Photo credit: @CBSSportsCFB

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, September 29, 2018

Ian Book, in his second game as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback, engineered the No. 8-ranked Fighting Irish to their fifth win of the season without a loss Saturday. No. 7 Stanford was the victim in Notre Dame’s 38-17 win at South Bend, Ind.

The Irish held Stanford to 229 yards of total offense, doing the job defensively with five sacks of Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello, nine tackles for loss, an interception and breaking up eight Cardinal passes.

Notre Dame also held the Cardinal (4-1 overall, 2-0 Pac-12) to a second-half 46-yard field goal by Jet Toner and no points in the fourth quarter.

Not helping the Cardinal was losing the services of Bryce Love in the fourth quarter due to an ankle injury. Love, who finished with 73 rushing yards on 17 carries, spent most of last season dealing with a chronic ankle sprain.

Book, meanwhile, completed 24 of 33 passes for 278 yards and four touchdowns. Dexter Williams paced the Irish running attack with 161 yards and one touchdown, and Miles Boykin caught 11 passes for 144 yards and a touchdown.

Love scored on a 39-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, which tied the game at 7-7. Stanford tied the game again in the second quarter at 14-14 when Costello tossed a 4-yard TD pass to JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

After that, it was all Notre Dame. The Irish went ahead to stay on a Book TD pass of 10 yards to Chase Claypool with :39 remaining in the first half.

Notre Dame made it a two-possession game when Book found Boykin for an 8-yard touchdown.

Costello completed 15 of 27 passes for 174 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Arcega-Whiteside and Trenton Irwin each caught five passes for the Cardinal.

Alijah Holder led a busy Cardinal defense with eight tackles and two assists, with Paulson Adebo finishing with seven tackles and one assist. Sean Barton, Malik Antoine and Joey Alfieri each had six tackles.

The Cardinal return home next Saturday to host the Utah Utes. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. PT.