Notre Dame Strikes Quickly, Beats BYU : Nonconference: Irish score on second play on the way to a 45-20 victory. Injured knee sidelines Cougars’ Walsh.

The first thing Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz wanted to do against Brigham Young Saturday night was take a record Cougar Stadium crowd out of the game.

His third-ranked Irish did just that on their first offensive series with a crushing running game and never relented as they rolled over BYU, 45-20.

After Ray Zellars’ 29-yard touchdown run on Notre Dame’s second play from scrimmage, the BYU crowd of 66,247 fell silent.

It didn’t get any better for the Cougars, who lost starting quarterback John Walsh to a knee injury in the first half. He completed three of five passes for 13 yards before backup Tom Young took over.

“I felt it was important to jump off to an early start, and our football players did that,” Holtz said after the Irish improved to 7-0 with their 12th consecutive road victory and 13th overall.

“Our players expected a difficult game, and we came out here very, very sharp,” Holtz added.

Mike Miller caught two long touchdown passes and Marc Edwards added two scoring runs for the Irish.

“We hung in there good, but got off to a slow start,” said BYU Coach LaVell Edwards, whose Cougars fell to 4-2. “That was a good football team we played.”

Irish quarterback Kevin MacDougal said the Cougars’ loose pass coverage made his job easier.

“BYU’s linebackers seemed to sit at 12 yards back, so we had to throw past them. . . . I love going deep,” said MacDougal, who threw the longest touchdown pass of his career, a 66-yard play to Miller.

Miller finished with 117 yards with three catches, including another touchdown pass-play of 35 yards.

Edwards made the most of his 37 yards rushing, with two of his six carries going for touchdowns of five and one yards that helped hand the Cougars their second straight lopsided loss.