Box Score
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame Falcons fell in another tightly contested battle on Saturday afternoon, as they lost at home to Fairmont State, 33-24. 

Notre Dame (3-6, 3-5 MEC) lost for the second time at home this season, while the victory for Fairmont State (6-3, 6-3 MEC) was their fifth in their last six games. 

The Falcons squandered a few opportunities to flip the script, as they forced four Fairmont State fumbles, but only recovered one of those, while they turned the ball over three times on the day. Fairmont State also kept the NDC defense on the field a ton, as they won the time of possession battle, 37:06-22:54. 

Notre Dame scored first, as they put an 11-play, 70 yard drive together on their second drive of the contest, and scored on DJ Greene's first of two touchdown rushes on the afternoon. Green ran it in from six yards out to give NDC a 7-0 lead with 5:34 left in the first quarter. 

Fairmont State responded quickly, as they scored less than 90 seconds later. They went 62 yards in four plays, and scored on a Cooper Hibbs touchdown pass to Brandon Boyd at the 4:06-mark in the first quarter. They then took advantage of terrific field position on their next drive, which started at the NDC 44 yard line. The drive ended on a Hibbs one-yard touchdown rush with 34 second left in the first quarter. 

Notre Dame responded with their longest play of the day, as Greene found the end zone again, this time on an 81-yard touchdown rush 13 seconds into the second quarter to tie the game at 14-14. The touchdown rush was his 11th of season, tying Pedro Powell's program record. 

Later in the second quarter, Greene fumbled inside the NDC 20-yard line, recovered by FSU and Fairmont State took advantage, as Austin White finished the drive on a three yard touchdown rush to put FSU back in front, 21-14 with 10:02 left in the half. 

Notre Dame then took over at their own three yard line on the ensuing kickoff, and marched 80 yards down the field, on a drive that resulted in a 35 yard field goal from Kyle Kaplan to bring them within four (21-17) with 6:42 left in the half. 

Fairmont State took over on the final drive of the half, which took the remaining six and a half minutes of the opening half, resulting in a 28 yard field goal from Johnny Dearstine, giving FSU a 24-17 lead. 

The Falcons forced FSU to punt on their opening drive of the second half, but on the ensuing punt, NDC took over at their own four yard line. On second down, Malik Grove threw a pass that was batted into the air back at Grove, which he caught, but then threw away while standing in the end zone, resulting in a penalty. The penalty was an illegal forward pass, and since the foul occurred inside the end zone, it resulted in a safety to give FSU a 26-17 lead. 

Marcus Porter picked off an NDC pass with just under 14 minutes left in the contest, and he returned it all the way back to the NDC five yard line. However, the NDC defense, which was called on a ton throughout the day, made a few huge stops, forcing FSU to attempt a 32 yard field goal, which was blocked. 

Both teams exchanged punts, before the Falcons put one last scoring drive together. Notre Dame scored with 5:18 to play, as Grove ran it in from three yards out to bring NDC within two (26-24). 

On Fairmont State's next drive, they picked up a few first downs and forced Notre Dame to burn all of their timeouts, and on a crucial third down and six situation with two minutes left, Hibbs found Devon Garnett on a 15 yard touchdown pass for the game's final score with 1:51 remaining. 

Notre Dame had one last shot, but on their last drive of the game, Grove threw an interception inside the FSU 20 yard line to end the game. 

Greene had another huge game for the Falcons offensively, as he ran for 157 yards and a pair of touchdowns, giving him five rushing touchdowns the last two weeks. Grove completed 13-of-28 passes for 176 yards and an interception. Mitchell Shegos was the top target in the passing game, hauling in six passes for 101 yards. 

The Notre Dame defense was led by Zach Chatlain, who registered a team high, 16 tackles. Claudy Mathieu had a big game as well with six tackles, including 1.5 sacks. 

Notre Dame is in action again next Saturday, Nov. 7, when they play their final road game of the season. They'll square off against Urbana, in Urbana, Ohio, and the contest is scheduled for a 12 p.m. kickoff.