ND FOOTBALL: Irish ease into 41-17 victory over road Chippewas

Sep. 16—SOUTH BEND — Coaches preach the gospel of the foolishness in looking past an opponent, but it was kind of hard not too during No. 9 Notre Dame's 41-17 win over Central Michigan (1-2).

The Chippewas weren't run over and gave the Irish a fight, but even a 21-14 halftime lead still didn't seem like Notre Dame (4-0) was in danger of dropping the tune-up to next week's battle with No. 6 Ohio State.

"I tried to tell the team that these wins are hard to come by," Marcus Freeman said. "We want to be perfect and that's just who we are as coaches. I was proud of the way they battled; it wasn't perfect man, but they battled."

Central Michigan through three quarters never faced a deficit of more than two scores, but Freeman's team was far from dropping Saturday's contest.

The Chippewas were playing without starting quarterback Bert Emanuel Jr with the signal caller feeling ill. The explosive, run-first quarterback sat out, bringing in backup Jase Bauer to make his second career start in his ninth career game.

"We knew about it right before the game," Freeman said. "I talked to [Central Michigan] coach [Jim] McElwain right before the game and he said he didn't make the trip."

"Did it change the gameplan? No, but we did have to go back and kind of watch a little bit of what the backup did."

The inexperience didn't seem to do much harm to the redshirt-freshman's performance. Bauer led a nine-play, 83-yard touchdown drive to melt the clock before half, sending the visitors into the locker room down 21-14.

Freeman told the team they weren't getting a 'rah-rah' speech.

"That's not what this team needed," Freeman said. "What this team needed was to settle down and really look at the mistakes that happened in the first half and why it was a seven-point game. I told them to go out there and don't beat Notre Dame."

The Irish took that message and ran out of the break on a seven-play scoring drive to double up the Chippewas at 28-14. Both teams traded field goals in the third quarter, and when the final 15 minutes began, the Irish sported a 31-17 edge.

Notre Dame kicker Spencer Shrader nailed his second field goal of the day in the fourth quarter, this time for 31-yards and increasing the home team's lead to 17. As partly clouded skies adorned Notre Dame Stadium, the lights came on in the fourth quarter as they will to start next weekend's matchup with the Buckeyes.

The Fighting Irish didn't face much more pressure as they scored once more on a four-yard touchdown reception to Holden Staes. That would end the scoring, as the Irish would outscore the Chippewas 20-3 in the second half for a 41-17 victory to remain unbeaten.

"We gotta continue to develop," Freeman said. "I still don't know if we've seen the full potential of this team."

Notre Dame's first half was characterized by precise throws from Hartman. The first was a 75-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Tobias Merriweather and the second was a 76-yard touchdown pass to the speedy slot receiver Chris Tyree.

Hartman continued to complete accurate downfield throws but wasn't as accurate as he had been through the first three games.

In his second start for the Irish at home, he finished 16-26, tossing for 330 yards and three touchdowns. The graduate also ran for another score.

"He'll tell you he's got to be better," Freeman said referring to Hartman. "He made some mistakes today that he can improve on."

Four different Irish receivers totaled over 60 yards on the day as the offense continues to not rely on one name but several to make plays through the air. Audric Estime also totaled a new career high 176 yards on 20 carries.

"It feels great honestly, but that's not what I look forward to," Estime said deflecting the credit. "At the end of the day, I'm happy we got the win, I'm happy we're undefeated. It feels great to have my career high, but hopefully I'll break it again."

His coach pointed out that Estime also isn't the easiest to bring down, contributing to the difficulty for opposing defenses.

"Trust me, it's not a lot of fun tackling a guy like that," Freeman said.

On the prospect of the Buckeyes, senior Rylie Mills was already looking forward to the matchup minutes after the game.

"I'm looking forward to watching film on this," Mills said before stating the obvious. "I can't time travel, Saturday's not going to come any quicker, so I think the biggest thing we can do as a team is just to make sure every day, we're practicing like we're dominating each day."

No. 9 Notre Dame welcomes in No. 6 Ohio State next Saturday in South Bend. The Irish will also be rocking their green jerseys for the 'Irish Wear Green' game.

How Notre Dame's 2023 opponents faired: Navy (1-2) — L 24-28 at Memphis / Tennessee State (2-1) — W 27-25 vs Gardner-Webb / NC State (2-1) — W 45-7 vs VMI / Central Michigan (1-2) — L 17-41 at No. 9 Notre Dame / No. 6 Ohio State (3-0) — W 63-10 vs Western Kentucky / No. 21 Duke (3-0) — W 38-14 vs Northwestern / Louisville (3-0) — W 21-14 at Indiana / No. 5 USC (3-0) — OFF / Pittsburgh (1-2) — L 6-17 at West Virginia / Clemson (2-1) — W 48-14 vs Florida Atlantic / Wake Forest (3-0) — W 27-24 at Old Dominion / Stanford (1-2) — L 23-30 vs Sacramento State

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

CMU — 7; 7; 3; 0 — 17

#9 ND — 14; 7; 10; 10 — 41

SCORING

First quarter

(ND 10:52) — Sam Hartman 75-yard touchdown throw to Tobias Merriweather, Spencer Shrader's PAT is good (ND: 7-0)

(CMU 7:22) — Vashon Bailey 6-yard touchdown rush, Tristan Mattson's PAT is good (Tied 7-7)

(ND 2:13) — Audric Estime 17-yard touchdown rush, Shrader's PAT is good (ND 14-7)

Second quarter

(ND 14:17) — Hartman pass complete to Chris Tyree for 76-yard touchdown reception. Shrader's PAT is good (ND 21-7)

(CMU 0:17) — Jase Bauer run for 1-yard touchdown. Mattson's PAT is good (ND 21-14)

Third quarter

(ND 11:36) — Hartman 1-yard touchdown run. Shrader's PAT is good (ND 28-14)

(CMU 2:03) — Mattson's 23-yard field goal is good (ND 28-17)

(ND 0:30) — Shrader's 50-yard field goal is good (ND 31-17)

Fourth quarter

(ND 10:19) — Shrader's 31-yard field goal is good (ND 34-17)

(ND 5:45) — Hartman pass complete to Holden Staes for a 4-yard touchdown (ND 41-17)

ND STATISTICS

Sam Hartman: 16-26, 330 yards, 3 TD's / 3 carries, 6 yards, 1 TD

Audric Estime: 20 carries, 176 yards, 1 TD

Chris Tyree: 2 catches, 88 yards 1 TD

Tobias Merriweather: 2 catches 81 yards, 1 TD

Jayden Thomas: 4 catches, 63 yards

Rico Flores Jr: 3 catches, 60 yards

Reach Matt Lucas at 574-533-2151, ext. 240325, or at matt.lucas@goshennews.com.