Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Notre Dame's Chris Frome grabs the facemask while sacking Penn State quarterback Anthony Morelli in the first half yesterday. Click photo for larger image. Next Opponent Team: Youngstown State Record: 2-0 Rank: Division I-AA Yesterday: Def. Maine, 34-14 Coach: Jon Heacock, 34-24 in sixth season Points for: 85 Points against: 35 Series: First meeting Comment: The Penguins are a member of the Gateway Conference. ... Heacock succeeded Jim Tressel, who left to coach Ohio State. ... The Penguins have 53 seniors and juniors on the roster. ... One of those upperclassmen, Marcus Mason, rushed for 108 and 107 yards in the first two games. Mason comes off a season in which he ran for 892 yards (5.1 ypc). ... The Penguins played Pitt in 2005. Related articles PSU Football Notebook: Morelli bad option for PSU's running game Collier: For Lions, it was a weeklong exercise in dropping things Big Ten Roundup: Purdue overcomes in OT, 38-31

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- As if playing against the No. 4 team in the nation at its stadium was not enough of a challenge, Penn State made its game against Notre Dame an uphill battle by making mistake after mistake after mistake.

Fumbles, dropped interceptions, bad decision-making. You name it, and Penn State pretty much did it yesterday against the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame capitalized on Penn State's miscues and embarrassed the Lions, 41-17, before 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium.

Every time Penn State (1-1) screwed up, Notre Dame (2-0) took advantage.

The Lions blew chance after chance in the first half to stay in the game. In the first 20 minutes alone, Penn State mishandled a snap on a field goal, fumbled in Notre Dame territory, dropped two interceptions and failed to jump on a fumbled punt deep in Notre Dame's end of the field.

After all but one of those miscues, Notre Dame scored points.

"There were so many things we could have done to help ourselves, and we just didn't do them," senior linebacker Paul Posluszny said.

Penn State could not overcome its mistakes on defense or offense. The Lions ventured into Notre Dame territory three times in the first half and came away with no points. The Lions botched a field-goal attempt for the second consecutive game, preventing them from tying the score on their first possession.

Later, Penn State was driving again when Tony Hunt fumbled at the Notre Dame 46. That led to Notre Dame's second field goal and 6-0 advantage.

Notre Dame went ahead, 13-0, after Penn State failed to recover a punt at the Notre Dame 25.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," quarterback Anthony Morelli said. "We can't do that if we want to win big games like this."

Perhaps the biggest play happened on Penn State's next series. The Nittany Lions were at midfield, and Morelli tossed a screen pass to Hunt, who ran inside the Notre Dame 25. The play, however, was called back on a clipping penalty by center A.Q. Shipley.

Instead of going in and possibly making it a one-score game, the Lions punted. Notre Dame capitalized on Penn State's misfortune and scored again to make it 20-0 at halftime.

"It was right in front of me, and I didn't think it was a clip," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "But I wasn't able to convince the guy in the striped shirt that it wasn't."

"I felt like I did get my head in front," Shipley said. "A couple of the guys on the sideline said I didn't even touch him. Even the coaches were saying we got screwed on that one."

It didn't help matters that the Penn State defense, expected to be the strength of this team, was exposed by Brady Quinn and Notre Dame's offense. Quinn picked apart Penn State's inexperienced secondary, throwing for 287 yards and three touchdowns.

"We didn't do a great job of covering them," Posluszny said. "We just seemed to be a step behind them."

Four Notre Dame receivers had 56 or more yards receiving. Irish coach Charlie Weis opened the game with a no-huddle offense and continued to keep the pressure on Penn State's defenders all game with quick play-calling.

"We were really tired there at the end of the first half," Paterno said. "They kept coming at us with a good pace."

Quinn broke the game open late in the first half with two touchdown passes in the final four minutes. All-American receiver Jeff Samardzija caught a 7-yard pass from Quinn with 3:58 remaining. Then, with seven seconds remaining, Quinn tossed a 10-yard scoring pass to Rhema McKnight.

"He's a great quarterback," defensive lineman Jay Alford said. "He got out of a lot of pressure."

Notre Dame put the game away on third play of the second half. Tom Zbikowski scooped up a fumble and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown after a Morelli option play went awry.

"I thought we had a chance until we screwed it up real quick in the third quarter," Paterno said.

Penn State's points came via a Kevin Kelly 28-yard field goal and late touchdowns from receiver Deon Butler and backup quarterback Darryl Clark.

Penn State moved the ball well throughout the game, amassing 383 yards and 25 first downs, three more than Notre Dame. Morelli was 21 for 33 for 189 yards with one touchdown and one interception. And the running game, which struggled so much last week in the opener against Akron, came alive. The Lions gained 158 yards on the ground, 74 from running back Tony Hunt.

"We thought we could run the ball a little bit," Paterno said. "We moved the ball fairly well in the first half. We just couldn't finish anything off.

"Notre Dame played very well, and I thought did a great job of coaching. They outplayed us. We made too many mistakes. We were sloppy."