October 28, 1995

Notre Dame Boston College Final Stats

By David Freitag, The Scholastic 1995 Football Review

The 1995 Notre Dame-Boston College match­ had roots deeper than many of the large oaks on the campus. It was a grudge match that, for the Irish, meant far more than revenge.

Think back to1993. The Irish had just come away with a victory in ”The Game of the Century” over a powerful Florida State team which some had ac­claimed as one of the best ever. To go along with their perfect record and soaring confidence, Notre Dame owned the #l ranking. Along came a Boston College team which was supposed to be just another step to Notre Dame’s ultimate goal. But the Eagles refused to be stepped on.

Not only did Boston College manhandle the Irish throughout the first three quarters, they prevented a patented Irish comeback with a 42-yard game-win­ning field goal as time expired.

Fast forward to 1994. The Irish were seeking revenge for having their fairy-tale season end in the second slot of the polls. Once again, the Irish were coming off a big win, this time against Stanford, and they had momentum on their side. They were slowly climbing the polls, as well, after an early season loss at the hands of Michigan. The Boston College game amounted to just another stepping stone on the path to recovery.

Once the dust, and the score, had settled, it was Boston College 30, Notre Dame 11. In a game that was more lopsided than the final score indicated, the Irish were thor­oughly dismantled in every facet of the game and sent home with their tails between their legs.

On paper, this year’s game looked to be an Irish cake-walk. After all, it was the 12th-ranked Irish taking on a subpar Boston College team which was coming off a 49-7 drubbing at the hands of Army. But there was that pesky curse the Eagles had con­cocted.

On the first series of the game, the Irish started with the ball on their own 30-yard line. From there, carried on the broad shoulders of Marc Edwards, Notre Dame found itself deep in Boston College terri­tory in a handful of plays. The drive was capped with a center screen from quarter­ back Ron Powlus to Edwards, who hauled in the pass and dodged defenders en route to the end zone. Following a successful point after attempt by Scott Cengia, who was making his first start in place of sporadic freshman Kevin Kopka, the Irish held an early 7-0 lead.

The ensuing kickoff gave the Eagle’s possession on their own 28-yard line. From there, the running back tandem of Justice Smith and Omari Walker carried the ball down to the Notre Dame 22-yard line in just seven plays. But the Irish secondary stepped up. On the next play, Notre Dame free safety LaRon Moore made a difficult grab for an interception. It a mounted to a crucial play, abruptly ending an otherwise impres­sive drive which could have knotted the score at seven.

The powerful Irish rushing attack ad­vanced the ball to the Eagles 20-yard line. But then, the offensive line went on break, and the Irish threw it in reverse. The run­ning game sputtered and Powlus received pressure. On a fourth down attempt, Powlus was flushed from the pocket on a pass attempt and hit from behind. The junior coughed up the ball and the Eagles recov­ered.

The Eagles came out rolling. After several effective runs by Smith and a couple of completions by quarterback Mark Hartsell, the Eagles found themselves on Notre Dame’s 40- yard line to begin the second quarter. Once again, the Eagles were driv­ing and Notre Dame’s defense was bend­ing.

After stalling on their first drive of the game by attempting a pass that resulted in an interception, the Eagles were sticking to the ground game this time around. They capped the drive with an Omari Walker 2- yard run, tying the game at seven.

The score indicated that the Eagles’ had definitely come to play, putting behind them their embarrassing loss to Army the week before. After all, they were now playing Notre Dame and they had an opportunity to play the spoiler once again.  ”Emotion played a huge part in this game,” said BC’s Darryl Porter after the game. “Last week in practice guys realized that we were still a good team. We are just young.”

Notre Dame added a Cengia field goal before halftime, but it did not seem like enough.

A missed BC field goal in the third quarter gave the Irish the ball on their own 32. With seven carries shared between Autry Denson and Edwards, the Irish were able to advance to the Eagle’s 31-yard line. Powlus found Derrick Mayes for a 16-yard gain and then hit Chryplewicz over the middle two plays later for another 16. The drive was capped by Edwards barreling over left tackle for the score. The Cengia PAT gave the Irish a 10-point cushion. But the Eagles refused to fly peacefully away. On the following drive, Hartsell took advantage of Notre Dame’s sagging secondary. He was able to move the Eagles into field goal range, where they successfully converted the kick from 41 yards out. Up by only one touchdown, Irish eyes were not smiling.

As usual, Notre Dame did not fail to make the game even more interesting. On the next series, Notre Dame went three and out. To make matters worse, a low, line­ drive punt by Hunter Smith covered only 37 yards, and was returned to the Irish 43.

The defense was summoned to make a play once again, and it answered. This time it was linebacker Lyron Cobbins, picking off his third pass in two games. Cobbins snagged the pass on the Irish 2-yard line and returned it to the 10. For the record, the pick marked the Eagles’ second turnover in the red zone on the day. “The two errors inside the 20 really hurt us,” said Boston College Head Coach Dan Henning.

The rest was vintage Notre Dame. With exception of a fumbled snap, which has managed to find a pro­longed stay in Notre Dame’s playbook, Notre Dame’s last drive could be categorized as perfection.

The drive put three more points on the board, amassed 83 yards, required 18 plays and, most importantly, sucked 9:41 off the clock. With a 10 point lead, the Irish defense closed out the game.

“I really liked the way we used up nine minutes on our fourth quarter offensive drive,” Holtz said. “To me that shows good old-fashioned football.”

Edwards continued to bulldoze his way to stardom. The junior fullback carried the ball, as well as the load, during the game. He rushed for 167 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown, and caught a touchdown pass that covered 17 yards. Though his 167 yards were a personal best, the junior passed along the credit. ”That’s a tribute to our offensive line –  they just dominated,” he said. “They came through all day. We never got less than three yards on a play.” Despite playing down the rivalry and denying the revenge factor before the game, it was obvious the lrish shook a huge burden from their shoulders.

”We can’t undo what happened the last two years,” said Ryan Leahy. ”We were thinking about the guys on the ’93 team, like Aaron Taylor and Tim Ruddy. This was for them.”