Massachusetts Football Falters At No. 6 Notre Dame

Sept. 26, 2015

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - University of Massachusetts football freshman running back Marquis Young ran for 103 yards on only five carries, but it was not enough for the Minutemen as UMass faltered at No. 6 Notre Dame, 62-27, Saturday afternoon. With Young leading the way, the Maroon and White ground attack averaged 5.1 yards per attempt on 29 rushes.

"We didn't tackle very well," head coach Mark Whipple said. "We didn't have quite the energy that we had last week, but I credit Notre Dame. The end-of-the-half play was a big play. They did a nice job of downing at the one yard line and then I got aggressive. I felt like they were going to press us, and I thought we needed a shot to Tajae, maybe get 99, and you've got to make a decision there. We backed up and they run it in and kind of took the wind out of our sails, and then I made a bad call on a fake punt, trying to just get something going."

In addition to Young's afternoon, Jamal Wilson added 51 yards rushing over seven carries (7.3 per attempt). Tajae Sharpe hauled in eight passes from Blake Frohnapfel covering 83 yards while Marken Michel added 46 more over six receptions and Shakur Nesmith pulled down three grabs for a team-high 88 receiving yards with one touchdown.

Frohnapfel went 20-for-40 against the Notre Dame defense for 233 yards passing with one interception. Ross Comis spelled Frohnapfel in the fourth quarter and threw for 69 yards and a touchdown on an 8-for-8 day passing.

Three Minutemen finished with double-digit tackle totals in Joe Colton, Trey Dudley-Giles and Jovan Santos-Knox. The trio each had 10 tackles, with Colton notching eight unassisted stops to highlight the efforts. It marked the ninth double-digit tackle performance by Santos-Knox, seventh for Colton and third by Dudley-Giles.

The offensive line opened up holes in the middle of the Notre Dame defense for the running back committee to put in three touchdowns by a trio of Minutemen during the opening half. Sekai Lindsay, Wilson and Young each scored once as the Maroon and White stayed close with the Irish and entered the half down, 35-20.

After Kizer and Prosise gave Notre Dame the lead with back-to-back touchdowns, Young answered for UMass. Using the last play from scrimmage of the first quarter, Young burst through a hole in the middle of the Irish line, eluded the secondary and outran trailing defenders to the endzone for an 83-yard touchdown rush.

Young's score marked the longest rushing attempt from scrimmage by a Minuteman since R.J. Cobb scampered 84 yards in a Nov. 2, 2002 game against Delaware, a gap of 149 contests between the rushing attempts. It went as the longest rush by a true-freshman in the modern era of UMass football, dating back to the 1978 season.

Dudley-Giles sparked the next UMass scoring drive as he picked off the first pass of Notre Dame's second quarter-opening possession. Dudley-Giles caught a deflected ball at the UMass 38 yard line and returned it to midfield to set up Frohnapfel and the offense.

Sharpe pulled in a nine-yard reception on fourth-and-five at the Notre Dame 29 yard line to prolong the ensuing drive before Lindsay punched in a one-yard rush six plays later that brought the Maroon and White within 14-13 with 11 minutes, 17 seconds to go in the second.

The Irish converted on the other end to stretch their lead back to eight points at the 7:47 mark of the quarter, but the Minutemen answered once again only 63 seconds later. Shakur Nesmith's 56-yard grab from Frohnapfel highlighted the drive, which was capped by Wilson's one-yard TD.

However, the home side added a pair of unanswered touchdowns before the halftime break, which stretched their lead from one point, 21-20 to 15 by the end of the second quarter. C.J. Sanders returned a Logan Laurent punt 50 yards for the first of those conversions before Kizer found Chris Brown in the back-right corner of the endzone with six ticks left on the Notre Dame Stadium scoreboard.

Notre Dame's offense kept up its pace following the break and scored 20 points during the third frame to push ahead, 55-20 by the start of the fourth quarter. The Irish tacked on a fourth quarter TD that bumped their lead to 62-20 before Comis connected with Nesmith on a corner route for the 62-27 final score.

On the last UMass possession, Comis went 8-for-8 as he engineered his first scoring drive as a Minuteman. The Minutemen marched 77 yards over 10 plays and used four minutes, 59 seconds to reach the Notre Dame endzone. Comis hit five different receivers during the drive, which Nesmith capped with his 33-yard score.

The University of Massachusetts plays on campus at McGuirk Stadium during its next contest, a Saturday, Oct. 3 game against Florida International at 3 p.m. Ticket information is available through 866-UMASS-TIX or via UMassAthletics.com/tickets.

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