Box Score
LYNDHURST, Ohio -- The first meeting between Notre Dame and Lake Erie was a memorable one, as the Falcons and Storm traded scores throughout 60 minutes or big plays and momentum shifts.  The final tally on the scoreboard spelled a 38-35 victory for Lake Erie in the Saturday night Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tilt.

For Notre Dame (1-5, 0-5 GLIAC), the loss came in front of 1,500-plus fans in what marked the program's Homecoming Game.  NDC was a minus-3 in turnover margin, negating an impressive performance by its offense.  Falcon quarterback Ray Russ went 26-of-41 for 306 yards and three touchdowns, and he directed an offensive squad that went a combined 14-of-18 on third- and fourth-down conversions.

Lake Erie (1-5, 1-4) earned its first victory of the 2012 season with the three-point win in the 73-point slugfest.  The Storm rushed for 353 yards in the game, and quarterback Patrick Nicely ran in a 13-yard TD late in the fourth quarter to lift LEC to the win.

Running back Anthony Bilal led that Storm rushing attack -- he rushed for 192 yards and two touchdowns.

Russ led an NDC attack that produced 27 first downs and 432 total yards in the loss.

The first meeting between the two relatively new football programs produced a game with five tying-or-lead-changing scores.

Lake Erie got on the board first when the Storm pulled off a nifty fake punt with a bolt up the middle by upback Tanner Wells, who weaved his way through the NDC defense all the way into the end zone.  The 48-yard play gave LEC a 7-0 lead and a big momentum lift at the outset.

Notre Dame tied the game with a 6-yard Ray Russ-to-Mikhail Morgan pass with 17 seconds remaining in the first quarter. 

Lake Erie running back Anthony Bilal darted to paydirt from 58 yards out to put LEC up, 14-7, on the final play of the first quarter.  Then early in the second, Lake Erie scored again when Bilal banged his way to six from 14 yards out. 
The Falcons scored a TD with 1:12 left in the half, when Russ found Colton Wallace in front of an LEC defender in the end zone.  That brought Notre Dame to within seven, at 21-14.  Lake Erie quickly marched down the field after that score and came away with a 47-yard field goal by Sam Marcotte before the half ended.  So, LEC went into the break with a 24-14 advantage on the Korb Field scoreboard.

For the Falcons, the second half started with an impressive 13-play, five-minute-and 17-second drive resulting in a 2-yard TD run by Pedro Powell.  That cut the Storm edge to three points (24-21).

Three-and-a half minutes later Ray Russ caught Colton Wallace in stride 40 yards downfield on a beautiful pass up the middle of the gridiron.  The pass-and-catch resulted in a 52-yard TD and a 28-24 Falcon lead.

That lead would only last until the first play of the fourth quarter, when LEC quarterback Patrick Nicely threaded a short TD pass to Cole Gordon.

In a game that had long since turned into a boxing match with both fighters exchanging blows, Notre Dame was the next to counter-punch.  That punch came in the form of an 82 yard drive by an increasingly emboldened Falcon offense.  The drive was capped off by a Ray Russ 10-yard scamper to paydirt.  Russ' first career rushing touchdown catapulted NDC back into the lead, 35-31.

Lake Erie would score last, however, in a game that seemed to call for a “last score wins” ending.  The Storm put together a 12-play, 66-yard, five-minute-and 25-second drive that culminated with Patrick Nicely's 13-yard TD run at the 6:41-mark.  Notre Dame was unable to answer one final time, resulting in a second straight loss by a close margin.  NDC fell at Findlay, 43-42, on Sept. 29.

The Falcons' five straight losses tie the program's longest losing streak (2010).