NEW YORK — Christian Hackenberg hit Kyle Carter for a 10-yard touchdown pass in overtime and Penn State kicked the extra point that Boston College could not, lifting the Nittany Lions to a 31-30 win in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night.
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's Sam Ficken used retired New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter's locker and some of his clutch postseason play appeared to rub off on the kicker.
He sent the game into OT with a 45-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in regulation and won it with his extra point.
Tyler Murphy hit David Dudeck for a 21-yard touchdown past on Boston College's drive. Mike 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.
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."
He told the thousands of die-hards that packed the stadium, "You want to talk about closure? Look around! This is closure!"
The Eagles left stunned after blowing the lead and missing their eighth extra point of the season.
Knoll put the Eagles ahead 24-21 on a 20-yarder with 2:10 left in the fourth.
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.
Hackenberg played more as he did 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 and Jon Hilliman had run wild for the Eagles to build a lead.
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 that helped fill Yankee Stadium.
The Nittany Lions turned the Bronx into a miniature Happy Valley, flooding the train from Philadelphia to New York on Saturday afternoon, then overtaking the subway lines.
Once they emerged at the corner of 161st Street and River Avenue, Yankee Stadium may as well have been Beaver Stadium. Mark Holtzman, who runs non-baseball events for the New York Yankees, said tickets sold out in 36 hours, the fastest of the five Pinstripe Bowls so far.
The Associated Press
Independence Bowl
SHREVEPORT, La. — Dylan Thompson threw for 294 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score in South Carolina's victory over Miami in the Independence Bowl.
Pharoh Cooper was Thompson's favorite target, catching nine passes for 170 yards, including a spectacular 25-yard grab on the decisive drive late in the fourth quarter.
Thompson completed 22 of 34 passes.
South Carolina (7-6) has won a school-record four straight bowl games. Miami (6-7) ended the season on a four-game losing streak and hasn't won in the postseason since 2006.
Miami's Duke Johnson ran for 132 yards and caught five passes for 51 yards, but his costly fumble with a little more than 5 minutes remaining set up South Carolina's winning drive.
Sun Bowl
EL PASO, Texas — Kalen Ballage returned a kickoff 96 yards to set up the winning score Arizona State's victory over Duke in the Sun Bowl.
Ballage's big return came after Duke (9-4) took a 31-30 lead on receiver Jamison Crowder's 12-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Blakeney with 5:03 left.
On the kickoff, Ballage took the ball near the goal line and went straight up the right hash for about 15 yards before picking up a block and cutting to his right. He was pushed out of bounds at the 4.
On the next play, Demario Richard took a shovel pass from Taylor Kelly and bulled his way over the left side and into the end zone. Kelly was stopped on the 2-point conversion try.
Duke drove to the 14 on its final drive, but Anthony Boone's third-and-10 pass was intercepted by Kweishi Brown in the end zone with 45 seconds left.
Richard had four touchdowns for Arizona State (10-3) to tie the Sun Bowl record with 24 points.
Miami's Brad Kaaya threw for 236 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Military Bowl
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — J.C. Coleman ran for 157 yards and a touchdown, and Virginia Tech harassed and ultimately injured Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel in the Military Bowl.
Virginia Tech (7-6) knocked Kiel out of the game in the third quarter during a play that virtually assured the Hokies a 22nd consecutive winning season.
Deon Clarke sacked Kiel and forced a fumble at the Cincinnati 43. Nigel Williams picked up the ball and fumbled at the 12, where Greg Stroman scooped it up and took it into the end zone for a 27-10 lead.
Kiel remained down for several minutes and was helped off the field and taken to the locker room. The 6-foot-4 sophomore did not return, and without him Cincinnati (9-4) had little chance to mount a comeback.
Kiel finished 14 for 26 for 244 yards.
Michael Brewer went 14 for 24 for 94 yards and a touchdown for the Hokies. Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer worked in the upstairs coaching box to avoid the risk of infection during his recovery from throat surgery.
