Senior Day Success: Notre Dame Plays Near Perfect Game Against Syracuse
- Liam Farrell
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
No. 9 Notre Dame fired on all cylinders in their 70-7 victory against the Syracuse Orange on Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium.
Photo by Notre Dame Athletics
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- In a game that is now etched in Notre Dame's history books, the Notre Dame offense strutted out for their first possession of the game with a 21-0 lead.
The Fighting Irish defense was the first to take the field and ultimately had three consecutive possessions with a defensive or special teams' touchdown.
Jalen Stroman, who started the game in replace of Tae Johnson, kicked off the scoring with a 44-yard pick six that gave the Irish the lead. On the next drive, Stroman had a tackle for loss and blocked the Syracuse punt that led to a Luke Talich touchdown.
All-American Leonard Moore wanted to get in on the fun as well, as the third Syracuse offensive possession ended with another pick six by the Fighting Irish.
With all the defensive excellence in the first quarter, the Fighting Irish offense finally got to step onto the field and had similar success. Jeremiyah Love had a performance that nearly cements his attendance in New York at the end of the season for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Love had one of the most efficient performances in recent memory, rushing for 171 yards on eight carries, while reaching the end zone three times. Love's 3 touchdown performance brings his season total to 20 total touchdowns this season.
Behind Love, the Notre Dame running backs had success as well. Jadarian Price had another explosive touchdown run, this time a 58-yard scamper. Price finished the game with 70 yards on four carries. Aneyas Williams received a sizable amount of playing time as well and cashed in with a 30-yard touchdown of his own.
With Notre Dame's early success, CJ Carr had a modest performance with 49 yards and a touchdown pass to Will Pauling. While not lighting up the box score, Kenny Minchey performed well in Carr's place in the second half too. Minchey was extremely effective with his legs, adding a 25-yard touchdown run.
Overall, the defensive effort and performance stole the show on Senior Day. The Irish defense held Syracuse to 147 total yards and forced three turnovers. The most impressive stat of the day was the Irish had 16 tackles for loss, a program record, which included five sacks. Syracuse quarterbacks Joseph Filardi and Luke Carney simply had no chance back there as the Irish defense swarmed to the backfield.
One negative from the Irish's thumping victory over the Orange was the injury to Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. It is unclear the severity of the injury yet, but the Irish cannot afford to be without Viliamu-Asa nor Johnson for the potential playoff push.
In the end, Notre Dame did exactly what it needed to do in terms of taking care of business and displaying that they are playing their best football of the season. The Irish extended their win streak to nine games and the only thing that's standing in their way of a potential playoff berth is a victory on The Farm against Stanford.
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