Nov. 16—SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame forced five Virginia turnovers and kept the Cavaliers scoreless in the first half on the way to a 35-14 victory on senior night.
The No. 8 Irish (9-1) scored 21 points off the Cavaliers (5-5) five turnovers, resulting in a 35-0 lead before the visitors narrowed to a more respectable deficit.
“I think, you know when you look at the big picture, it gives our entire program, all three phases a chance to have success,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “When your defense is playing as well as you’re playing, it allows you to still be in the game and be in position to win maybe when you aren’t having the success you want to start the game.”
Virginia ran just four plays in Notre Dame territory the entire first half. One resulted in a fumble.
Notre Dame forced three fumbles and recovered two. Xavier Watts finished with one of them, also intercepting a pass and breaking up another on third down early in the first quarter.
“It’s a lot of fun when you can have a lot of, you know, havoc on the ball and certainly tonight we were able to do that,” Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser said. “Guys were flying around, guys were seeing their keys and recognizing stuff and making plays on it.”
The Irish defense held Virginia to finish 17-of-36 passing. Starting quarterback Anthony Colandrea was benched in the second half after completing 8-of-21 passes for 69 yards and three interceptions.
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard finished 22-for-33, throwing for three touchdowns. He also threw his second interception of the season since Week 2.
Jeremiyah Love ran for two touchdowns and 137 yards in 16 attempts.
“I told them in the locker room, we’ll fix the film, there’s always plays to fix, we’ll evaluate it, we’ll figure out the whys, but enjoy this victory,” Freeman said after the Irish’s eighth-consecutive victory.
The first turnover of the game took less than five seconds to arrive. Notre Dame transfer Chris Tyree, now playing on the Cavaliers, muffed the opening kickoff as Max Hurleman recovered for the Irish. Four plays later, Jeremiyah Love ran in a four-yard touchdown run to give the Irish a 7-0 lead two minutes into Saturday’s home regular season finale.
Neither team’s offense showed much life in the opening quarter. The teams combined for 128 yards, five three-and-outs and were 1-for-7 on third down. Virginia was the only team to successfully move the chains on third down, doing so right before the first quarter clock expired.
Taking over at the Notre Dame 42-yard line to begin it’s sixth drive of the game at the 11:34 mark, Virginia’s Kobe Pace broke away on a 14-yard rush but fumbled the ball, which Watts scooped up for the turnover.
The Notre Dame offense came to life after the second defensive takeaway. Leonard was a perfect 5-for-5 passing on the nine-play, 88-yard drive and completed passes to four different receivers. Jayden Harrison caught two passes, both for eight yards, including the touchdown strike to put the Irish up 14-0 at the 6:37 mark of the second quarter.
Harrison caught three passes for a team-high 41 yards.
“Our offense is doing a good job, we just got to eliminate some of those early-game three-and-outs in situations when we’re not moving the chains as much as we want,” Freeman said. “As you look at that, you know, they mostly came from penalties or negative yardage plays that we just got to make sure we clean up.”
“We can’t put our offense behind the sticks,” Freeman said. “That’s the thing that stuck out to me more than anything. We’re in a lot of third and long situations and the percentage of converting on those are not good, no matter who you are.”
Back-to-back drives ended in punts and were followed by three-consecutive Virginia drives halted by interceptions from Colandrea.
Adon Shuler picked off the first and returned it 45 yards to the Cavalier two-yard line. The Irish scored when Leonard flipped it over the line to Cooper Flanagan for the short score. Just four plays later, Leonard Moore tipped a pass and took control inside Virginia territory. The Irish scored via Leonard’s 16-yard pass to tight end Mitchell Evans which gave the Irish a 28-0 lead. Evans led all 11 receivers to catch a pass for the Irish with four catches for 34 yards.
Xavier Watts intercepted a third pass before the half, but ND’s Marcello Diomede’s 54-yard kick was wide right, settling for a 28-0 lead at the break.
Love broke out a 76-yard rushing touchdown in the Irish’s second possession of the second half.
Virginia would end up scoring twice, the second time in the final minute to narrow the final score.
