Notre Dame’s Bettis Keeps Stanford at Bay, 42-26 : Fighting Irish: Running back scores four touchdowns to prevent the Cardinal from repeating last season’s upset.

Jerome Bettis ran for three touchdowns and caught a pass for another as No. 8 Notre Dame quashed any notion of an upset with a 42-26 victory over Stanford Saturday night.

The victory settled a year-old score for the Fighting Irish, toppled from a No. 1 ranking in 1990 when upset, 36-31, by Stanford at South Bend, Ind.

The Cardinal (1-3) had fought back to within 28-14 on Jason Palumbis’ two-yard sneak for a touchdown with 7:32 remaining in the third quarter.

But Bettis, a 5-foot-11, 250-pounder, caught a swing pass from Rick Mirer for a 13-yard score with 56 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Less than a minute later, he dived into the end zone from a yard out three plays after an interception of a Palumbis pass.

Steve Stenstrom replaced Palumbis at quarterback, leading the Cardinal on two fourth-quarter scoring drives, which ended in scoring runs of one and two yards by Tommy Vardell.

But it was not enough to overtake the Fighting Irish (4-1), who have averaged 46 points in their four victories.

Vardell, who scored four touchdowns against the Irish last year, had three touchdowns Saturday night.

Notre Dame took a 28-0 lead and led, 28-7, at halftime.

Mirer ran for one score and threw for another and Bettis, who had 179 yards in 24 carries, had two touchdown runs as the Irish ran over, around and through Stanford for 250 yards in the first half.

Bettis and Tony Brooks, whose second-quarter fumble preceded a Stanford touchdown, had 112 yards and 102 yards, respectively, in the half.

Stanford’s first score came on a 27-yard run by Vardell, who spun away from three defenders at the line of scrimmage and ran down the right sideline untouched the rest of the way.

Linebacker Demetrius DuBose recovered Palumbis’ fumbled snap at the Notre Dame 41 to set up the first of Bettis’ touchdown runs, a three-yarder.