(photo courtesy Notre Dame Athletics)

(Chapel Hill, NC) — Mired in a one-point game early in the third quarter amidst a steady rain, Notre Dame found something in itself Saturday afternoon.

It’s called a running game.

The Irish used a ground-and-pound attack, highlighted by freshman Jonaz Walton’s first 100-yard performance, to subdue a spirited North Carolina squad, 37-26, at Kenan Stadium.  The third-ranked Irish raise their record to 5-0 and win their 15th consecutive game by 10 points or more.

It’s not as though Notre Dame couldn’t throw. CJ Carr had a banner day, completing 21-of-29 for 234 yards and four touchdowns while running for another score. But when the game became close in the second half, the Irish found a running game that had struggled in the opening month of the season.

Notre Dame looked as though it was going to easily put the game away in the first half. After Carolina scored a touchdown on its opening drive, Carr followed with three straight touchdowns, two to Faison and one to Jaden Greathouse to put Notre Dame ahead 21-7. The Irish were marching for a fourth straight touchdown, but Carolina came up with a stop on fourth-and-goal at the two.

The Tar Heels then embarked on a 15-play, 98-yard drive capped by Billy Edwards, Jr. finding Jelani Thurman with a 14-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds remaining in the first half, narrowing the deficit to 21-14.

Carolina’s Jaden Jefferson then took the opening kick of the second half 97 yards, but a botched hold on the point after kept Notre Dame ahead, 21-20. And with the Irish facing their toughest challenge of the season, they responded with old-school toughness.

“You could see it in the offensive linemen’s eyes — Anthonie Knapp was bleeding from the mouth — they wanted it,” noted Carr on ESPN afterwards. “They played aggressive, they played hard and they played for each other.”

Notre Dame used the run game to play keep away in the third quarter, running the ball 20 times for 122 yards in the stanza with Walton and Nolan James, Jr. doing most of the damage. The key play on 4th-and-goal from the three, as Carr used hard count to draw Carolina offsides and used the “free play” to scramble to the end zone to raise the lead to 27-20.

Then, the junior quarterback went back to the air on the first play of the fourth quarter, finding James, Jr. in the flat. The shifty running back juked a Carolina defender to reach paydirt, and the game never got closer than 11 after that.

“We’re resilient,” said Carr. “We faced some adversity but came out firing and super happy to celebrate this one.”

Walton is the new-found star in the backfield, as the freshman from Carrollton, Georgia toted the ball 23 times for 120 yards. James added 65 on the ground as the Irish showed great balance with 241 rushing yards and 234 through the air. Faison had the biggest receiving day of his career, snaring eight passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense gave up its largest point total of the year, mainly due to the toughness of Edwards, Jr., who fired the ball for 208 yards and three touchdowns passes, two to Thuman.  On the second one, Notre Dame All-American cornerback Leonard Moore was injured, colliding with Thurman. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman says Moore will be evaluated but did not give a further update on his condition.

Notre Dame returns to the Stadium next Saturday to face Stanford in the annual “Irish Wear Green” game. It’s a 3:30 kickoff on NBC.

Sports Michiana’s Chuck Freeby and Angelo Di Carlo review this game and look ahead to the matchup Monday night at 7 on “Notre Dame Federal Credit Union’s Irish Football Fix” on Pulse FM (92.1, 96.9, 103.1)