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Ryan helps keep Boston College undefeated

Oct 14, 2007 - 3:01 AM SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Ticker) -- After a brief scare in the second half, Boston College continued its best start in more than six decades.

Matt Ryan completed 32-of-49 passes for 292 yards yards and two touchdowns, leading fourth-ranked Boston College to a 27-14 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday.

At 7-0, the Eagles are off to the their best start since 1942, when they won their first eight games before finishing 8-2.

"That was a big win for our football team," BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski said. "Our kids were excited about playing this football game, and I think they responded."

Boston College has dominated the intense rivalry in recent years, winning five straight to cut Notre Dame's lead in the series to 9-8. The Catholic schools were meeting for the first time since 2004.

"Any time you come to Notre Dame, it's exciting," Eagles defensive end Nick Larkin said. "Any time you beat Notre Dame, it's exciting. We knew coming in here that their record didn't reflect on their football team."

A Heisman Trophy candidate, Ryan tossed a nine-yard touchdown pass to Andre Callender to give the Eagles a 20-0 lead with 11:26 remaining in the third quarter.

"We are just staying focused and taking it one day at a time and trying not get ahead of ourselves," Callender said. "We can't look at the numbers and look where we are ranked and things like that. We have to keep our heads down and keep grinding it out in practice."

Notre Dame answered quickly as Evan Sharpley, who replaced an ineffective Jimmy Clausen, threw a 19-yard TD pass to Robby Parris just 59 seconds later.

Less than two minutes later, Notre Dame's defense came up with a big play as Brian Smith returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown to pull the Fighting Irish (1-6) within 20-14.

But Notre Dame was penalized for excessive celebration in the end zone and had to kick off from its 15.

"It's a terrible feeling when you go through a play like that and have success and then there's some laundry on the field," Sharpley said. "That's how the game goes sometimes."

Boston College started its next possession in Notre Dame's territory as Brad Newman returned a short kickoff 18 yards to the Irish 45.

Unfazed by the interception, Ryan went back to work, completing all three passes on a five-play drive, including a 13-yard TD to Kevin Challenger that allowed the Eagles to regain control.

"It was huge to come back and score, especially after you throw an interception and it goes for six," Ryan said. "You want to come back and keep fighting and we went down and did that."

"Matt never gets rattled when things go wrong for him," Jagodzinski added. "That's the way he is."

Notre Dame was unable to build on last week's 20-6 victory over UCLA and continued its worst start since 1960, when the Irish posted a 2-8 record.

With an offense that continues to sputter, Notre Dame is 1-6 for only the third in the program's storied history. Notre Dame's other 1-6 starts came in 1956 and 1960.

Clausen, a freshman, continued to look tentative and was benched after completing just 7-of-20 passes for 60 yards and two interceptions - one of which set up Ryan's TD pass to Callender.

"The bottom line is we have no touchdowns, no points," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said in explaining why he made the quarterback change early in the third quarter.

"I thought Jimmy was banged up pretty good, didn't have great zip. I told him I'd give him the first drive of the second half to see what he had, and he came up and threw that early pick. I just felt at that time a fresh Evan was the way to go."

Sharpley was a bit better, completing 11-of-29 passes for 135 yards. But Notre Dame still managed only 222 yards of total offense.

The Irish's running game was virtually non-existent as they rushed for only 27 yards on 21 carries, an average off just over one yard per attempt.

Notre Dame came into the game ranked last in the Bowl Subdivision in rushing (33.0 yards per game) and second-to-last in scoring (11.0 ppg).