By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Despite taking an early 3-0 lead, the visiting Syracuse Orangemen were no match for Notre Dame Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Irish scored 34 unanswered points to wrap up the home portion of their schedule with a 34-10 victory at Notre Dame Stadium.
Notre Dame (8-2) will conclude the regular season on Saturday with a trip West to take on Stanford.
A Notre Dame victory would all but lock the Fighting Irish into a Bowl Championship Series spot, probably in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2, 2006.
The Fighting Irish talked all week about sending their seniors out in style.
And after John Barker's 31-yard field goal in the opening quarter, Notre Dame did just that.
While Notre Dame did put 34 points on the scoreboard against a 1-9 Syracuse team, the offense looked sluggish in the first quarter and a half.
Notre Dame finally got rolling in the second quarter and scored a pair of touchdowns.
Maurice Stovall made another spectacular touchdown catch to put Notre Dame in front as he hauled in a 25-yard pass from Brady Quinn.
Jeff Samardzija also caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter as he snared a Quinn 29-yard scoring strike.
D.J. Fitzpatrick was perfect on his extra point kicks and the Fighting Irish had a 14-3 halftime lead.
Notre Dame seized complete control of the game in the second half, scoring 10 points in both the third and fourth quarters to open up a 34-3 advantage on Syracuse.
Leo Ferrine returned an interception 16-yards to open the second half scoring for the Fighting Irish.
Fitzpatrick, who made the extra point, then kicked back-to-back field goals of 44- and 29-yards to extend the Notre Dame lead to 27-0.
Notre Dame completed the scoring in the fourth quarter on a three-yard Darius Walker run and a Carl Gioia extra point kick.
Syracuse finally found the end zone late in the fourth quarter when Joseph Kowalewski hauled in an 18-yard pass from Perry Patterson. Ricky Krautman added the extra point kick to complete the scoring.
Notre Dame finished with 420 yards of total offense compared to just 221 by the Orangemen.
Walker finished with 123 yards rushing on 26 carries. No other Notre Dame player had more than five yards rushing.
Stovall finished with three catches for 91 yards, while Samardzija had seven catches for 80 yards.
Quinn was 21-of-37 for 270 yards and two touchdowns.
Syracuse got 112 yards rushing from Damien Rhodes on 22 carries.
Patterson was 9-of-22 for 78 yards for Syracuse with a touchdown and an interception.