Irish Top Mountaineers 42-28
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
October 22, 2000
Morgantown, WV - Notre Dame won its third straight gameunder Matt LoVecchio Saturday when they beat West Virginia 42-28 in front of a sold outWest Virginia crowd. The Irish are now 5-2 and are 3-0 since Matt LoVecchio tookover as the starting quarterback and are growing with each win.
Tony Fisher lead the Irish with three touchdowns, tworeceiving and one rushing. His first touchdown, a one yard dive, tied the game at7-7 after West Virginia scored on their first drive with a 24 yard run by Antonio Brown. His second touchdown came on a beautifully thrown ball by Matt LoVecchio. After a botch punt by West Virginia, Notre Dame had terrific field position andLovecchio hooked up with Fisher on a 36 yard swing pass to give the Irish a 28-14 leadheading into the half.
The play of the game however came earlier in the secondquarter when Terrence Howard took a carry 80 yards for a touchdown. He broke fourtackles in the process for Notre Dame's longest play of the season and easily the bestoffensive play of the year for the Irish. On the day he finished with 96 yards onseven carries.
Fisher's third touchdown, a seven yard pass fromLoVecchio, gave the Irish a 35-14 mid way through the third quarter. Notre Dameopened the flood gates two minutes later when Joey Getherall took his second punt back fora touchdown this season. He fielded the punt at the 27 yard line and took it to thehouse.
After the Getherall touchdown, Notre Dame failed to scoreanymore. West Virginia though mounted a comeback late in the third quarter and intothe fourth quarter. Wes Ours scored two touchdowns, a one yard run and a two yardpass, in a five minute span to cut the Irish lead to 14 with 12 minutes remaining.
Notre Dame's defense stiffened however and the Irish heldon for the win, their first on the road since 1998.
Notre Dame came up with a lot of big plays against WestVirginia. On top of the 80 Howard run and 73 yard punt return by Getherall, theIrish also added their longest pass play of the season, a 52 yard option pass from DavidGivens to Joey Getherall. The Irish also made some big defensive plays. WithWest Virginia knocking at the door with the ball fourth and two from Notre Dame four, thedefense stepped up and stood Wes Ours up for a loss.
The big momentum turner in the game came when WestVirginia starting quarterback Brad Lewis left with an injury. At that point WestVirginia was up 14-7 in the first quarter. After he left, Notre Dame ripped off 35unanswered points.
The win was very big for Notre Dame. They needed atrue road win badly. Last year the Irish were shut out on the road with their lastroad win coming at Boston College in 1998. The win also moved Notre Dame to 5-2 andin great position to make a BCS run.
Matt LoVecchio also continued to improve. He wasonly 8-16, but his composure and decision making were much better than they were last weekagainst Navy when he made a couple of decisions that could have been costly againstsomeone other than Navy. He didn't force anything, and he made the plays when heneeded too. He also was interception free again and has only one this season.
Next up for Notre Dame is Air Force. The Falconsusually give the Irish trouble with their wishbone offense and beat the Irish last timethey played in 1996 in overtime. Check back to UHND.com during the week for pregamearticles.