After Terrel Hunt was brought down with 3:24 left in the first half of an eventual 27-26 Syracuse (1-0) win over Villanova (0-1) in the Carrier Dome on Friday night, he threw a left-handed punch. It didn’t have much on it, but it was directed at the head of Wildcats’ linebacker Dillon Lucas and led to Hunt being ejected from the game.

In the aftermath of an overtime game decided by a fake-field goal touchdown pass by SU punter Riley Dixon and a failed two-point conversion by Villanova, here’s what Lucas had to say about Hunt’s ejection. Hunt was not made available to the media.

Question: The punch is a game-turning play for Syracuse, what happened from your perspective?

Dillon Lucas: I was just trying to hustle to the ball and make a tackle. Guess he didn’t really like the way I tackled him hard to the ground. I rolled off him and he just kind of … he just threw the punch.

Q: Were there any words exchanged before that or during that?

D.L.: I didn’t say anything. I didn’t hear him say anything. I don’t think he said anything. I just rolled over and next thing I know I got punched.

Q: Could you sense it coming at all from him?

D.L.: No, not really. I wasn’t really hitting too much and hadn’t hit him until then, so I didn’t really feel him have any edge toward me. Maybe the way I hit him into the ground kind of got to him a little and he took his frustration out after the play.

Q: It looked like on the replay that you may have gotten pushed into him, does that sound like what you remember happening?

D.L.: Not particularly. I didn’t really see the replay either, I guess we’ll look at it when we watch the film. I just ran to the ball and hit him and he just rolled over and hit me.

Published on August 30, 2014 at 1:09 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse