It was one of those grind-it-out victories for Notre Dame on Saturday, as they beat heavily-underdog Boston College, 16-14, in the final game at Notre Dame Stadium for 2011.
Jonas Gray opened the scoring on the first drive of the game with a 26-yard TD burst. He ran for 61 yards before leaving the game in the third quarter with a knee injury. The extent of it is still not known, and he'll have more tests on it today. Bad break for the senior who was having a breakout season.
The game turned into a defensive struggle, and ND had lousy field position for a good part of the game. Credit to both teams' defenses. The game remained at 13-7 from the second quarter into the fourth, when BC drove 80 yards to a TD from Chase Rettig to Bobby Swigert with just over two minutes to play. The Irish recovered an onside kick to seal the victory and ran out the clock.
Cierre Wood rushed for 94 yards and eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark, with a total of 1,001 for the season. David Ruffer was perfect in FG attempts, hitting three from 40, 41 and 27 yards.
Number 24 ranked Notre Dame is now 8-3 on the season (3-0 against the ACC) and takes on Stanford in their regular season finale next Saturday night in Palo Alto.