October 1, 1994
Notre Dame Stanford Final Stats
By Jake Schaller, The Scholastic 1994 Football Review
The two leaders met at midfield after the game to reflect upon another clash. Stanford’s commander, Bill Walsh, took defeat graciously, shaking hands with the man he had called “a spoiled little brat” Lou Holtz, Notre Dame’s general, who had downplayed the remarks that the media attempted to make into a controversy, accepted congratulations and jogged off the field. As he left, he seemed happily relieved, and some what lighter, that he was rid of the”Stanford Hex.”
The two previous visits from the Cardinal, in 1990 and 1992, had not been as pleasant for the Irish. Victories for the Super Bowl champion Walsh had knocked Notre Dame from the championship hunt in both years. This time, the Irish had different plans, ending the Stanford streak with a 34-15 triumph. “A lot of the seniors stepped up during the week and talked about losing twice in our house,” said Bobby Taylor. “We didn’t want it to happen again.”
The Irish refused to let it happen again. With a solid, balanced offensive attack, and tough defense, the Irish won their third straight for the season and second straight at home. In the process, the Fighting Irish sent a message to the Boston College Eagles whom they would face the next week.
A glance at the post game statistics, however, makes it look like it was Stanford that actually had the 34 points. The Cardinal controlled the ball for over 35 minutes, out-gained the Irish in yardage, and had 29 first downs to their opponent’s 16. The thorn in Stanford’s side all day, though, was its inability to reach the end zone. In the first quarter, Stanford amassed 108 total yards to Notre Dame’s 14, ran 25 plays to Notre Dame’s six, but trailed 7-3.
Surprisingly, it was the special teams, which had been less than spectacular to date, that first sparked the Irish. Down 3-0, the Irish forced the Cardinal to punt Holtz gambled, sending 10 men after the kick. The gamble worked, as a fierce rush from LaRon Moore gave Stanford’s Aaron Mills no room to punt. Mills attempted to run away from the pressure to get off a punt, but was drilled by Scott Sollman who caused a fumble and then recovered it. Two plays later, Ron Powlus found Charles Stafford, who had run a deep out, behind his man in the end zone. The senior split end hauled in his second touchdown pass in two games, giving the Irish their first points.
After trading punts, the Irish got another huge play from fullback Ray Zellars. Coming off his best day ever against Purdue, Zellars didn’t miss a step. With the ball on his own 36-yard line, Zellars took a hand off and broke an arm tackle in the back field. Breaking into the open field, the senior fullback steamrolled Stanford’s Scott Frost and raced down the right sideline to the 6- yard line.
The Irish, however, again had trouble in the red zone. The offense managed to lose 19 yards before having to settle for a field goal attempt Scott Cengia brought a smile to the faces of Irish fans skeptical about their special teams by nailing a 43-yard try. He was deceiving Irish fans who had no idea what they were in for.
The Irish exploded in the second half, scoring 17 points and erasing Stanford’s hopes of a comeback ala 1992. In that year, the Irish stormed to a 16-0 lead, only to have the Cardinal score 33 unanswered points. Notre Dame started the half on its own 12- yard line, but seven plays later had advanced the ball to the Stanford 10. On a designed roll-out, Powlus threw a bullet to the right sideline of the end zone. Derrick Mayes added another spectacular snare to his highlight reel, diving for the ball and bringing it in while staying in bounds for the score.
Two possessions later, Powlus struck again with deadly precision. After a play fake, Powlus stepped into the pocket and jumped away from pressure. While still in the air, Powlus unleashed a 47-yard bomb which hit speedster Michael Miller in stride at the three.
Miller corralled the ball, and then coasted into the end zone, giving the Irish a 24-3 lead, and Powlus his third touchdown pass of the day. “I saw him wide open; I couldn’t wait to set my feet,”Powlus said of his mid air fling.
Powlus put on an efficiency clinic, completing 11 of 14 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns. His play renewed Heisman talk and overshadowed the valiant performance of Steve Stenstrom (36 of 60, 360 yards, 2 touchdowns), who put up big numbers, but came up empty. Powlus also gained some rave reviews from the Generals. “I think Ron Powlus is unbelievable. Whenever we’ve asked him to do some thing, he’s responded well,” said Holtz.
Walsh was also very impressed: “He is an outstanding quarterback, but I don’t think it’s even close to what you are going to see.” In addition to a hostile crowd, Stenstrom had to put up with the ferocious Notre Dame defense that hit as hard and harder than it had all year. ”We had a great week of practice. We came out today and really made some big hits,” said Bobby Taylor. Many of the players remarked on the”bones” given out by the defensive coaches for especially big hits. A human body might have been built with all of the bones from this game.
The pass rush of the Irish was especially effective. Bert Berry led the way, sacking Stenstrom a team-high three times. Renaldo Wynn also played well, forcing a fumble after a vicious hit on Stanford’s signal caller. Shawn Wooden recovered the fumble which set up Scott Cengia’s- 32-yard field goal, making the score 27-3.
In the fourth quarter, it wasn’t the arm of Powlus that tickled the fancy of Irish fans, it was his legs. Powlus scampered down the right sideline off of an option play, netting 44 yards. The sophomore quarterback followed a super block from his favorite receiver Mayes for the longest run of his career. It had to send a chill down the spine of Holtz and Irish fans everywhere. At the end of his scamper, Powlus put his head down and bulled his way to a few more yards instead of stepping out of bounds. Powlus’ run set up Marc Edwards’ one yard plunge which upped the Irish lead to 34-3.
Stenstrom tossed his two touchdown passes in the final 12 minutes to make the score more respectable. The Stanford Heisman candidate’s performance gave him – career marks of 100 completions and 1,020 yards against the Irish. However, Stenstrom could not look past the sloppy play of his team. “We are just making too many mistakes. Against a good team like Notre Dame you can’t do that,” he said.
Stenstrom should know. He was the victim of the defense’s truly cinematic conclusion to the game. As the Cardinal quarterback moved within striking distance of the Notre Dame end zone, he had a chance to make the final score look better and to get his own last knock in against the Irish. On the 3-yard line with only seconds left, Stenstrom stepped back and prepared to throw a touchdown pass. But with elegant style, Justin Goheen burst into the back field and crushed both Stenstrom and Stanford’s pride as time expired.
Farewell to Walsh who coached his last against Notre Dame- and farewell to that hex.