-play, 66-yard drive and make it 24-0, 2:26 into the third.
The Nittany Lions cut the deficit to 24-7 on a 10-yard run by Austin Scott 95 seconds before halftime.
Sciortino kicked a 30-yard field 6:47 into the third to make it 27-7.
Backup quarterback Michael Robinson had a two-yard run with 6:12 left in the fourth for Penn State's only touchdown. Robinson rushed nine times for 24 yards and completed 4-of-11 passes for 41 yards.
