Michigan State Spartans vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish Match Player Stats On Sep 21, 2013

SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 21, 2013

No. 21 Notre Dame 17, No. 24 Michigan State 13: Cam McDaniel scored on a tiebreaking 7-yard touchdown run 16 seconds into the fourth quarter and the host Fighting Irish held off the Spartans.

Tommy Rees finished 14-for-34 for 142 yards with one touchdown pass and Notre Dame (3-1) managed only 220 yards in total offense to beat Michigan State for the third straight season and run its home winning streak to 10 games.

Connor Cook threw for 135 yards and a touchdown for the Spartans (3-1), who had nearly as many penalty yards (115) as rushing yards (119), including three pass-interference infractions that were pivotal to both of the Irish's touchdown drives.

Michigan State scored its only touchdown midway through the second quarter on a 12-yard pass from Cook to Macgarrett Kings. Notre Dame went ahead 10-7 on Rees' 2-yard scoring pass to TJ Jones — a drive kept alive on a pass-interference call on fourth-and-one.

An interception by Notre Dame's Matthias Farley coupled with a personal foul on the Spartans near the two-minute mark of the third quarter gave Notre Dame great field position at Michigan State's 37. Two pass-interference penalties on the Spartans - one negating an interception - set up McDaniel's scoring run before freshman Michael Geiger's 42-yard field goal cut the deficit to 17-13 with 10:40 to play.

GAME NOTEBOOK: McDaniel had 40 yards on 16 carries as the Fighting Irish managed only 78 yards on the ground. ... QB Andrew Maxwell, who started for the Spartans all last season, relieved Cook on the final drive and threw three incompletions as Michigan State fell to 11-3 in nonconference play since 2011 — with all three defeats coming against Notre Dame. ... Rees was bidding to become the first Notre Dame QB to open a season with four straight 300-yard games.