Box Score
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- The Notre Dame Falcons forced five turnovers on Saturday afternoon at Mueller Field, and came away with a homecoming victory, in a 59-35 decision over Virginia-Wise.

The Falcons (3-2, 2-2 MEC) remain unbeaten at home with the victory, and are out to their second 3-2 start in the history of the program, while the loss for the Cavaliers (0-5, 0-3), was their sixth in a row, dating back to last season.

It was a game of runs on both sides, as the Falcons stormed out to a 31-0 lead early on, but the Cavaliers scored the next 21 points of the contest, and found themselves behind, 31-21, in the third quarter, before the Falcons caught fire again and ran off three straight touchdowns to pull away.

Pedro Powell had a huge game for Notre Dame.  He ran for 214 yards and a trio of scores, and he did a lot of his damage in the first quarter where he ran for 102 of those yards on 11 carries.  A bulk of those yards came on his first carry of the day.  The Falcons went for it on fourth and short, and Powell ran 66-yards to paydirt, giving the Falcons a 7-0 lead.

The next Virginia-Wise drive resulted in a fumbled punt on the snap, and the Falcons capitalized a few plays later on a 22-yard field goal from Jake Suder. 

After forcing another three-and-out, Notre Dame responded with a seven play drive, that was capped by a 17-yard touchdown pass from Ray Russ to Colton Wallace.  The Falcons forced a third consecutive three and out on the ensuing drive, and then put a 13-play, 59-yard drive together, which concluded with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Russ to Mitchell Shegos, giving the Falcons a 24-0 lead. 

Two plays later, NDC forced another fumble, which was recovered by Bo Grunder and taken back to the 20 yard line.  Powell then found the end zone shortly thereafter on a 20-yard touchdown rush, his second of the game.

The Cavaliers battled back into the contest, on the strength of wide receiver James Long, who caught 16 passes for four touchdowns, and 268 yards.  He was on the receiving end of all three touchdowns during UVA-Wise's 21-0 run from the second-third quarter. 

The Cavaliers trailed the Falcons, 31-21, with 11:58 to play in the third, when the Falcons got hot again, and put the game away with three scores.

Russ threw his third of four touchdown passes on the day at the 9:01-mark in the third quarter ,finding Mikhail Morgan on a 20-yard strike to give the Falcons a 38-21 advantage. 

Michael Fields, who had a big day in the return game, made his presence felt defensively as well, as he picked off a pass near midfield and returned it 40 yards, setting up Powell's eight-yard touchdown rush, his third of the day. 

The tandem of Russ and Morgan worked its magic again, as the two hooked up for a second score, when Russ found Morgan on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 12:05 to play.

Fields put the game away for the Falcons when he returned a punt, 69-yards for a touchdown with just under 10 minutes remaining in the contest.  It was his second punt return for a touchdown this season. 

The big day for Powell, puts him over 4,000 career rushing yards.  Powell has rushed for 414 yards and three touchdowns over the last two weeks.  Morgan has caught four touchdown passes during that same stretch for the Falcons, and was NDC's leading receiver on the day, hauling in seven passes for 71 yards.  Russ had another huge day in the NDC passing game, completing 21-of-35 passes for 183 yards and four scores. 

The 59 points scored for the Falcons tied a program record, set back on opening night in 2012, when the Falcons beat Mercyhurst, 59-42, at Korb Field.

The Falcons are in action again when they square off against Lake Erie College on Saturday, Oct. 12.  The contest is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff.