Notre Dame defeated Wake Forest 45-7 on Saturday night in South Bend.

It was an impressive performance on senior night for the Fighting Irish. Quarterback Sam Hartman threw 4 touchdown passes in the game as he faced off against the program where he spent the first part of his college career.

Audric Estime also rushed for 115 yards on the day, giving him over 1,000 on the season.

Here are 3 takeaways from Notre Dame’s big win:

Sam Hartman’s impressive night

Hartman threw 4 touchdown passes, which was enough to climb over a trio of college football legends on the all-time touchdown passes leaderboard. He is now alone in fourth place in college football history with 132 touchdown passes in his career.

It was a strong performance from Hartman as he was facing his former program. Hartman greeted numerous former teammates and coaches in the field in pre-game. He finished the night with 277 yards on 29 attempts.

Elite defensive performance

Wake Forest’s offense has struggled virtually all season, but Notre Dame did its part to make sure that trend continued on Saturday night. The Demon Deacons averaged just 4.1 yards per play.

Michael Kern, who was named the starting quarterback earlier this week, completed just 11-of-20 passes for 81 yards. Wake Forest’s running game averaged only 3.7 yards per attempt.

Notre Dame’s defense was also credited with 6 tackles for loss and 3 sacks.

Looking ahead

Notre Dame is now just one win away from a 9-3 regular season. The Irish will face Stanford next weekend in their regular season finale.

If Notre Dame can beat the Cardinal, it will go into bowl season needing just one win to clinch a 10-win campaign. The Fighting Irish have not had a double-digit win season during the Marcus Freeman era.

Kickoff vs. Stanford is at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.