CHARLESTON, W.Va. – On a field that was soaked by consistent rain throughout the day, Notre Dame College held on to win a low scoring contest, 17-12 against the University of Charleston on Saturday afternoon as senior Claudy Mathieu led the defense and broke program record in sacks in a game and tackles for a loss in a game while junior Brian Walker rushed for over 100 yards.

The Falcons (7-2, 7-2 MEC) have held their opponents to 20 points, or less in six consecutive games. NDC has now won back-to-back games against UC. The Golden Eagles (3-6, 3-6) have lost four games by five points, or less, this season.

"It's coming up on November in the Midwest but that's the most rain that we've had since I've been here as a coach, at least during a game," head coach Mike Jacobs said, when talking about the weather. "I thought our kids did a nice job of protecting the ball and neither team had a turnover. I think it certainly effected how much people were passing, but all in all, we handled it pretty well."

Notre Dame scored the first points of the contest. After two short rushes from Walker, senior Malik Grove dropped back to pass and the play broke down when nobody broke free downfield. Senior Darius Johnson continued running, found an opening in the defense and Grove launched a pass down the sideline that found its way into the hands of Johnson who scored on a 75 yard touchdown.

On Charleston's first drive, starting quarterback Mason Olszewski ran for 10 yards but was hit hard at the end of the play. He left the game with an injury and Brant Grisel entered the game. Grisel completed five passes on the drive and had help from a Notre Dame pass interference. Dylan Miles hit a 28 yard field goal with 7:25 remaining in the first quarter.

Near the end of the first quarter, Walker ran the ball a couple times for NDC before Grove threw a long pass near the sideline to sophomore Marvelle Ross who was taken down at Charleston's six yard line. One play later Grove used a quick pass to find Ross for a touchdown in the middle of the end zone with 14:34 remaining in the second quarter.

"I think as much as we've run the ball over the course of the season, and certainly the last few weeks, we were able to get through the coverage a little bit today," Jacobs said. "On the first drive, the big play to Darius was huge for us to get us off on the right foot, especially on a bad weather day and then Marvelle had a spectacular catch over there on the sideline and then finished it off with a catch in the endzone. I'm really proud of the wide receivers, that's a group that I personally challenged after last week's game and I thought they came out and played pretty well today."

During the final two possessions of the first quarter and the first drive of the second quarter, Notre Dame's defense caused the Golden Eagles to punt each time between the 5:39 mark in the first quarter and 11:43 mark in the second quarter. On UC's second drive of the game, Grisel was hit by sophomore Curtis Collins in the backfield and had to leave the game. Colar Kuhns replaced him.

"Our rotation of defensive linemen and our linebackers did a nice job," Jacobs said, of his defense today. "Clarence Theophile came in and played quite a bit in the second half along with RJ Goodwin. I thought top to bottom we played a tough game. We gave up a few more rushing yards then I would have liked, but really if you take that one big run away, we did a pretty good job of bottling them up with the number of times they rushed the football. All in all, I'm extremely happy with how the defense played and really proud of them."

"I felt great and I'm happy that the defense responded," said Mathieu when talking about his teammates on the defensive side. "The D-line, linebackers, secondary, we just all gave our full effort"

At the half, NDC led Charleston 14-3. The Falcons did not have a net rushing yard and only had 142 yards of total offense. They did, however, convert on 50 percent of possible third down conversions. Mathieu had six tackles and two sacks at the break.

On the first drive of the second half, the University of Charleston used the ground game with Tevion Cappe gaining 11 yards and Vernard Roberts rushing for 16 yards. Kuhns had an 11 yard pass completed to D'Andre Brooks and also rushed for four yards, setting up a field goal with 10:29 remaining in the third quarter.

Leading 14-6, the Falcons got a 15 yard run from Brian Walker but could not convert another first down on the drive and had to punt the ball away.

On Charleston's next possession, Kuhns was sacked by Mathieu to start the drive, but then Bryce Hankins grabbed the hand off on the next play and found the edge, working his way to the sideline and winning the foot race with NDC's defense for a 76 yard touchdown. Down 14-12, the Golden Eagles could not convert on the two point conversion.

The final points of the game came on a Notre Dame drive that began near the end of the third quarter and ended in the fourth and was highlighted by a 34 yard run by Walker. With 14:55 remaining in the fourth quarter, NDC took a 17-12 advantage on a 31 yard field goal by redshirt-freshman Tanner Harding.

Walker had a season high 22 attempts on the ground today. He said it did not really change anything for him, but did help him get into more of a rhythm.

 "I felt good, they ran a similar defense that we played against West Virginia State," Walker mentioned. "There were a lot of holes backside, I saw it and the offensive line opened up a lot of holes and I was just doing my job."

Grove went 12-for-17 and threw for 194 yards and two touchdowns while Ross caught five passes for 59 yards. Johnson caught two passes for 79 yards. Walker ran for 107 yards on but Notre Dame ended the game with just 88 net rushing yards because of the tackles for a loss caused by Charleston's tough defense. Collins had nine tackles and freshman Alex Zelch added eight tackles. Mathieu had 15 tackles, four sacks and six tackles for a loss. The number of times Mathieu got to the quarterback, broke a program record of 3.5 sacks in one game that was set in 2014. Mathieu's tackles for a loss broke his own program record of 5.5 set in 2016.

When asked if he felt like it was his best performance of the season on the field, the senior from Philadelphia, Pa. said, definitely.

"This is probably my best game ever," he said. "I just want to thank God and I owe it to my team and coaches for putting me in the right position to be there."

Defensive coordinator Joe Staab said Mathieu's game was one of the best defensive performances that he has ever seen.

Roberts rushed for 63 yards for Charleston and Cappe rushed for 61 yards. Four players on UC's defense had double-digit tackles. Khazin Daniels had 10 tackles and three sacks and four tackles for a loss. Jalen Nelson had 11 tackles.

Notre Dame will come home for Senior Day on November 4 as they will play the University of Virginia's College at Wise on Mueller Field. The game is scheduled to kick off at 12 p.m.