Penn State tops Boston College in Pinstripe Bowl

NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Knoll hooked the ball well right of the post, a foul strike that cost Boston College at Yankee Stadium.

Christian Hackenberg hit Kyle Carter for a 10-yard touchdown pass in overtime and Penn State kicked the extra point the Eagles could not, lifting the Nittany Lions to a 31-30 victory in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night.

"We lost a game we didn't need to lose," Boston College coach Steve Addazio said.

Penn State's Sam Ficken used Derek Jeter's locker and some of the retired five-time World Series championship shortstop's play appeared to rub off on the kicker.

Ficken sent the game into OT with a 45-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in regulation and won it with his extra point.

"I couldn't have asked for a better ending for my career," Ficken said.

Tyler Murphy hit David Dudeck for a 21-yard touchdown pass on Boston College's drive. Knoll shanked the extra point for the Eagles (7-6) and that was the opening Penn State needed to complete its comeback from a 21-7 deficit late in the third quarter.

The Eagles left stunned after blowing the lead and missing their eighth extra point of the season. Knoll had put the Eagles ahead 24-21 on a 20-yarder with 2:10 left in the fourth.

"I just told him to keep his head up," Murphy said. "That one PAT didn't lose us the game."

The Nittany Lions (7-6) played in a bowl game for the first time since January 2012 after the NCAA lifted the most severe sanctions levied against the program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Penn State has played under the cloud of scandal and sanctions for the most of the last four years, tearing at the fabric of the community known as Happy Valley and tarnishing the legacy of Joe Paterno.

Moments after Penn State hoisted the bowl trophy on the field, first-year coach James Franklin took the microphone and thanked the seniors "who stayed with this program when we needed them most."

Ficken, who won the opener in Dublin with a 36-yard field goal as time expired, bookended the season with his biggest kick yet. Captain to captain, Ficken had the honor of using the retired Jeter's locker Saturday. Ficken is Penn State's special teams captain.

"He's probably been our best offensive weapon all year long," Franklin said.

Hackenberg played more as he did in his freshman year, when he had NFL scouts raving about first-round potential rather than this season's erratic sophomore effort. He set Penn State records for completions and yards passing (34 of 50, 371 yards) and earned MVP honors. He went over the middle and hit DaeSean Hamilton to make it 21-all with 6:48 left in the fourth.

Hackenberg should have been eligible for a potential bowl game his senior season. But when the bowl ban was lifted this season, the Nittany Lions earned the chance to play in front of 49,012 fans at Yankee Stadium.

Murphy threw for two touchdowns and ran for 105 yards and Jon Hilliman had 148 yards rushing and score that helped the Eagles build a lead.

It just wasn't enough.

"When you get a lose a game in overtime like that, the obvious thing to look at is the way we lost at the bitter end," Addazio said. "But there'll be plays along the way that could have changed the tale of the game. If you start playing that game right now, you drive yourself absolutely insane. We've got some issues we got to get fixed in the kicking game."

Murphy found Shakim Phillips in the corner end zone for a 19-yard touchdown and a 14-7 lead early in the third. He then showed how he set the ACC's single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,079 yards in 2014 with a 40-yard dash that put the Eagles ahead 21-7.

Hilliman, who led the team with 12 rushing TDs, broke through early with a 44-yard run that gave him more yards on one carry than three teams had in a game this season against Penn State: Central Florida (24), Massachusetts (3) yards and Maryland (25). He averaged a whopping 19.2 yards-per-carry on just five attempts for 101 yards in the first half.

He found a huge opening late in the first quarter for a 49-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 7.

The Nittany Lions scored first on Hackenberg's 72-yard TD pass to Chris Godwin down the right sideline with 5:22 left in the first.

The score earned a booming "We are! Penn State!" chant from the Penn State fans.