Box Score SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va.—The Notre Dame Falcons fell to the No. 16 Shepherd Rams on Saturday afternoon, in a 43-14 setback at Ram Stadium. .
For the Falcons (1-3, 1-2 MEC) the loss was their fifth straight on the road, while the win for the Rams (4-0, 4-0 MEC) the win was their fourth in a row this season, and they are now 22-2 at home since 2011.
Notre Dame went toe-to-toe with the Rams in the early stages of the contest. After holding the Rams to just a field goal after they had a first and goal situation on their second drive of the game, Notre Dame put an eight play, 77-yard drive together, which resulted in a five-yard touchdown rush from
DJ Greene to give NDC a 7-3 lead with 5:13 left in the opening quarter.
Shepherd's CJ Davis returned the ensuing kickoff all the way back to the NDC three yard line, and on third and goal, Jabre Lolley ran it in from one yard out to give the Rams a 10-7 edge with 3:31 left in the first.
The Rams settled for three again on a 26-yard field goal from Ryan Earls at the 10:47 mark in the second quarter, and scored a pair of touchdowns through the air to cap a big second quarter. Dalton Boyd caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Ziemba with 3:41 remaining in the half, and on their next drive, Ziemba found Angelo Jean-Louis on a 77-yard scoring strike to make it 27-7 Rams at the half.
For the second time in the game, the Rams had it first and goal inside the five, but had to settle for three as Earls hit another field goal, this one from 34 yards out to give the Rams a 30-7 advantage.
Lolley scored his second touchdown of the day, a 63-yard rush to paydirt at the end of the third quarter to give the Rams a 36-7 lead, and they scored one final time, on a 71-yard touchdown pass from Conner Jessop to Ty Hollingsworth.
Notre Dame scored one final time at the 6:32 mark in the fourth quarter. On a fourth and five,
Malik Grove ran it in from 25-yards out for NDC's second rushing touchdown of the day.
Grove paced the Falcons on the ground, with his second 100-yard rushing performance of the season. He ran for 103 yards on 13 carries, while the Falcons ran for 178 yards on the day, against a defense that was surrendering just over 66 yards per game coming in.
Through the air, Grove completed 34-of-54 passes for 208 yards and was sacked for the first time this season, and did not throw a pick. A pair of Falcons had double digit receptions.
Mitchell Shegos caught 13 passes for 52 yards while
Emmanuel Smith caught 10 passes for 65 yards.
Notre Dame had three sacks on the day, as
Keonte Chambers,
Claudy Mathieu and
Tyson Jackson all had sacks.
Cedric Hill led the way with eight tackles.
The Falcons are in action again on Saturday, Oct. 3, for home coming, as they return home for another MEC battle with Glenville State. Kickoff is scheduled for Noon.
