Notre Dame obliterates CG Finney; Irish continue to roll

| BataviasBest.org
Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Notre Dame football team won their third consecutive contest on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Finney Falcons 34-6. The Irish dominated the ballgame from start to finish against a beat-up Finney team, who had previously beaten two GR League opponents this year.

To begin the scoring on Saturday, ND would strike first shortly after an opening-series punt from Finney. On their first play from scrimmage the Irish would call the number of Peter Daversa, who made use of the prime field position given to his team by an awful punt, and finished the run in the end zone. Providing Notre Dame with their first score of the day, Daversa went 29 yards after a hard run through the Finney defense which put his team ahead 7-0.

Shortly after the ensuing kickoff, the Falcons would be forced to punt once again and returned the ball to the Irish who had another chance to score early points. Taking over at their own 24 yard line, however, ND would have a much more difficult series in front of them than they did the possession before and unfortunately for the Irish, they were unable to repeat their previous success and wound up turning the ball over shortly after gaining possession. Fumbling the ball back to the Falcons in their own zone, Finney would have a good shot at tying the ballgame.

However, a short drive that came to a head on a fourth and goal play from inside the five ended just shy of the end zone, giving the ball back to Notre Dame who needed to go a daunting 90 yards to extend their lead to two possessions. Luckily for the Irish, though, they had Daversa.

Calling his number once again to begin the drive, Notre Dame handed the ball off to the hard-nosed running back in hopes of barging out of their terrible field position. Able to do the job, Daversa took the first down handoff for 40 yards up the middle all the way to midfield which started an impressive 6 play – 90 yard scoring drive, ending with a touchdown pass from Joe Zickl to Jack Sutherland. The Irish now found themselves ahead 13-0 and Finney was in danger of letting this one get away.

On the Falcons next drive, however, they would finally get something going.

Driving all the way down past midfield, Finney completed their third drive of the day with a 39-yard touchdown scamper, cutting the lead to 13-6 after the failed two point attempt. The Falcons would kick off only down by one possession, and that’s where the half would end.

Although only ahead by 7 points going into the third quarter, the Irish had seemed to dominate the first 24 minutes but were unable to truly pull away as they approached the second half. However, that would soon change with the drop of a hat.

Returning the opening kick of the third 85 yards for a touchdown, ND’s Spencer Misiak broke the game open just like that and gave his team an improved 21-6 lead just seconds into the quarter. Unable to recover from the sudden change in momentum, the Falcons would soon open the floodgates, and were quickly taken over by the Irish. After a first half that ended with ND ahead by only one possession, this one soon turned into a bloodbath and ended with the Falcons getting blown out by 4 touchdowns.

It was a complete day for the Irish, who until now had yet to truly break out offensively. Relying on their defense heavily throughout their previous two victories, Notre Dame finally won a game in which they scored over 30 points, and provided a ton of big plays on that side of the ball. It is certainly a good sign for the Irish, who will need all they can get from their offense next week when they line up against the impressive Attica Blue Devils, a team who has scored over thirty points in 4/5 contests this season.

Wrapping up an incredible week, Notre Dame is now in a tie for second place with the likes of Elba and Alexander, which makes for another exciting set of games in Week 6.

FINAL STATS FOR ND: