Book, Fighting Irish wax Wake Forest, 56-27

Published 4:33 pm Saturday, September 22, 2018

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Ian Book rushed for three touchdowns and threw for two more, and No. 8 Notre Dame beat Wake Forest 56-27 on Saturday.
Book replaced Brandon Wimbush in the starting lineup and was 25 of 34 for 325 yards with touchdown passes covering 3 yards to Brock Wright and 7 yards to Chase Claypool, along with three short scoring runs.
He helped the Fighting Irish (4-0) more than double their previous season high for scoring and roll up a season-best 566 total yards, surpassing the previous high midway through the third quarter.
Before this one, Notre Dame hadn’t scored more than 24 in a game , and its wins over Michigan, Ball State and Vanderbilt came by a total of 20 points.
Jafar Armstrong had touchdown runs of 1 and 30 yards, and Tony Jones Jr. added a short scoring run for the Fighting Irish, who will ride their best start since 2015 into next week’s showdown with No. 7 Stanford.
Matt Colburn had a 2-yard touchdown run and Nick Sciba kicked two field goals for Wake Forest (2-2), which has lost two straight. Freshman Sam Hartman was 12 of 24 for 110 yards before he exited after taking a hard hit midway through the third.
THE TAKEAWAY
Notre Dame: So much for that quarterback controversy . It sure looks like the job belongs to Book, whose only previous start came last season in a rout of North Carolina and who led the rally that led to a victory over LSU in the Citrus Bowl. Coach Brian Kelly played it coy in the days before the game, saying both of his QBs would play. But as the points and yards kept piling up for the Irish, Wimbush never saw the field and never even took off his baseball cap.
Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons’ defense was exposed yet again. A group susceptible to the big play gave up another handful of them at the wrong times, a list led by Armstrong’s TD run and a 66-yard catch-and-run by Michael Young that set up another score. The continued inability to prevent explosive plays made it next to impossible to earn the program’s first victory against a top-10 opponent since 1946.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame: Returns home to face No. 7 Stanford on Saturday.
Wake Forest: Plays host to Rice on Saturday.

Notre Dame stats
No. 8 Notre Dame 56, Wake Forest 27
Notre Dame 7 21 21 7 = 56
Wake Forest 3 10 7 7 = 27
First Quarter
WF—FG Sciba 30, 5:19
ND—Armstrong 30 run (Yoon kick), 3:06
Second Quarter
WF—FG Sciba 39, 14:56
ND—Wright 3 pass from Book (Yoon kick), 11:25
ND—T.Jones 4 run (Yoon kick), 9:19
WF—Colburn 2 run (Sciba kick), 6:26
ND—Book 2 run (Yoon kick), 5:24
Third Quarter
ND—Claypool 7 pass from Book (Yoon kick), 9:46
ND—Armstrong 1 run (Yoon kick), 5:15
ND—Book 2 run (Yoon kick), 5:24
WF—Hinton 23 run (Sciba kick), :44
Fourth Quarter
ND—Book 1 run (Yoon kick), 11:27
WF—Newman 15 run (Sciba kick), 4:53
———
ND WF
First downs 28 27
Rushes-yards 40-241 61-259
Passing 325 139
Total yards 566 398
Comp-Att-Int 25-36-0 16-31-1
Return Yards 78 67
Punts-Avg. 3-33.66 6-32.16
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 4-37 3-23
Time of Possession 26:01 33:59
———
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Notre Dame, Armstrong 8-98, A.Davis 9-43, Book 10-43, T.Jones 7-39, Smith 2-16, Jurkovec 1-7, Young 1-(minus 1), (Team) 2-(minus 4). Wake Forest, C.Carney 13-79, Newman 8-73, Beal 10-34, Colburn 10-32, Hinton 1-23, Hartman 16-11, Dortch 1-6, Delaney 2-1.
PASSING—Notre Dame, Book 25-34-0-325, Jurkovec 0-2-0-0. Wake Forest, Hartman 12-24-0-110, Newman 4-7-1-29.
RECEIVING—Notre Dame, Mack 6-61, Claypool 4-51, Finke 4-41, Austin 2-35, T.Jones 2-32, A.Davis 2-15, Armstrong 2-15, Young 1-66, M.Boykin 1-6, Wright 1-3. Wake Forest, Dortch 6-56, Hinton 3-23, Washington 2-24, Chapman 2-7, Claude 1-15, Bachman 1-12, Delaney 1-2.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—Wake Forest, Sciba 38, Sciba 38.

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