NOTRE DAME, Ind. — A pair of second half touchdowns helped the Gold team defeat the Blue 17-14 in the 82nd annual spring game at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday.

A crowd of 27,863 braved the elements, although many of them left at halftime, as Notre Dame wrapped up its spring practices.

On an afternoon that was supposed to highlight the Fighting Irish quarterbacks, a freshman defensive lineman was the center of attention throughout the contest.

Aaron Lynch, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound lineman from Cape Coral, Fla. grabbed everyone’s attention early and often. Lynch recorded seven tackles, including five in the opening quarter, which tied him for game-high.

Lynch also had 1.5 tackles for loss and consistently spent time in the Gold team’s backfield, knocking around sophomore-to-be quarterback Andrew Hendrix on more than one occasions.

But as impressed as most of the spectators and observers from the press box were with Lynch, second-year Irish coach Brian Kelly tried to downplay his impact.

“I’d like to give him credit for what he did, but it’s going to be a proccess with him,” Kelly said in the postgame press conference. “We’ve got to keep doing little things right with him in terms of where he’s playing.”

A steady rain may have kept the offenses from putting up bigger numbers on Saturday, as well as Kelly’s desire not to show off too much of that offense.

In the end, Hendrix ran for touchdowns of 15- and 10-yards to lead the Gold to the victory. In the other three points for the Gold team came on a 32-yard first quarter field goal by Kyle Brindza.

Hendrix threw for 113 yards on 10-16 passing.

The Blue’s only touchdown was a 15-yard pass from freshman Everett Golson to John Goodman with 5:54 remaining in the contest.

Nick Tausch kicked field goals of 22- and 45-yards in the first half as the Blue team took a 6-3 lead into the locker room.