SportsDirect Inc. staff
Nov 30, 2013
No. 10 Stanford 27, Notre Dame 20: Tyler Gaffney ran for 189 yards and a touchdown and the Cardinal held the Fighting Irish to 263 yards of total offense en route to their 15th straight home victory.
Gaffney (33 carries) and Anthony Wilkerson, who had a 20-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter, controlled the ground game for Stanford (10-2). The Notre Dame rushing attack did not fare nearly as well, as Tarean Folston led the way with 50 yards and the Irish (8-4) rushed for just 64 carries on 24 attempts as a team.
Each quarterback threw a pair of interceptions, with Stanford's Kevin Hogan completing 12-of-18 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown and Notre Dame's Tommy Rees going 16-of-34 for 199 yards and two scores to move into second place in school history with 61 touchdown passes. Devon Cajuste led the Cardinal with three catches for 75 yards and a touchdown, while Rees' top targets were DaVaris Daniels, who had five catches for 79 yards and a touchdown, and TJ Jones, who finished with six catches for 56 yards and a score.
Notre Dame held the lead for less than five minutes - an early 3-0 advantage that Stanford erased on Hogan's 16-yard TD pass to Cajuste. Gaffney rushed for a 1-yard score early in the second quarter to help Stanford to a 14-6 halftime advantage.
Wilkerson's TD run made it 21-6 about four minutes into the second half before Rees threw a pair of touchdown passes, sandwiched around a Cardinal field goal, to create a 24-20 game heading into the fourth. Stanford's Jordan Williamson booted a 28-yard field goal with 9:16 left to push the advantage to 27-20, but the Irish went three-and-out on their next two possessions and then Rees was intercepted by Wayne Lyons with 2 1/2 minutes left before Gaffney ran out the clock.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Stanford went 8-for-13 on third down and had 419 yards of offense. ... The Cardinal will face Arizona State in next week's Pac-12 title game, while Notre Dame awaits its bowl fate. ... Hogan improved to 15-2 as a starter.