Notre Dame Bounces Back By Whipping Chargers, 39-10

Darras Powers Fighting Irish To First Win Of Season

  • Friday, September 4, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
Notre Dame running back Ricky Ballard rambles for yardage as Chattanooga Christian's Will Patton pursues. Ballard gained 98 yards on 13 carries in the Fighting Irish's 39-10 win at Jim Eberle Field.
Notre Dame running back Ricky Ballard rambles for yardage as Chattanooga Christian's Will Patton pursues. Ballard gained 98 yards on 13 carries in the Fighting Irish's 39-10 win at Jim Eberle Field.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Needing a win after suffering an overtime loss to Tyner last week, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish quickly found themselves trailing visiting Chattanooga Christian on Friday night at Jim Eberle Field.

No sweat.

The Irish simply cleaned up their act in the second half.

As a result, Notre Dame wiped out a 10-7 deficit by scoring 32 straight points as senior quarterback Alex Darras threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns.

“It was one of those things where we had to make some adjustments,” Irish coach Charles Fant said.

Coach (Rob) Spence and those guys do an incredible job and they were doing some things with their motion that bothered our young kids.

“It was really confusing us.”

Once the adjustments started clicking, the Chargers were no match for the Irish.

And Darras was hotter than a firecracker at a Fourth of July celebration, completing 19-of-27 passes while kicking a 29-yard field goal and five extra points and powering the Irish (2-1) to a win in their Region 3-3A opener.

Darras’ scoring strikes went to Trey Owten, Tyler Enos and Justyn Baker and covered 6, 13 and 19 yards, respectively.

“We went into the locker room at half and did a good job talking about what we needed to fix,” Darras said. “We cleaned things up the second half, started executing like we can and that really helped.”

Notre Dame wasn’t working on a smooth pathway to the victory, though. They kept throwing up self-inflicted speed bumps – 17 penalties for 160 yards and flags negated three scoring plays.

“When you’re scoring touchdowns and penalties are wiping them off, that’s very frustrating,” Darras said. “We just had to bounce back from all those mistakes.”

And they did.

The Irish obliterated the Chargers’ early three-point lead and their winning streak in the rivalry to five in a row by a combined score of 231-51.

“We played a great first half,” Spence said. “We just got worn down because we have a ton of people going both ways and it takes a toll on us in the offensive and defensive lines.

“Their pass rush became more fierce and we were just tired. They made us more one dimensional once the game got out of hand and that makes it tough on the quarterback and the guys up front.”

The Chargers (2-1), who opened the season with wins over Brainerd (24-21) and Lookout Valley (50-0) were battling a different kind of beast in the Irish, who reached the 2014 state playoff semifinals before losing to perennial contender Alcoa, 28-19.

Senior place-kicker Will Patton salvaged Chattanooga Christian’s opening drive with a 42-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Notre Dame came back with an 80-yard scoring drive that spilled over into the second quarter, Darras tossing a 7-yard pass to Owten for the touchdown.

The Chargers pulled out a little trickery to regain the lead. On a double reverse, wide receiver Brandon Mason fired a strike to a streaking Ben Moore, who had gotten behind the entire Notre Dame secondary, for an apparent touchdown.

However, a penalty against the Chargers negated the play. On second-and-7 from the Irish 38, quarterback Matthew Mercer hit Patton on a 35-yard gainer to the Notre Dame 3. After a penalty and back-to-back errant passes, Mercer scored from the 8 and Patton added the extra point.

Mercer completed 10-of-25 passes for 114 yards. Patton was his favorite target with four catches and 62 yards.

It just wasn’t enough and the Chargers were bone weary from the unrelenting pounding.

“Our players have to be in great shape and we do the best we can with the circumstances we’re dealt,” Spence said. “There’s a great opportunity for people who want to come here and play football. We’re hoping to attract a lot of those people in the coming years. If we can add numbers ot our program, we can alleviate a lot of these issues.”

Notre Dame, which had eight seniors sign college football scholarships after the 2014 season, then drove to the Chargers’ 12 before the possession fizzled and Darras tied the game at 10-all with a 29-yard field goal.

After forcing CCS to punt, the Irish set up shop at the Chargers’ 41. On fourth-and-7 from the 38, Darras hooked up with junior Patrick Johnson over the middle that moved the ball to the 5. Running back Ricky Ballard, who led all rushers with 98 yards on 13 carries, scored on the next play, but a holding penalty wiped off the touchdown.

It was first-and-goal from the 18 and Ballard gained 5 yards. On the next play Darras found Tyler Enos just inside the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown to give the Irish a 17-10 lead with 22 seconds left in the first half.

Even though the yellow flags were still flying at a rapid pace in the third quarter, the Irish started pulling away from the Chargers.

“Our coaches did a great job at halftime with our defensive adjustments and wow, we shut them out in the second half,” Fant said. “That was amazing.”

Notre Dame’s offense was starting to heat up, following a 17-point second period.

Taking advantage of only its second possession in the quarter, Notre Dame went 62 yards in seven plays with Darras’ strong right arm moving the Irish downfield at a rapid rate. He had back-to-back completions to Andrew Banks that covered 15 and 10 yards.

After a penalty and a fumbled snap, the Irish faced a second-and-20 from the Chargers’ 47. Darras found Baker open on a 25-yard bomb. On first down, Ballard gained 5 yards and then Darras and Baker connected again, this time on a 19-yard scoring strike, extending the lead to 25-10 – Darras hit Enos for a two-point conversion.

Ballard caught three passes for 42 yards and Darras was spreading the wealth around. Enos had five catches for 63 yards, Caleb Edwards three for 57 and Andrew Banks four for 52.

The Irish’s response to the tough overtime loss to the Rams a week earlier was picking up steam and Fant explained how his teams make the most out of a setback.

“We don’t look at a loss as a failure here,” he said. “We look at how we respond and what we are doing to get better. Tyner made us a better football team, there’s no doubt. Because of the physical nature of that game, we had to be physical tonight and we responded. It was great to see that.”

Notre Dame’s first drive of the fourth quarter ended when Darras missed a 38-yard field goal.

On their next drive, the Irish overcame two fumbled snaps and a third-and-9 predicament when Darras passed 29-yards to Enos for a first down at the CCS 11. Ballard scored on the next play and the lead ballooned to 32-10.

Notre Dame junior Calvin Sims intercepted a Mercer pass and after CCS was flagged for a penalty the Irish, who piled up 441 yards of total offense, were back in business at the Chargers’ 32.

With reserve quarterback Nicholas Coronis at the controls, Notre Dame’s offense covered the yardage in five plays with Alex Spraker scoring the game’s final touchdown from the 5 with 1:54 remaining.

After the game, Fant was clearly perturbed by the team’s 17 penalties.

“Our kids just kept fighting,” he said, “and I’m not saying the penalties were wrong because we definitely committed a lot of them. I’ve got some things to fix penalties on Monday and Tuesday, and we’ll get going on that pretty early. We might even run some on Sunday.”

Chattanooga Christian                            3 7 0 0 – 10

Notre Dame                                               0 17 8 14 – 39

First Quarter

CCS – FG Will Patton 42, 6:30

Second Quarter

ND – Trey Owten 6 pass from Alex Darras (Darras kick), 11:00

CCS – Matthew Mercer 8 run (Patton kick), 8:16

ND – FG Darras 29, 3:36

ND – Tyler Enos 13 pass from Darras (Darras kick), 0:22

Third Quarter

ND – Justyn Baker 19 pass from Darras (Enos pass from Darras), 2:37

Fourth Quarter

ND – Ricky Ballard 11 run (Darras kick), 4:08

ND – Alex Spraker 5 run (Darras kick), 1:54

YARDSTICK    

                                                             CCS                       ND

First Downs                                       13                           19

Rushes-Yards                                   20-71                    29-163

Passing Yards                                  114                        278

Comp-Att-Int                                      20-25-1                19-28-0

Total Yards                                        45-185                  57-441

Fumbles-Lost                                    0-0                         2-0

Punts-Avg                                          3-33.7                   1-43

Penalties-Yds                                   5-35                      17-160

INDIVIDUALS

RUSHING – Chattanooga Christian: Brandon Mason 2-23, Mondo Ellison 3-20, Kade Oglesby 1-14, Matthew Mercer 6-9, D.J. Toney 4-5, Will Sabourin 1-4, T.J. Smith 3-minus 4; Notre Dame: Ricky Ballard 13-98, Alex Spraker 7-33, Akil Sledge 4-32, Cameron Wynn 1-8, Calvin Sims 2-3, Alex Darras 2-minus 11.

PASSING – Chattanooga Christian: Mercer 20-25-1 114; Notre Dame: Darras 19-27-0 278, Nicholas Coronis 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – Chattanooga Christian: Patton 4-62, Smith 3-22, Nick Fulmer 2-17, Toney 1-13; Notre Dame: Tyler Enos 5-63, Caleb Edwards 3-57, Andrew Banks 4-52, Justyn Baker 3-42, Patrick Johnson 1-33, Zack Leath 1-9, Trey Owten 1-6.

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

Patrick Johnson snags a 33-yard pass from Alex Darras over Chattanooga Christian defender Justin Wheeler that set up Ricky Ballard's 5-yard touchdown run on the next play in the second quarter Friday night.
Patrick Johnson snags a 33-yard pass from Alex Darras over Chattanooga Christian defender Justin Wheeler that set up Ricky Ballard's 5-yard touchdown run on the next play in the second quarter Friday night.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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