BYU Takes Fight Out of Irish : Nonconference: Walsh, defense lead 21-14 victory that leaves Holtz with only questions.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. —  The biggest day of John Walsh’s career at Brigham Young has Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz looking for answers.

“This is probably the best win that I’ve ever had,” said Walsh, who passed for 216 yards and one touchdown as BYU stopped Notre Dame twice inside the 10 on the way to defeating the 17th-ranked Irish, 21-14, on Saturday.

“Nobody gave us a chance in this game, but we believed in ourselves and that’s all that matters. We came out here and put the fight to them and came out with the win,” said Walsh, who had Notre Dame’s defense guessing most of the afternoon as he completed 17 of 30 passes while increasing his career passing yardage to 6,702.

The Irish (4-3) also missed three field goals and were held to 115 yards rushing by an aggressive BYU defense that produced four sacks for 45 yards, recovered one fumble, had an interception and seven tackles for 21 yards in losses.

“We’ve made some teams awfully happy in the past few weeks,” said Holtz, whose club was beaten, 30-11, by Boston College last week. “We got beat by a football team that controlled the line of scrimmage and protected the passer--two things we didn’t do.”

Brigham Young (6-1) overcame near disaster at the start of the game to defeat the Irish, who hadn’t lost so many games this early in a season since going 5-6 in Holtz’s first season in 1986.

“Please don’t ask me for any answers. I don’t have any,” Holtz said.

Walsh moved his team 77 yards in 13 plays for the winning score with Jamal Willis plunging over the middle of the line from two yards out. Walsh then threw to Hema Heimul for the conversion.

Notre Dame moved 62 yards in six plays after the opening kickoff to score on Randy Kinder’s 41-yard run.

Notre Dame wasted an opportunity after BYU’s Jason Cooper fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Bill Mitoulas recovered at the 11. After two rushes netted five yards, Ron Powlus pitched wildly to Kinder who managed to fall on the loose ball at the 19. Stefan Schroffner attempted a 37-yard field goal, but the snap was bobbled and the kick was short and to the right.

Brigham Young, which won a nonconference road game for the first time since 1989, scored the next 13 points. David Lauder booted field goals of 49 and 48 yards.

Powlus, who was sacked twice and fumbled two snaps in the first half, gave the Cougars the ball on their 45 after the second fumble. Six plays later, Walsh connected with Willis on a short toss to the 16 and Willis went into the end zone by eluding Jeremy Sample’s tackle.

Early in the third quarter, Notre Dame drove from its 15 to a first-and-goal at the BYU three. But Marc Edwards was stopped for no gain on first down and a sweep by Kinder also produced no gain. On third down, Powlus was sacked for an 18-yard loss by Jon Pollock on a safety blitz and Scott Cengia’s 39-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by Chad Lewis.

Powlus was injured late in the game and Tom Krug took over on the last Irish possession at the Notre Dame 23. He gained 30 yards on two pass completions, but Notre Dame’s bid ended at the BYU 47 after four incomplete passes and the Cougars ran out the final 57 seconds.

“He got banged up a little during the game,” Holtz said of Powlus. “What’s the extent of that injury, I do not know.”