NOTRE DAME ENJOYS THE BATTLE : NOTRE DAME 28, SAUGUS 13 SAUGUS PROVIDES A WELL-NEEDED TEST.

Byline: Jim Inghram Staff Writer

After a couple of easy victories, second-ranked Notre Dame relished the opportunity to face a quality opponent, to play a full game, battle in the trenches and see who would come out on top.

Saugus provided just that, but the Knights were too tough and too physical and earned a 28-13 nonleague victory Friday at home. Next week, Notre Dame faces a much-tougher Alemany squad.

``We knew they had a good offense,'' Notre Dame defensive lineman Armando Lopez said of Saugus. ``We knew we had to dig deep and face the challenge. It was something we were looking forward to.''

Saugus' David Parker had passed for over 600 yards in his teams' first two games but was harassed and bullyragged by the Knights' front four throughout the game.

He did pass for 185 yards, but was sacked four times and ended up on the ground on nearly every one of his 34 passing attempts.

``A couple of guys on their (defensive) line are just men,'' said Saugus coach Ron Hilton. ``I thought we did our best controlling them, but you can't keep them down the entire game, especially when they knew we were going to pass.''

The ground game for the Centurions (2-1) was non-existant (18 carries for 19 yards), which compounded their problems.

``We also made some crucial mistakes which you can't do against a team like that,'' Hilton said.

While the defense for the 3-0 Knights was pounding the Centurions, the offense was doing enough to keep them at a comfortable distance.

``I thought (quarterback) Johnathan Brewster play a nice game, but we had a couple of penalties and made some mistakes that hurt us,'' said Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney.

Brewster completed eight of 17 passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Matt Lutz. The first came with 37 seconds left in the first half and it gave Notre Dame a 21-7 lead. The second, a 16-yarder, capped a 6:23 drive that opened the second half and gave the Knights a 28-7 lead.

Saugus countered with an impressive scoring march of its own and came within two touchdowns with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Centurions made Notre Dame sweat a bit when Jared DePaiva sacked Brewster, forcing a fumble that Saugus recovered at the Notre Dame 31. Parker scrambled for 13 yards on the next play and a late hit penalty at the end of the run put the ball inside the 10.

The Knights quickly quelled the threat when Travis Johnson sacked Parker for a 13-yard loss. A holding penalty on the next play put Saugus further back and the drive ended on downs.

``We kept pretty good pressure on their quarterback,'' Rooney said, ``but we have to continue to get better. We did some good things, but we did some bad things too.''