This week the Irish welcomed the Hokies of Virginia Tech to South Bend. This would be the third game between these two universities. The first two games were won by the road team with the Hokies winning 34-31 in 2016 at Notre Dame and the Irish winning 45-23 last year. The Irish come in trying to not lose back to back games for the first time this year. The Hokies come in trying to get one win closer to securing a bowl appearance for the 27th straight season. The Irish last game was a thrashing by Michigan in a game the Irish would most likely want to forget losing 14-45. The Hokies coming in off of a game versus UNC in which they won after 6 overtimes with a score of 43-41. This game would be a hard-fought game between the two teams with some late-game heroics and a last-second go-ahead touchdown.
The first quarter saw both of the teams score a touchdown. The first to score would be the Irish on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Senior quarterback Ian Book to Junior tight end Cole Kmet. The Hokies would then respond with an 8 play, 45-yard drive ending in an 8-yard touchdown pass to redshirt Junior wide receiver Damon Hazelton from redshirt quarterback Quincy Patterson II. Those would be the only scoring plays of the first quarter.
The second quarter would again see both teams score. The Irish would score first on an 11 play, 77-yard drive which started in the first quarter and ends in the second with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Sophomore tight end Tommy Tremble from Ian Book. The Hokies would score with nine seconds to go in the first half on a 98-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Redshirt Junior defensive back Divine Deablo which tied the score heading to halftime.
The second half saw the defenses dominate as the third quarter only saw 3 points scored. The 3 points were scored on a Hokies 44 yard field goal by Redshirt Junior kicker Brian Johnson. That would be the only offense of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw both teams score during the quarter. The Hokies started the scoring on a 25-yard field goal by Brian Johnson. Which expanded the Hokies lead to 6 with a score of 20-14. The Irish would miss a field goal on the next drive keeping the score the same. The next Notre Dame drive would come with a little over 3 minutes left in the game. The drive would start on their own 13-yard line. It took the Irish almost 2 minutes to get past midfield and with the clock winding down after two failed attempts on 1st and 2nd goal on the Hokies 7 yard line the Irish lined up for 3rd and goal with 29 seconds left Ian Book took the snap and ran the ball 7 yards for the game leading touchdown. The game would end after the Hokies threw an interception with two seconds left on the clock. Leaving the only thing left to do was to take the snap and kneel the ball to run out the last two seconds. The Irish winning the game 21-20 on a last-minute touchdown.
The Irish record after the game would move to 6-2. While the Hokies would fall to 5-3.
The next Irish game would be on November 9th against ACC opponent Duke University who are currently 4-4. The game will be at 7:30 pm on the ACC Network.
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