Box Score
CANTON, Ohio -- The Notre Dame Falcons defeated the Malone Pioneers, 36-19 on a rainy day at Fawcett Stadium to earn their first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

The Falcons (2-7, 1-7 GLIAC) scored 30 second-half points and overcame early turnover problems and a 16-0 deficit to bounce back and win the game, snapping a seven-game losing streak.

For Malone (1-7, 1-7) the loss marked its fourth in a row,

NDC had a plethora of offensive stars on Saturday. After reaching the 3,000-yard milestone for career rushing yards, running back Pedro Powell went on to have a monster game for the Falcons.  Powell rambled his way to a program-record 245 yards on 35 carries.   His running set up an NDC passing game that produced five touchdowns on the day.

Sophomore quarterback Ray Russ tossed all five of those aerial scores en route to a 21-of-30, 265-yard afternoon.  Russ found fellow sophomore Colton Wallace in the end zone three times.

The Falcons' offense rebounded from four first-half turnovers to gain 539 yards of total offense in the game, their best offensive production since Sept. 6.

The NDC defense was also productive. The unit that came into the game ranked 153 in points allowed (49.3 points per game) yielded a season-low 19 points in the contest.  The 16-point deficit overcome by the Falcons marks the largest comeback win in school history.

Notre Dame fumbled on its first possession of the afternoon, and Malone answered with a 68-yard touchdown drive capped off by a Will Szpor TD pass to Josh McLaughlin.  That would be the lone score in a first quarter that included three NDC giveaways (two fumbles, interception).

In the second quarter, the Pioneers upped their lead to 9-0 when a blocked punt went out the back of the end zone resulting in a safety.  In series before and after that special-teams score, the Falcon offense scuffled, to the tune of back-to-back three-and-outs and a fourth giveaway (an interception at the 3:54-mark in the second quarter).

That interception, Ray Russ' 14th of the season, led to another scoring drive for the host Pioneers, who went up, 16-0, on a 38-yard Szpor-to-Justin McLean pass play.

NDC then got a key score, stemming the momentum that Malone had built throughout the first half.  That score came in the form of a Russ TD pass, with Colton Wallace on the receiving end.  The Falcons went for two and failed, but they went into halftime trailing, 16-6, instead of 16-0.

Russ and Wallace hooked up two more times in the third quarter, a 15-minute frame that saw the Falcons outscore the Pioneers, 13-0, to take a 19-16 lead.  In that third quarter, Notre Dame outgained Malone, 173 yards to 47.

Russ threw his fourth TD pass of the game early in the fourth -- a 5-yarder to Danny LaRosa -- and that put the Falcons up, 26-16.  Malone countered on its next drive when kicker Jake Hardy slipped a 47-yard field goal over the crossbar and between the uprights.  At the 4:30-mark, Jordan Colson booted a 20-yard field goal to negate that score.  And then Russ threaded a 7-yard touchdown pass to Ray J. Brown to tie his own single-game, five-TD program record and ice the game, 36-19.

Not present on the list of scores was Pedro Powell, but the powerful Falcon back and solid blocking up front was responsible for big chunks of yards leading to Notre Dame's five TDs through the air.  Powell had seven runs of 10 yards or more, including runs of 39 and 42 yards, en route to breaking his own single-game program record (243 yards vs. Mercyhurst, Aug. 30).  The 245-yard performance on Saturday marked the fourth 200-yard game of Powell's career.  As a team, NDC rushed for 274 yards, its most in a single game since Sept. 6.

With his five TD passes on Saturday, Ray Russ has tossed 20 TDs this season.  Colton Wallace has grabbed the lion's share of those passes to paydirt; he has now caught 12 TDs on the year.

The Notre Dame defense pitched five three-and-outs in the contest, and the Falcons came up with three of those stops in succession early in the third quarter when NDC was wresting away momentum from the home side.

Individually, Michael Lanigan and Josh Remark had big games for the Falcon defense, a crew that held the Pioneers to a 5-of-21 mark on third- and fourth-down conversions.  Lanigan registered a game-high 12 tackles, including a sack, and Remark stuffed the stat sheet with 11 tackles, two sacks and a pass deflection.  For the game, NDC held Malone to just 298 total yards.  That marks the fewest yards allowed by the Falcons since Oct. 15, 2011.

The end result was Notre Dame putting to an end to the program's longest winning streak.  And doing so with outstanding performances across the board, in all phases of the game.