No. 8 Irish fight off Mids’ upset bid
Notre Dame scores on three straight 2nd-half possessions
SOUTH BEND, IND. — Navy executed its eplan almost to perfection and it still wasn’t good enough to beat Notre Dame. The Midshipmen dominated possession, but the Fighting Irish scored touchdowns on three straight possessions spanning the second and third quarters to pull out a narrow win.
Quarterback Brandon Wimbush passed for 164 yards and two touchdowns while tailback Josh Adams rushed for 106 yards as No. 8 Notre Dame held off a spirited upset bid to beat Navy, 24-17, on a cold, windy and rainy Saturday.
An announced crowd of 77,622 braved nasty conditions to see the 91st consecutive meeting between the schools and was shocked to see the underdog Midshipmen stay in contention until the bitter end.
Zach Abey (Archbishop Spalding) did not start at quarterback, but wound up playing most of the game and rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown for Navy, which came close to knocking off Notre Dame for the second straight season and fifth time since 2007.
Fullback Anthony Gargiulo made his first career start and responded with 87 rushing yards for Navy (6-4), which held the ball for nearly 43 minutes. The Midshipmen’s inability to finish a few drives proved decisive.
Navy had four marches into Notre Dame territory come up empty thanks to a pair of turnovers on downs, a missed field goal and an interception. The Midshipmen could ill afford those missed opportunities in a low possession contest.
“We have to finish those drives. We had a chance to make some plays and didn’t do it,” Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo said.
Navy reached the home team’s 25 yard line with time winding down in the fourth quarter, but could not convert on fourth down. The Midshipmen tried a trick play that called for Darryl Bonner to throw after catching a pitchout, but he was hurried and the pass was way short.
“I’m proud of our kids. I thought they played hard and fought to the end. We had a couple mistakes and, as we talked about, you can’t do that against these guys. You have to almost play perfect,” Niumatalolo said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. We were close there at the end, but obviously not close enough.”
Junior Garret Lewis got the start at quarterback, but lasted just one possession. Niumatalolo said Lewis made some mistakes TV: Radio: on Navy’s opening drive and the coaching staff decided to go with Abey the rest of the way.
Abey, who sat out last Saturday’s game against SMU with a shoulder injury and was also bothered by a hip ailment, looked fully healthy for the first time in weeks and ran hard all game.
“I definitely felt rested. My shoulder felt good this week and my hip is a lot better,” Abey said.
Abey did make one critical mistake, throwing an interception deep in Notre Dame territory on Navy’s second-to-last possession.
“That’s something we just can’t have, especially late in the game like that,” Abe said.
Navy limited Notre Dame to just six possessions in last season’s 28-27 upset victory in Jacksonville, Fla. This year’s meeting was almost an exact replica with the Fighting Irish getting only nine possessions and holding the ball for just over 17 minutes.
“As Abey said, possession was a huge key to this game. We knew the weather was going to be bad and we knew it was Notre Dame — a real good team,” Gargiulo said. “We knew if we held the ball and didn’t turn it over we would have a really good chance. We had the one (turnover) and that was enough to let them slip away with it.”
Navy held the ball for more than 20 of 30 minutes. Notre Dame had the ball for just 9:33 and punted on two of four possessions.