Mirer, Ismail Show Air Force Air Game : Notre Dame: Irish also block two punts in rebounding to a 57-27 victory.

Notre Dame showed Air Force a season’s worth of highlights on Saturday, featuring best performances by Rick Mirer and Raghib (Rocket) Ismail and best supporting role honors for the Fighting Irish punt defense.

“They could make their highlight film for the year, or make Ismail’s highlight film anyway, from this game,” Air Force Coach Fisher DeBerry said after No. 8 Notre Dame crushed the Falcons, 57-27.

Mirer passed for 253 yards, throwing for touchdowns to Ismail and Derek Brown, in reviving the Irish (4-1) after last week’s 36-31 loss to Stanford. Ismail caught six passes for 172 yards, returned a kickoff 34 yards and forced Air Force to surrender field position by punting away from him.

Air Force’s biggest problem early in the game was Ryan Mihalko, who blocked two punts by the Falcons’ Jason Christ to set up Irish touchdowns.

The Notre Dame defensive line, led by 266-pound nose tackle Chris Zorich and 298-pound tackle George Williams, battered the smaller Air Force line to open the way for Mihalko.

“Everyone hit their gaps well, and I was able to get in there pretty clean,” Mihalko said.

DeBerry saw it differently. “That’s probably as poor a job as we’ve done since I’ve been at the Air Force Academy,” he said.

Dorsey Levens, in his first start at tailback, rushed for two first-quarter touchdowns to seal Air Force’s fate early. The Irish led, 31-7, at the half.

Air Force (3-4) scored four times against an Irish defense that had allowed Tommy Vardell four one-yard touchdown runs in last week’s loss to Stanford.

Notre Dame twice made quick work of touchdown drives, using three seconds when Levens rushed two yards after the first punt block and eight seconds when Mirer hit Ismail on a 52-yard pass play with 3:12 left in the half.

Jason Jones scored twice for Air Force, rushing three yards at 9:48 in the second quarter to cap a 76-yard drive. Jones scored again on a five-yard run with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

Rob Perez rushed a yard for a fourth-quarter touchdown in his first start as the Falcons’ quarterback, setting up his own score with a 60-yard run to the Irish five. Jarvis Baker took over late in the fourth and ran two yards for the Falcons’ final score.

Ricky Watters added four- and one-yard rushing touchdowns for the Irish, and Jeff Burris scored on a one-yard run with 2:27 left.

Notre Dame drove to the Air Force eight-yard line on its first possession, settling for Craig Hentrich’s 28-yard field goal after Mirer overthrew Levens in the end zone.

The Falcons’ third drive brought them to the Notre Dame 49, where Mihalko blocked his second Christ punt and Rod Smith recovered for Notre Dame at the Air Force 48. Levens rushed five yards for his second touchdown in the following drive that included a 19-yard run by Rodney Culver to the Air Force six.