SOUTH BEND, IND. — This time it was Air Force that piled a bunch of misery on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.
Never trailing, the Falcons worked their way to a touchdown with just over three minutes to go in the game and it salted away a 41-24 victory in Notre Dame Stadium.
The Falcons (8-3) have stormed back from three consecutive losing seasons with their season finale Saturday against San Diego State.
The Falcons survived a late rush by the Irish (1-9) that cut the lead to 34-24 with 7:56 left in the game. With quarterback Jimmy Clausen turning to a pure pass offense Irish partisans smelled a comeback.
But Air Force’s Bobby Giannini and Jared Marvin stopped Clausen well short of a first down on a fourth-down gamble at the 25 and the Falcons took over with under five minutes left.
Air Force’s defense was more than a match for Notre Dame’s freshman quarterback. He was sacked six times, but did manage to bring the Irish back to a 31-17 deficit with 13:31 left in the game. Clausen’s fourth-down pass found David Grimes in the end zone, to cut Air Force lead to 14 points.
But Chad Hall returned the ensuing kickoff 52 yards to the Notre Dame 33-yard line to put the Falcons in position for a 37-yard Ryan Harrison field goal and a 34-17 lead with 10:07 left in the game.
After stumbling at times in the first half, the Falcons opened the third period on a mission and drove 67 yards to a touchdown and a 24-10 lead and later came back on a 65-yard drive for another score and a 31-10 lead.
Carney threw touchdown passes for both scores, a 7-yard strike to Sean Quintana and a 10-yard strike to tight end Keith Madsen.
Air Force’s defense didn’t allow the Irish to advance into Falcon territory until the last two plays of the third quarter.
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
