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For a few seconds, Andre Williams shared Boston College's single-game rushing record. On his next play, he lost a yard.
He didn't carry the ball again.
Oh, well. He shrugged it off like he did Army's defenders.
''I don't necessarily care too much about the records,'' Williams said after rushing for 263 yards and tying a school record by running for five touchdowns to lead BC to a 48-27 victory over Army on Saturday. ''I have seven more weeks to get it.''
The Eagles (3-2) have one more win than they did all last season and have seven games left, starting with a trip to No. 3 Clemson.
Saturday's game was played after the Department of Defense announced that football games involving service academies could be played while the partial government shutdown is in effect.
''A non-issue,'' Army coach Rich Ellerson said. ''The guys are too busy to spend a bunch of time around the water cooler talking about what might happen this weekend.''
Williams entered the game as the Atlantic Coast Conference rushing leader with 515 yards and 128.8 per game then built on that with the best performance of his career. The senior scored on runs of 34, 1, 37 and 3 yards before capping his scoring with another 34-yarder early in the fourth quarter as Boston College took a three-touchdown lead. He carried the ball 30 times.
BC's single-game rushing record of 264 yards was set by Montel Harris in 2009 against North Carolina State. He also rushed for five touchdowns in that game.
Williams didn't play on the Eagles last series and he and coach Steve Addazio said they weren't aware he was close to the record.
''Those things are all nice,'' Addazio said, ''but with a team's success, individual goals will come.''
In last year's 34-31 loss to Army, Williams ran for 199 yards, his career high at the time, and two touchdowns, including a 99-yarder. He surpassed that this season with 204 yards rushing in a 24-10 win over Wake Forest.
''I was thinking about last year's Army game all week and the controversy about whether the game was going to be played just really was playing with my heart,'' he said. ''When we found out the game was going to be played, it was really a good opportunity and I wasn't going to let it pass me.''
BC led 31-20 after a first half in which the teams scored on the first six possessions and nine of 10, ending with Nate Freese's 49-yard field goal as time expired.
Army (2-4) scored on its first play of the second half on an 80-yard run by Larry Dixon as the Black Knights cut the lead to 31-27.
But then Williams led the Eagles on a 93-yard march, capped by his fourth touchdown, on a 3-yard run. He rushed on 10 of the 13 plays for 52 yards. Chase Rettig completed a 39-yard pass to Alex Amidon that moved the ball to the Army 33. Then Williams ran on the remaining five plays.
Freese added a 28-yard field goal before the 227-pound Williams powered through the line again for his fifth touchdown.
''We feel better about ourselves offensively, especially in the first half,'' Ellerson said, ''and we're sore as heck with ourselves defensively because we allowed them to come out and manhandle us.''
Neither defense could do much in the first half.
Daniel Grochowski kicked a 38-yard field goal for Army before the Eagles got the ball. On their first play, Rettig completed a 68-yard pass to Amidon, the longest completion and reception of those players' careers. The drive ended with Rettig's 3-yard scoring pass to Dave Dudeck.
Then Army, a ground-and-pound team that relies on the triple option, fooled the Eagles.
Angel Santiago handed the ball to Terry Baggett, who flipped it back to Santiago as Xavier Moss ran downfield without being guarded. Santiago completed the pass and Moss scored on the 75-yard play. It was the first pass play of the game for Army. And it came after the Black Knights didn't throw a pass in the second half of last Saturday's 35-16 victory over Louisiana Tech.
Then Williams put BC back in control, scoring three touchdowns in a span of 11:1.
''He's a load,'' Army linebacker Julian Holloway said, ''but, at the same time, you wrap (him) up and bring yourself to him and bring him in, he has to go down. That's just the nature of physics. And then swarming to the ball. I think we could have done a better job of that.''
Even that might not have been enough to slow Williams down.
''With Andre, I told him earlier in the week he's got to rush for 200 yards,'' Addazio said. ''We've got a legitimate offensive line. They blocked well and we ran really, really hard.''
