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Sanchez, defense help 13th-ranked USC pound Notre Dame

Oct 21, 2007 - 1:50 AM SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Ticker) -- In a battle of backup quarterbacks, Evan Sharpley wasn't the answer for Notre Dame's inept offense. However, Mark Sanchez had no problems for Southern California.

Sanchez threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns and 13th-ranked USC held Notre Dame to just 165 yards of offense as the Trojans pounded the Irish, 38-0, on Saturday.

Sanchez, who was making his second start while filling in for the injured John David Booty, completed 21-of-38 passes and threw a touchdown to four different receivers .

"I felt really comfortable this week," Sanchez said. "I was calm. I got the jitters out last week. The team was behind me. The defense did an unbelievable job of just shutting them out. It was a total team effort."

It was the sixth straight loss to USC for the Irish, who suffered their worst home shutout defeat since losing, 40-0, to Oklahoma in 1956.

Sharpley, who was making his first start of the season in place of freshman Jimmy Clausen, completed 17-of-33 passes for 117 yards with one interception. He was sacked five times.

"I think you have to give a lot of credit to their defense," Sharpley said. "They had a good plan, a good scheme, and they played well."

After a defensive struggle for much of the first quarter, USC recovered a punt that had bounced off an Irish player on Notre Dame's 9-yard line.

The Trojans took advantage on the first play when Sanchez found tight end Fred Davis in the left corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 3:40 remaining in the opening quarter.

USC (6-1) doubled their lead with just under four minutes left in the first half. Sanchez rolled out and hit Allen Bradford for an 8-yard score that capped a 10-play, 79 yard drive and gave the Trojans a 14-0 lead.

"USC is a good football team," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. "They're well coached, they have good players that played well today, and my hats off to them because you see where they are and you see where we are."

A 30-yard field goal by David Buehler made made it 17-0 with 11 seconds remaining in the half.

Travis Thomas fumbled on his own 12-yard line on the second play of the second half for the Irish, and Sanchez found Stanley Havili for a 5-yard touchdown to give the Trojans a 24-point lead two minutes into the third quarter.

Vidal Hazelton hauled in a 48-yard touchdown midway through the third and freshman Joe McKnight scored his first career touchdown on a 51-yard run in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

"We were just on our game today," McKnight said. "They are good team, but we just took advantage of what was given to us. Great coaches put the players in position to do good things and make plays, and that's what we did."

Notre Dame (1-7), which came into the game ranked dead last nationally in total offense, managed just four first downs in the first half and went three-and-out nine times.

"I think the big thing is on first down we were getting negative yards more than third down," Weis said. "You run a toss, you lose three; you run an inside run, you lose two; you run a screen pass, you lose eight.

"If you're going to have success on third down, you need to have success on first down."