ORLANDO – Iowa State (7-6, 5-4 Big 12) could not recover from early mistakes as No. 14 Notre Dame (11-2) took the 2019 Camping World Bowl 33-9 Saturday afternoon at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
The Cyclones, appearing in their third-straight bowl game for just the second time in school history, were in a hole early after a pair of fumbles and were unable to take advantage of some big plays by the offense, with just Connor Assalley’s three field goals being how ISU got on the board.
A pair of fumbles plagued the first quarter for the Cyclones, as a punt return fumble by Tarique Milton led to a 39-yard Irish field goal and a Brock Purdy fumble resulted in a 24-yard TD reception by Chase Claypool gave ND a 10-0 lead.
Connor Assalley’s 41-yard field goal got Iowa State on the board and within a score at 10-3, but the Irish immediately countered with Jonathan Doerer’s 51-yard line drive field goal upping it to 13-3. The Notre Dame defense stuffed the Cyclones on a fourth-down attempt and made it 20-3 three plays later when Jafar Armstrong rushed in from a yard-out. Purdy was able to help engineer a drive to get Assalley a 26-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 20-6 heading into the locker room.
The Irish stuffed the Cyclones to begin the half, forcing an ISU three-and-out and scoring on the first play of the ensuing drive with Tony Jones recording a Camping World Bowl-record 84-yard scoring run to make it 27-6. The Cyclones got another red zone chance halfway through the third, but were again denied and had to settle for a 42-yard Assalley field goal.
There was no answer for the Cyclones in the fourth as ISU was held to just five yards of offense in the final quarter.
