Notre Dame, Ind. - Notre Dame kept its winning streak going with Saturday’s 49-10win over Navy. The Fighting Irish (7-2) won for the seventh straight time while handing the Midshipmen (7-2) their second loss in as many weeks.
CJ Carr threw three touchdowns to three different receivers while completing 13 of his 16 attempts for 218 yards. The offense totaled 502 yards as running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined for three touchdown runs. It marks the third time this season the Irish offense has topped 500 yards.
The Notre Dame defense saw quarterback Braxton Woodson, who was staring in place of the injured Blake Horvath, run for 108 yards on 20 carries in the first half. But he was stymied with just three carries for –7 yards in the second half.
Navy entered the game averaging 317 rushing yards and 149 passing yards per game. They finished with 206 on the ground and just 22 through the air for 228 net yards to finish 238 yards below their per game average. Notre Dame tallied 43 more rushing yards than the Midshipmen.
Jaiden Ausberry was all over the field for the Irish most of the night. The linebacker finished with a team high eight tackles, two for loss, with a sack and a forced fumble. Junior Tuihalamaka had Notre Dame’s other sack.
A Navy punt pinned the Irish at their own six-yard line and it had the makings of a 3-and-out after Love was stuffed at the line of scrimmage on the first two plays. Carr hit Love coming out of the backfield against a Navy blitz on 3rd and 10 for a 27-yard gain.
Carr then went deep to Malachi Fields for a 52-yard gain on the next play to move to the Mids’ 15. Love scored three plays later from a yard out for the first points of the night. Fields finished with four receptions for a game high 97 yards.
Erik Schmidt booted the extra point through the uprights for a 7-0 lead. Schmidt converted seven extra points, and all of his kickoffs were touchbacks after taking over kicking duties during the week.
The Irish punted on their second possession and a 28-yard knuckleball punt by James Rendell gave the Midshipmen the ball at their own 47. Runs of 15, 13 and 11 yards by Eli Heidenreich, Alex Tecza and Joshua Guerin helped set up a 2-yard TD run by Woodson to tie the game 7-7 with 11:02 to play in the first half.
Notre Dame wasted no time going 71 yards in nine plays for a Price 2-yard touchdown run. Carr hit Fields for a 20-yard gain on the first play of the drive and then hit the receiver for gains of 13 and 12 on two of the next three plays. Carr also connected with Jordan Faison for an 8-yard gain on 4th and 1 to set up Price’s 12th overall touchdown of the season.
After a Navy 3-and-out, the Irish offense scooted right downfield again for a seven-play, 68-yard drive that was capped by a 5-yard pass from Carr to Faison to make it 21-7 with 1:42 left in the half. Carr converted on 3rd and 8 with a 27-yard pass to Will Pauling a play before the score.
Navy drove to the Irish 23 and got a 33-yard field goal from Nathan Kirkwood with 15 seconds left in the half. Woodson scrambled for a 41-yard gain to the Irish 34 on the second play of the drive. He had 20 carries for 108 yards at halftime.
Love raced 48 yards for his second score of the night on the fourth play of the second half. He broke multiple tackles and spun off a defender who was trying to pull him to the ground to get out of the backfield and then easily out raced the rest of the defense to reach the endzone. The run moved him into eighth place all-time in the Irish rushing record books.
Navy went for it on 4th and 2 at its own 33 on the ensuing drive, but he was swarmed by Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Madden Faraimo and Leonard Moore after a one-yard gain. The Irish took over at the 34 as snowflakes fells from the sky. It took just one play for Notre Dame to capitalize as Carr hit KK Smith in the end zone for a 34-yard TD strike to make it 35-10 just 3:33 into the second half.
The Irish started at the Navy 49 after forcing a punt and Price powered them toward the end zone with 30 yards on five carries before Carr hit tight end Ty Washington with a 4-yard touchdown pass to make it 42-10.
Kenny Minchey took over at quarterback with 1:40 left in the third quarter with the Irish up by the same score. Aneyas Williams entered the game on the drive as well and finished it with a 54-yard touchdown run, his second of the season, to cap the night’s scoring. Minchey was 3 for 3 for 35 passing yards with another 13 yards on the ground.
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