The Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame has struggled so much this season that even a victory over Navy is cause for celebration.

D.J. Fitzpatrick kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give Notre Dame a 27-24 victory Saturday, extending the Irish's NCAA record for consecutive wins against one team to 40.

"I hope the celebration is just getting going," Irish coach Tyrone Willingham said. "We've been needing to get back into the winner's circle to get that feeling again, and now we can build on that into the next weekend."

The Irish (3-6) haven't had much to celebrate this season after getting off to their worst start since 1963. But the win keeps alive Notre Dame's hopes for finishing the season at .500. It also ended a three-game home losing streak - just the fifth such streak in school history - and avoided tying the school record of four straight home loses set in 1960.

Kyle Eckel scored on runs of 1 and 5 yards in the second half to give Navy (6-4) a chance at the upset, but the Midshipmen came up short just as they did last year and in 1999 and 1997.

"We felt like we had it won the whole game," Navy linebacker Eddie Carthan said. "We should have had it won. Every time they scored, we scored right back."

Navy called time out twice to try to freeze Fitzpatrick, but he made the kick even though safety Josh Smith said he got a hand on it.

"I got three fingers on it," Smith said. "I thought I had it when I tipped it. I didn't get all of it."

For Julius Jones it was the fourth straight 100-yard rushing game against Navy. His best run of the day came on a 48-yard run around the right end in the first quarter to open the scoring. His 12-yard TD run late in the third quarter put the Irish up 21-17.

"He's a good running back, but we had a lot of stops in the backfield," Carthan said. "We did not wrap up. He did not kill us as far as that; we killed ourselves."

Jones became just the fourth Irish back to run for 200 yards twice in one season.

Tony Lane, who had a 65-yard TD run, led Navy with 92 yards on 18 carries. QB Brady Quinn was 14-of-27 passing for 137 yards for the Irish, who had 417 yards total offense to just 284 for Navy.