Another late win for Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame waited even longer than the last minute to pull this finish out.

Robert Hughes scored on a 1-yard run in overtime and safeties Harrison Smith and Kyle McCarthy jarred the ball loose from Washington receiver D'Andre Goodwin near the goal line on fourth-and-19 as the Fighting Irish beat the Huskies 37-30 Saturday.

It was the fourth straight game decided in the final 60 seconds for the Irish.

"I'm just happy, really happy for these kids. They just keep fighting and fighting and fighting," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.

That the Irish (4-1) even had a chance was due to a pair of goal-line stands in the second half.

The first was late in the third quarter when the Irish held the Huskies (2-3) for no points on two plays from the 1-yard line on a pair of keepers by Jake Locker. Locker gained a half yard on the first play, but was stopped by Brian Smith and McCarthy. He lost a half yard on the second play as he was stopped by Kerry Neal and Harrison Smith.

"The first one was so close we almost challenged it so we came with a different formation again," Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. "It was so close. It felt almost odd when you look at both tries."

Polk appeared to give the Huskies a 30-22 lead with a 6-yard TD run with 7:07 left, but after a review he was ruled down on the half-yard line.

"I felt like I got in the end zone," said Polk, who ran for a career-high 136 yards.

The Huskies couldn't advance the ball on three tries, but got a fresh set of downs when Notre Dame nose tackle Ian Williams was called for roughing the snapper on the field goal attempt. But the Huskies couldn't get it in on the next three plays either, with Locker being stuffed for no gain from the 1. Erik Folk kicked a 24-yard field goal to cap the 19-play drive that ate up 9 minutes and 19 seconds on the clock.

"The whole game came down to that double goal-line stand," Weis said.

Sarkisian said he could hardly believe the Huskies couldn't get the ball in.

"I've never seen so many guys get tackled so close to the goal-line that many times," Sarkisian said.

Clausen floated a 12-yard pass into the end zone that Kyle Rudolph caught over cornerback Quinton Richardson with 80 seconds left and Hughes pushed a pile of defenders into the end zone for the 2-point conversion and a 30-27 lead.