#20 Notre Dame 45, Navy 14
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
October 14, 2000
Orlando, Florida - Tony Driver jump started Notre Damewith two first quarter fumble recoveries that were returned for touchdowns and the Irishnever looked back. Notre Dame went out and did what they had to do - dominate upfront. Aside from two long pass plays on broken coverage, Notre Dame shut down theNavy offense.
Driver opened up the scoring in the game when herecovered a fumble early in the first quarter and took it in from 24 yards out. Hemade a nifty little move to get past an offensive lineman and strolled into the end zonefor the first defensive touchdown of his career.
Notre Dame followed up the Driver touchdown with a longdrive ending in a Julius Jones 1 yard touchdown run, the 5th of the season for Jones and7th rushing touchdown for Notre Dame.
On the ensuing Navy Driver, a pitch from quarterback EdMalinowski on the option was bobbled by Terence Coleman and snatched out of the air byTony Driver who ran into the end zone for his second fumble returned for a touchdown ofthe quarter.
The Irish never looked back and lead by as many as 38before Navy finally got on the board when the Irish failed to put a single man on BrandonRampani who walked into the end zone on a 46 yard pass from Malinowski. Notre Damedid not have any one even near Rampani on the touchdown and then did the same thing onNavy's next drive which set up the Midshipmen's second touchdown of the game, a 9 yardtouchdown pass from Malinowski to wide receiver/punter Brian Williams.
Notre Dame's defense played a great game outside the twoblown coverage plays. They shut down the option attack of Navy which has given themtroubles in the past, they forced two fumbles, both of which were returned for touchdowns,and they shut the Middies out until the fourth quarter once the game was well out ofreach.
Matt LoVecchio won his second consecutive start,something neither Arnaz Battle, Gary Godsey, or Jarious Jackson did in their first twostarts. He was 13 of 20 for 184 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He also displayed coolness and confidence for the second week and looks like hewill be able to lead this team to a very good season.
Gary Godsey saw most of the action in the fourth quarterand threw a 46 yard bomb to Jay Johnson. Johnson pulled up lame at the end of the playwith a hamstring injury, but the injury does not appear to be serious.
Earlier in the fourth quarter Matt Lovecchio hooked upwith Tony Fisher on a 36 yard touchdown. Fisher put on a couple moves and made his way to the end zone. As he got to the goal line however he lost the ball. Luckily he recoveredit and gave Notre Dame a 38-7 lead.
Notre Dame continued its aggressive approach on defenseagain this week registering five sacks which pushed their total to 21. The Irishonly had 18 sacks all of last year, but are on pace for 38.5 this year based on the firstsix games.
The win by Notre Dame extended their NCAA Record forconsecutive wins over a single opponent to 38. The last time Navy beat the Irish wasin 1963 when Roger Staubach won the Heisman for the Midshipmen.
This was exactly the type of game Notre Dame needed. The offense came alive scoring 31 points and gaining 463 yards. The defenseplayed very well and the blowout win had to give Matt Lovecchio even more confidenceheading into the second half of the season. Things are looking a lot brighter forNotre Dame now than they were a couple weeks ago after Michigan State pulled off the latevictory.