Irish Ground and Pound Eagles 49-20
CHESNUT HILL, Mass.- Boston College had a shot and it took it. Fortunately for Notre Dame, the Irish erased it with 515 rushing yards led by 229 yards by Josh Adams and 207 rushing yards by quarterback Brandon Wimbush.
Trailing by a point midway through the third quarter, the Eagles pushed to the Notre Dame 30-yard line and instead of settling for a long field goal for the win, decided to gamble and go for it on 4th-and-1. Boston College running back Jon Hilliman was stopped by Nyles Morgan and a host of Irish defenders for no gain.
The Irish went on to score touchdown on their next three drives to break the game open and leave Chestnut Hills with 49-20 victory over the Eagles.
Notre Dame moves to 2-1 on the season and will travel to Michigan State next Saturday.
In addition to his 207 yards on the ground, Wimbush rushed for four touchdowns on the day. Running back Dexter Williams ran six times for 50 yards and two scores.
The defensive stand gave the Irish momentum and Wimbush led a 70-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard Tony Jones Jr. touchdown run that gave the Irish a 21-13 lead. Wimbush sparked the drive with a 46-yard run.
Irish corner Shaun Crawford came up with a great interception on Boston College’s next drive to give Notre Dame possession at their 40-yard line.
The Irish offense took advantage of the turnover, taking the ball down the field eventually being capped by Wimbush for his third running touchdown of the game to make it 28-13. Adams had a 36-yard run and Durham Smythe had a 33-yard reception to set up the touchdown.
Boston College was forced to punt on its ensuing possession.
On the next Notre Dame drive, Wimbush broke free for a 65-yard touchdown to give the Irish a 35-13 lead.
The Eagles offense responded on its next possession with a 75-yard scoring drive. Brown connected with Callinan who hauled in a 14-yard touchdown reception for his second touchdown of the game to cut the lead to 35-20.
Notre Dame went three-and-out to give the ball back to the home team, but defensive end Julian Okwara stripped Hilman and Crawford recovered at the Eagles 35.
On the first play following the fumble, Wimbush rambled 33 yards down the right sideline and Dexter Williams finished the drive off with a two-yard score to push the Irish lead to 42-20 with 6:23 left in the game.
Crawford got his second interception of the game as Boston College quarterback Anthony Brown sailed a pass high. Williams scored his second touchdown from 15 yards out to push the Notre Dame lead to 49-20.
Leading 14-10 at the half, the Irish turned the ball over on their opening possession when a handoff exchange between Wimbush and Adams was fumbled and recovered by the Eagles.
Boston College took over at Notre Dame’s 32. The Eagles were able to get one first down on a 12-yard run by Hilliman, but the Irish defense hung tough forcing the Eagle offense to settle for a field goal to cut the lead to 14-13.
Hilman finished his big day with 122 yards on the ground, while Brown passed for 215 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The teams opened the game by exchanging punts after a pair of three-and-outs.
On its second drive, Boston College drove the ball 32 yards to the Notre Dame 20. The Irish hung tough in the red zone and forced a 38-yard Boston College field goal which gave the Eagles a 3-0 midway through the first quarter.
Notre Dame responded. Adams stumbled 65 yards up the middle to the Boston College two-yard line. Wimbush capped the drive one play later on a designed run to put the Irish up 7-3 a minute later.
Boston College’s next drive started with a 20-yard completion, but came to halt when the Irish forced an incompletion on a 3rd and 5.
The Irish couldn’t take advantage of the defensive stand, going three and out on their next drive.
The two teams went three-and-out on their final full drives of the opening quarter.
The Eagles took advantage of a defensive stand, racking up 55 yards on the ground, 50 by starting running back Hilliman, eventually being capped by a 22-yard completion from true freshman Brown to Callinan to put the Eagles up 10-7.
The next drive for the Irish started promising with a 16-yard completion to Alize Mack, followed by an eight-yard scramble from Wimbush and an 11-yard scamper for Adams, but came to an abrupt stop when the Eagle defense made a fourth-down stop tackling Wimbush a yard from the first-down marker.
The Irish defense forced a punt the Eagles next drive, after the Eagles got within Irish territory.
Notre Dame started its next drive at their own 11-yard-line and was unable to get anything going and was forced to punt from their own 23 yard-line
Boston College’s next drive came to a halt and was forced to punt at mid-field.
The Irish started their next drive from their own eight yard-line and were able to drive 92 yards that ended with a one-yard quarterback sneak touchdown by Wimbush. The drive was propelled by a 64-yard run by Adams. The touchdown put the Irish up 14-10.
After a long touchdown drive for the Irish offense, the defense was able to force a punt by the Eagle offense to give the Irish offense a chance to score with a 1:03 left on the clock until half.
The next drive for the Irish came to a halt on 3rd and 6 when a pass over the middle by Wimbush was tipped and intercepted Boston College free-safety Lukas Denis.
The Eagle offense ended the first half with a Hilliman two-yard run up the middle.
Adams highlighted the first half racking up 167 yards on the ground on nine carries. Wimbush added 51 yards on the ground and accounted for the two Irish touchdowns in the first half.
Hilliman carried the ball 16 times for the Eagles accounting for 94 yards on the ground. Brown completed 11 of his 16 pass attempts for 111 yards, and a touchdown that was hauled in by Callinan, who ended the half with four catches for 56 yards.