Conrad Ukropina drilled a 45-yard field goal as time expired to give the Stanford Cardinal a 38-36 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday night. The Irish had gone ahead by a point with just 30 seconds remaining on a two yard bootleg by DeShone Kizer, but Brian VanGorder’s defense collapsed by allowing Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan to pass his team into scoring territory. The gut-wrenching defeat ends Notre Dame’s regular season at 10-2 and destroys the team’s mission of making the four team postseason playoff.
The game was a see-saw battle throughout, but all of Stanford’s trips to the red zone resulted in touchdowns while the Irish squandered away four opportunities in scoring territory with three field goals and a lost fumble.