Boos from the crowd echoed through the Carrier Dome as soon as referee Anthony Calabrese’s made the call. Eric Dungey didn’t cross the goal line. Instead, Syracuse would have first down and goal from its own one-yard line.

Even though Dungey managed to secure a first down for Syracuse with less three feet to go, he and the raucous crowd weren’t pleased. On the next play, Dungey muscled his way into the end zone for a touchdown, his fourth score of the first half, to give Syracuse a 31-14 lead.

“All he wants to do is win and he’ll do anything that he can to win,” SU head coach Dino Babers said. “If it’s helping you catch a pass, he’ll do it, and if you can’t catch it he’ll throw it to you and run down there and catch it himself.”

A week after backup Tommy DeVito wowed the college football world in relief of the injured Dungey against Florida State, leading SU to a dominant 27-point win, Dungey made his mark again. A poke to the eye, a helmet-to-helmet hit and a sore throwing shoulder in the last week, Dungey dominated, leading Syracuse (4-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) to a 51-21 win over Connecticut (1-3, 0-1 American Athletic). The senior completed 21 of 27 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns, rushed 77 yards and three touchdowns and led Syracuse to its first 4-0 start since 1991 and just its fifth since World War II.

And he’ll have to put forth a similar effort next week when SU travels to Death Valley to take on a No. 3 Clemson (4-0, 1-0) team eager for revenge against the quarterback that torched it for 339 yards and three touchdowns last season in arguably the biggest upset in SU football history.

“I thought Eric’s leadership was at the forefront today,” Babers said. “If you look at the way he handled the first quarter drives and the things we did the first two and three times we had the football, I think that’s a lot of Eric Dungey’s personality being breathed into the rest of the offense.”

Dungey has long discussed his fiery nature. He yelled in Babers’ ear to put him back in against Western Michigan. He tried to stay in against Florida State despite reportedly not being able to see straight due to getting poked in the eye. He knows if Syracuse is to make a national statement this year, it rests on the shoulders of his leadership. Whatever Syracuse does, all eyes will come back to him. On Saturday afternoon, he led Syracuse down the field on its first drive and punched the first touchdown of the game in himself. After a quick UConn three-and-out, Dungey accounted for 58 of Syracuse’s 75 yards and powered in another.

On that second rushing touchdown, Dungey faked the handoff on the Huskies’ nine-yard line and tried to run up the gut. When he was met by a wall of lineman, Dungey curled around the left side where he was met by two linebackers. One he shed immediately, the other, Kevon Jones, wrapped Dungey from behind, trying to plant his feet in the turf and stop the run. But he couldn’t. Dungey trudged forward, inching closer and closer, bulldozing his way toward the end zone as Jones continued to lose the proverbial tug-of-war to hold him back.

“He’s just a real warrior,” center Airon Servais said. “He just battles every play.”

Two drives in and Dungey had scored two touchdowns, had only one incompletion and 110 yards of offense and Syracuse led 14-0.

But something looked different. The Dungey of old would’ve fought for more yards, looking for head-on collisions with linebackers to try to gain one extra yard. Dungey didn’t play that way Saturday. He slid when he should have, he ran out of bounds when he reached first downs and he even avoided leaping at the goal-line on a second-down play that he likely could have scored on. He scored two plays later instead.

As UConn continued to struggle against the smothering SU defense, Dungey continued to shine. SU’s third drive lasted just 58 seconds. After a long Sean Riley punt return, Dungey went 3-3 completing passes to Devin Butler and Riley before finding Gabe Horan on the Connecticut one-yard line, where the tight end muscled his way for six points.

Just over 11 minutes into the game each side had three possessions. UConn accumulated 73 yards for no score. Dungey had 152 and three touchdowns. The Huskies began to gain some traction on the ground and in the air, but Dungey’s play paced the game. At the end of the first half, Dungey had outgained UConn by 16 yards and had four total touchdowns to Connecticut’s two.

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In the second half, he showed no signs of slowing, leading the offense to 48 points before DeVito finally came in for relief with 10 minutes remaining.

All game, Dungey bruised his way into the end zone and spread out a dynamic offense, finding eight different receivers and leading some — such as Riley, who produced a career-high 120 yards on six catches — to career days.

Yet, he lost his psyche in certain moments. In the third quarter, after Dungey failed to break the goal line on second and goal from the one-yard line, his arguing resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. SU settled for a field goal.

“That was what coach would call a selfish play,” Dungey said. “Not cool on my part. I can’t do things like that. It’s a bad look for the team … I told coach I apologize and it’s not gonna happen again.”

Dungey scored five touchdowns and generated 363 yards of total offense. He has propelled SU to its best start in 27 years. But, UConn entered this game as the worst defensive team in the nation and SU has not beaten an opponent above .500. Clemson — next week’s opponent — is arguably the best team in the nation. SU won last year’s matchup, but it was on home turf and against a second-string quarterback. The last time the Orange walked into Memorial Stadium (South Carolina), they left scoreless. Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties inches from the end zone won’t help SU to a win in Death Valley.

In the post-game press conference, Babers reiterated Dungey’s drive. If his wideouts can’t catch the ball, Dungey will throw it and catch it, Babers said. But when asked if he ever goes too far, Babers paused.

“What did that guy say? You play to win the game, the Arizona State (head coach Herm Edwards),” Babers said. “I think Eric does a great job of playing to win the game.”

Published on September 22, 2018 at 7:50 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu