October 25, 1997

Notre Dame Boston College Final Stats

By Brian Lucas, The Scholastic 1997 Football Review

Three years ago, Notre Dame joined the BIG EAST Conference for every sport except football. Now they’re probably wishing that football was part of the deal. For the second time in three weeks, the Irish crushed a Big East opponent, racking up 520 yards of total offense in a 52-20 victory over Boston College.

“The game today was all about pride,” Notre Dame Head Coach Bob Davie said afterward. “When you’re 2-5 and you just lost the kind of football game we lost last week and the way Boston College lost to Miami last week, it’s about who’s going to want to win the most.”

Coming off a disheartening last-minute loss to rival USC, in which an Adam Abrams field goal with 1:05 left in the game sent the Irish to a 20-17 loss, Notre Dame needed a quick start against the Eagles. Benny Guilbeaux saw to that, intercept­ing a Matt Hassleback pass on Boston College’s third play from scrimmage, giving the Notre Dame offense great field po­sition. Starting from the Eagles’ 25, the Irish needed only five plays to reach the end zone, with run­ning back Autry Denson scoring on a one-yard run. After Scott Cengia missed the ex­tra point, Notre Dame led 6-0 only 1:48 into the game.

The Irish wasted little time increasing that lead. ‘The defense held the Eagles on three plays, forcing Jason Malecki to punt from his own 20-yard line. On first down from their own 38, Notre Dame did some­ thing no one could have expected: quarter­back Ron Powlus faked a handoff to Denson and looked for wide receiver Malcolm Johnson on a deep post route. Johnson made a diving catch 36 yards later and the Irish were back on the attack. Four rushes, three by Denson, left the Irish with a third-and­ goal from the 3-yard line. Again Powlus looked for Johnson, this time on a fade to the right comer of the end zone. Johnson made the catch and when Powlus hit tight end Jabari Halloway for the two-point conver­sion, Notre Dame held a 14-0 lead.

The Irish defense forced Boston College to go three and out again on their ensuing drive, giving the offense the ball at their own 43. Four straight incompletions, though, including a drop by Johnson at the 17-yard line on third-and-10, halted the drive.

The stop seemed to give the Boston Col­lege offense some life as the Eagles gained their first first down of the game, coming on an 11-yard completion from Hassleback to tight end Scott Dragos with 2:33 left in the first quarter. Notre Dame’s defense stiff­ened after that as Guilbeaux sacked the Eagles’ quarterback on third-and-10.

When the Irish got the ball on their own 17, they came out with a new look. Junior Jarious Jackson got his highly anticipated shot at directing the offense with 1:26 left in the quarter. Notre Dame fans couldn’t have expected a better result from the young quarterback. Jackson led the Irish on a nine­ play, 83-yard drive that culminated in a 3-yard run for the touchdown. Receiving the first significant action of his career, Jackson completed his first two passes this year, a 17-yarder to Joey Getherall and a 7-yarder to Raki Nelson. The other 59 yards were accumulated on the ground, with Denson running for 39 on three carries. The debut of Jackson satisfied his coach. “We accom­plished what we wanted to accomplish by playing Jarious,” Davie said. “When our offense bogs down, we wanted to see if Jarious provided us with an option to put him in the game. Based on the way he played today, he provides us with that op­tion.”

After stopping the Boston College offense once again, Powlus came back out to lead the offense and picked up right where he left off. On first down, the senior rolled right and hit Halloway, who broke a George White tackle and rumbled 20 more yards; finally being dragged down at the 19-yard line. One play later, PowIus looked for Bobby Brown in the left corner of the end zone. The junior wide receiver was double-covered and White, trying to make up for his poor tackling, made an acrobatic catch but was ruled out of bounds. Boston College’s side­ line threw a fit, as one of the assistant coaches walked out on the field and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That put the ball on the Eagles’ 8-yard line and on the next play, Denson exploded 8 yards up the middle. Cengia’s extra point put the Irish up 28-0 less than 20 minutes into the game.

Boston College finally got on the scoreboard late in the second quarter. After Walker returned a Smith punt 11 yards, the Eagles had a first-and-10 from their own 31. Hassleback opened the drive with a 30-yard pass to tight end Todd Pollack. Two plays later, Hassleback found Anthony DiCosmo alone in the end zone. The junior wide receiver got behind Irish free safety Deke Cooper and made a diving catch, putting the Eagles on the board with 1:20 left in the first half. After a last-second 47-yard field goal attempt by Cengia fell short, the Irish went into the locker room with a commanding 28-7 lead.

“This was the first time since Georgia Tech that we had a chance to have all 11 starters out there,” Davie said. “I don’t know if people realized how young and inexperi­enced we were in the beginning of the sea­son. I think [the success] is just having our players back.”

Notre Dame tried to carry that momen­tum into the third quarter, something it hadn’t done for most of the season. Unfor­tunately, this game was no different. On the first play of the half, the Irish were whistled for illegal procedure. Following.a dropped pass by Brown, Powlus was sacked on sec­ond down and threw incomplete on third. The defense held after Smith’s 41-yard punt and the Irish got the ball back on their 20- yard line.

On the first play of the drive, Boston College nose tackle Chris Hovan broke through the line and hit Denson just as he was receiving the handoff. The junior run­ning back fumbled and the ball was recov­ered at the 15 by Andrew Krauza. Again, Notre Dame’s defense rose to the occasion, allowing the Eagles to advance only 5 yards. From there, John Matich split the uprights with a 27-yard field goal.

The next Notre Dame possession looked remarkably similar to the first two of the half. Penalties on two consecutive plays left Powlus and company with a first-and-29 from their own 21-yard line. That’s when Boston College decided it was their turn to make a mistake, registering a late hit on running back Clement Stokes after a 1-yard gain. The 15-yard penalty gave the Irish a first down and they capitalized on their good fortune. After two Denson runs gained 10 yards, Powlus took a deep drop and looked long. He heaved the ball toward Nelson, who hauled in the 44-yard completion, the longest to a wide receiver all season, putting Notre Dame on the Eagles’ 9. On third-and­ goal from the two, Jackson, replacing Powlus in the goal-line offense, overthrew tight end Tim Ridder in the back of the end zone and the Irish had to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Cengia, restoring their 21-point lead.

The Eagles stormed right back on their next possession, with Hassleback leading the way. In the midst of a streak of 14 straight completions (tying a record held by Doug Flutie), the Boston College quarter­ back drove the Eagles 80 yards in only six plays for a touchdown. On the drive, Hassleback was three for three for 68 yards. A 1-yard run by Mike Hemmert cut the Notre Dame lead to two touchdowns, 31-17. Not to be outdone in front of his home crowd, Powlus engineered an eight-play, 78-yard touchdown drive of his own. Again the key play was a penalty on the Eagles, this one a late hit on Powlus after a second down incompletion, putting the ball on the Boston College 28. Stokes carried the ball three times for 18 yards, and on third-and-three from the 10, Powlus rolled to his left and found Brown for the touchdown, the quarterback’s second of the game.

The Notre Dame defense, impressive in the first half, started to show signs of fa­tigue. For the third consecutive drive, Bos­ton College scored, this time courtesy of a 36-yard field goal by Matich. Hassleback, in the midst of a 23 for 33 day, went five for seven on the drive for 60 yards.

On the ensuing kickoff, senior cornerback Allen Rossum thwarted the Eagles’ come­ back attempt. After fielding the kick at the 20, last year’s AT&T Long Distance award winner appeared to be hemmed in at the 30. In an instant, Rossum broke out of the pack and was gone. It was the captain’s eighth career return for a touchdown (three punts, three kickoffs and two interceptions), tying an NCAA record held by Errol Tucker of Utah in 1985. Rossum’s all-around play earned praise from his coach.”Allen Rossum is a warrior,” Davie said. “After that long kickoff return, that next series he came back on defense.We had some guys out but Allen Rossum stayed in there and could barely stand at the end of that football game.”

After Rossum’s return, Boston College drove the length of the field, only to be stopped when Hassleback’s fourth-down pass to DiCosmo was tipped away in the end zone by linebacker Bobbie Howard. Jackson then made his return at quarterback for the Irish and led another touchdown drive, going the last yard on an option keeper for the final points of the day.

Notre Dame’s quarterback experiment passed the test, with Powlus and Jackson combining for 21 of 35 for 323 yards. Powlus threw for two touchdowns arid Jackson ran for two. Though Jackson was impressive, Davie reiterated that this was Ron Powlus’ team. “Ron PowIus played extremely well,” he said. “He’s a tremendous competitor. He responded the way you’re supposed to re­spond when you’re challenged.”

While the senior captain didn’t enjoy be­ ing yanked from the game, he downplayed his feelings and stressed the success of the team. “There is no controversy,” Powlus said. “I don’t like to come out of a game but it was a decision that was made. I wanted to come out and play a good game and win a football game and we accomplished that.”

If only it were that easy all year.