Notre Dame close to losing bowl bid

 

 

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Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	20	18
Total Yards	397	346
Passing	350	199
Rushing	47	147
Penalties	2-20	6-40
3rd Down Conversions	3-16	7-18
4th Down Conversions	3-4	2-3
Turnovers	2	1
Possession	28:23	31:37

Individual Leaders

Notre Dame Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Quinn 23/39 350 2 2	Boston College Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Porter 13/25 199 1 0
Notre Dame Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Jones 15 40 0 12 Grant 10 28 0 9 Powers-Neal 1 3 0 3	Boston College Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Dodd 12 64 1 24 Knight 23 43 0 9 Porter 16 41 1 12
Notre Dame Receiving   REC YDS TD LG McKnight 4 121 0 38 Fasano 4 48 0 15 Jenkins 4 35 1 14 Stovall 3 80 1 51	Boston College Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Adams 4 103 0 28 Knight 3 23 0 9 Kashetta 2 41 1 26 Toal 2 2 0 2

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER				ND	BC
	FG	12:29	D.J. FITZPATRICK 38 YD FG Drive info: 5 plays, 58 yards.	3	0
	TD	0:21	DAVID KASHETTA 26 YD PASS FROM QUINTON PORTER (SANDRO SCIORTINO KICK) Drive info: 7 plays, 63 yards.	3	7
SECOND QUARTER				ND	BC
	TD	11:21	HORACE DODD 4 YD RUN (SANDRO SCIORTINO KICK) Drive info: 6 plays, 39 yards.	3	14
	FG	6:34	D.J. FITZPATRICK 27 YD FG Drive info: 11 plays, 56 yards.	6	14
THIRD QUARTER				ND	BC
	FG	9:12	SANDRO SCIORTINO 30 YD FG Drive info: 8 plays, 35 yards.	6	17
	TD	3:27	QUINTON PORTER 1 YD RUN (SANDRO SCIORTINO KICK) Drive info: 8 plays, 44 yards.	6	24
	TD	0:03	OMAR JENKINS 10 YD PASS FROM BRADY QUINN (FAILED 2PT PASS) Drive info: 10 plays, 78 yards.	12	24
FOURTH QUARTER				ND	BC
	TD	12:42	MAURICE STOVALL 23 YD PASS FROM BRADY QUINN (D.J. FITZPATRICK KICK) Drive info: 1 plays, 23 yards.	19	24
	TD	3:34	CARLOS CAMPBELL 25 YD BLOCKED PUNT RETURN (FAILED 2PT RUSH)	25	24
	FG	0:38	SANDRO SCIORTINO 26 YD FG Drive info: 10 plays, 43 yards.	25	27

BOSTON (AP) -- Sandro Sciortino kicked a 26-yard field goal with 38 seconds left as Boston College beat Notre Dame for the third consecutive time, recovering after blowing an 18-point lead to win 27-25 on Saturday.

The Eagles (5-3) led 24-6 before Notre Dame (2-5) rallied and took the lead when Nate Schiccatano blocked a punt and Carlos Campbell ran it 25 yards for a touchdown with 3:34 left.

But Will Blackmon ran the kickoff back 42 yards to almost midfield, and Quinton Porter marched BC to the 8 for Sciortino's chip shot.

Porter completed 13 of 25 passes for 199 yards, and he also ran 16 times for a career-high 41 yards and a touchdown. Derrick Knight, the nation's leading rusher, ran for just 43 yards on 23 carries after sitting out about a quarter with a leg injury, but Horace Dodd filled in with 64 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Brady Quinn was 23-for-39 for 350 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Notre Dame. Julius Jones managed just 40 yards on 15 carries.

It's the first time in the rivalry between the nation's only Division I-A football-playing Catholic universities that BC has won three in a row. Last year, the Eagles won 14-7 in South Bend to send the then-unbeaten and fourth-ranked Irish into a slump from which they have yet to recover.

Notre Dame has lost eight of 12 games since then. With Florida State (No. 5 ESPN/USA Today, No. 6 AP) next, the Irish are in danger of falling out of bowl contention.

Notre Dame opened the game with a 51-yard pass from Quinn to Maurice Stovall that put the ball on the BC 27. But the Irish were forced to settle for a field goal that made it 3-0.

Late in the first, Knight apparently twisted his ankle after he was forced out of bounds and came out of the game until the second quarter. But Dodd replaced him and ran for 5 and 9 yards to set up Porter's 26-yard touchdown pass to David Kashetta that gave the Eagles a 7-3 lead.

Notre Dame was forced to punt on its next possession, and Nathaniel Hasselbeck ran the kick back 43 yards to the Irish 39. With the ball on the 30, Dodd ran 2 yards on a fourth-and-1, then broke free for 24 yards before scoring from the 4 to give BC a 14-3 lead.

After the teams traded field goals, Quinn was stopped on third-and-1 for no gain and Jared Clark was stopped on fourth down, giving BC the ball at the Irish 44. On a fourth-and-7 with 4:30 left in the third, Grant Adams pulled in Porter's pass with his fingertips and took it 28 yards to the 3.

Two plays later, Porter scrambled for a touchdown, diving for the pylon to give the Eagles a 24-6 lead.

The Irish made it 24-12 when Quinn hit Omar Jenkins with a 10-yard TD pass just before the end of the third period. But when they went for 2 -- a key decision, it turned out -- Quinn's pass fell incomplete.

Notre Dame closed the gap when BC punter Jeff Gomulinski took a bad snap and tried to run with it, but failed to make a first down. Notre Dame took over on the BC 23 with 12:50 left, and on the next play, Stovall outjumped a defender at the goal line to make it 24-19.

Jones ran the opening kickoff back 18 yards to break Tim Brown's school record for career return yards.