Irish, Book Escape In Final Minute
SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- It wasn’t quite a walk-off touchdown.
Nah. Ian Book high-stepped Notre Dame to victory and in the Irish’s tales of lore in the process.
Book closed an improbable comeback with a poised 18-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that he capped from seven yards out and that, with Jonathon Doerer’s extra point, made Notre Dame a 21-20 winner against upstart Virginia Tech.
A 21-20 winner.
The Fighting Irish had trailed for the final 11 minutes of the third quarter.
They trailed for the first 14:31 of the fourth quarter.
Until Book, on a designed keeper, took a brief step back, darted forward, around right end and saw the end zone just a couple strides away. He took the moment to punctuate the score as he pranced into the end zone.
Kyle Hamilton preserved the win when he intercepted Quincy Patterson’s desperation heave in the game’s final ticks.
“Our team doesn’t give up,” Book told NBC on the field postgame. “We have a team on the sideline, we may be down (on the scoreboard), but we don’t give up. …
“We know we’re resilient.”
Notre Dame took over at its own 13, 3:22 left in the game and trailing 20-14 after the Hokies (5-3) had scored 13 unanswered points.
There was Avery Davis’ key catch for a first down that early sustained the march. Moments later, Chase Claypool --- already he had made a pair of tough-as-buffet-steak catches that the Irish had squandered on a previous drive that looked like their last – dragged his right toe along the sideline for an 18-yard gain into Hokies territory.
Then on fourth-and-10, Claypool gathered Book’s toss for 26 yards and first-and-goal at the 7.
Two straight incompletions set the stage for Book, who threw for 341 yards but was twice picked, to win this one with his legs.
“It was a designed quarterback run,” Book said. “This week was about our team. About having that strong love for each other and having fun and going out there and playing for each other.”
Every ounce of that resilience was needed on this blustery day. The last-gasp drive reversed fortune for a Notre Dame team that went streaking Saturday in all the wrong directions.
That nation’s-best red zone execution? Gone with Ian Book’s first interception, which ended a Notre Dame drive inside the Hokies’ 10 and foreshadowed more miscues on the day.
That years-long streak of carries by Irish running backs without a lost fumble? Gone, too, when Jafar Armstrong fumbled at the Hokies’ goal line, and Divine Deablo gathered it in midair and raced 98 yards for a 14-all tie.
Notre Dame had, quite literally, been a couple feet from seizing a 21-7 lead into halftime. Instead, Virginia Tech scored 13-straight points, stiffened on defense and perhaps secured a defining win for embattled coach Justin Fuente.
The two teams combined for 11 three-and-out series in the game’s first 22 minutes, but Notre Dame struck first when Book connected with a wide open Cole Kmet on a deftly executed slow-release route that dragged Kmet across the field into the end zone.
The Hokies, as they did throughout the contest, capitalized on Irish miscues. Notre Dame was flagged for kick-catch interference on a punt and a hands-to-the-face penalty, the two of which gifted the Hokies with 30 yards. Tech converted a key fourth-and-4 deep inside Irish territory when Quincy Patterson completed a 12-yard pass inside the 10; Patterson finished the drive moments later when he connected with Damon Hazelton for a touchdown.
The Irish went back on top when Book engineered a clean, 11-play, 77-yard drive that culminated in Book’s 4-yard toss to Tommy Tremble.
But things quickly dissolved after that go-ahead score.
Hamilton initially was ejected for a targeting penalty that was reversed near midfield, and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah pounced on Patterson’s fumble in that backfield, setting up the Irish offense on a short field.
A two-touchdown lead seemed imminent after Armstrong took a swing-pass on third-and-long and battered Tech defenders inside the 5. But all that momentum disappeared as suddenly as sunshine turned to snow inside the stadium.
Deablo, who ended the Irish’s best scoring chance in the third quarter with an leaping interception at the goal line, snared the loose ball forced by Rayshard Ashby clean, stiff-armed Book to the turf and never was threatened in his 98-yard sprint to a tied game.
The Hokies then took the lead in the third quarter when Brian Johnson drilled a 44-yard field goal. Johnson pushed the visitors’ lead out to 20-14, when he connected on a 25-yard attempt. The Irish defense had nearly held in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, but Patterson hit Tre Turner for a 50-yard gain on third-and-4 down to the Irish 12.
Two incomplete passes and a short Patterson run kept Notre Dame within striking distance for the game’s final 13:25.
As it averted its first back-to-back losses since the end of the 2016 season, Notre Dame steadied itself for the season’s final month and kept alive its hopes of a 10-win season and possible New Years Six bowl bid.