SportsDirect Inc. staff
Nov 2, 2013
No. 25 Notre Dame 38, Navy 34: Freshman Tarean Folston ran for 140 yards and scored his first career touchdown with less than four minutes remaining as the host Fighting Irish survived a scare to pick up their fourth straight victory.
Tommy Rees threw for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns with two interceptions for Notre Dame (7-2), which improved to 74-12-1 against the Midshipmen in a game that featured eight lead changes. TJ Jones had 111 receiving yards and a score and George Atkinson III and Cam McDaniel had rushing touchdowns.
Keenan Reynolds threw for one touchdown and ran for three more to lead Navy (4-4), which gained 331 yards on the ground. Chris Swain had 85 rushing yards and a touchdown and Matt Aiken hauled in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Reynolds that gave the Midshipmen a 34-31 lead with 8:55 left.
Rees answered by engineering an 11-play drive that ended with Folston going over the top for a 1-yard score. Navy reached the Notre Dame 31 before getting stopped on fourth down with 68 seconds left, clinching the Irish's third straight win in the series.
The teams exchanged leads three times in the second quarter, with Reynolds capping an 11-play drive with a touchdown run that put the Midshipmen up 20-17 at the break. Rees rolled right and found Ben Koyack in the flat for a 17-yard score for the only points of the third quarter, but Reynolds gave Navy a 27-24 advantage with another touchdown run on the first play of the fourth before McDaniel ran it in from 4 yards out.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Navy was 10-for-16 on third downs, while Notre Dame went 2-for-5. ... Midshipmen K Nick Sloan missed an extra point on Reynolds' TD near the end of the first half, which proved costly with his team down four and driving near the end. ... NBA Hall of Famer and Navy alumnus David Robinson was on hand wearing a Notre Dame hat in support of son Corey Robinson, a freshman wide receiver for the Fighting Irish.