Purdue had to kick off from the 15 after the penalty on Marve and Notre Dame Cierre Wood made a nice 38-return to the Boilermakers 41 before fumbling with Irish teammate Zeke Motta pouncing on the ball.

But the Boilermakers dug in and forced a punt, taking over at their own 12 with 9:47 remaining. They were set back by a pair of penalties and after a long pass to Justin Siller fell incomplete, the Boilermakers punted out of their own end zone.

Notre Dame then moved in for Ruffer's third field goal and regained control.

Marve completed 31 of 42 passes for 220 yards. Crist was 19 of 26, solid but far from spectacular running Kelly's fast-paced spread offense. Purdue's talented wideout Keith Smith made 12 catches for 80 yards.

"The second half, I felt like I was rolling," Marve said. "I thought personnel, we matched up pretty well against them, I felt comfortable in our scheme. I felt that we had a chance to win. Even with that, I felt there were some plays we needed to make, and we didn't come up with it today."

On the first play of the final quarter, with Notre Dame ahead 20-3, Marve's fourth-and-1 pass from the Notre Dame 5 was tipped and intercepted by nose guard Ian Williams. But Purdue star defensive end Ryan Kerrigan and Charlton Williams then dropped Allen in the end zone for a safety.

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After the free kick, the Boilermakers drove in for the score with Marve using a nice fake to break free on his 23-yard run.

Crist's 5-yard TD pass to freshman TJ Jones early in the third came just a little over two minutes after Allen picked his way on a 38-yard punt return to the Purdue 30. The score put the Irish up 20-3.

After Crist hooked up with Floyd on a 34-yard pass, he hit the usually sure-handed Floyd again as he slanted toward the end zone and the Irish seemed poised to build on their 17-point lead. But Floyd was hit by Will Lucas at the 2, fumbled and Logan Link recovered for Purdue to cut off another Irish scoring threat.

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