INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Notre Dame College and No. 6 University of Indianapolis combined for 971 yards of total offense and 69 total points as UIndy defeats the Falcons 42-27 on a cold Saturday afternoon.
NDC (8-3) ends their second consecutive regular season with eight, or more, victories. The Falcons were able to get on the board first (7-0) with a long drive that included 10 rushing plays and three completed passes. The drive went 75 yards in 16 plays and took 4:27 off of the clock.
"I was excited about the way our guys prepared for this game, as much as anything," head coach
Mike Jacobs said. "In our minds, we treated this like a playoff opportunity. You're on the road against an uncommon opponent and a team that's really good."
Indianapolis (11-0), a team that has their first perfect regular season record since 1953, came right back and tied the game on a drive that was highlighted by three big passing plays. The Greyhounds quarterback Jake Purichia threw a 24 yard pass to Malik Higgins on third and three to go, followed by a 31-yard strike to Garrett Willis, pushing UIndy to NDC's 46 yard line. The drive ended with an 11-yard touchdown to Willis, tying the score at seven.
After a punt by Notre Dame, Purichia used two long passes to Aaron Matio, one for 16 yards and the other for 36 yards and a touchdown. Indianapolis to their first lead of the game at the 6:33-mark in the first quarter.
The see-saw battle raged on as Notre Dame tied the game in 51-seconds. Senior
Malik Grove matched his counterpart by slinging three long passes. Starting on his own one yard line, Grove's first pass went to senior
Darius Johnson for 17 yards. Following a five yard run by junior
Brian Walker, Grove dropped back to pass again. This time, everyone was covered initially and Grove rolled out to the left. He threw the ball deep down the field and found sophomore
Conner Henry who started running as Grove rolled out. The play gave NDC, 52 yards and set up the next play, which was a 25-yard touchdown pass to
Darius Johnson with 5:35 to play in the quarter.
Neither team scored again in the first quarter, but the Greyhounds began a drive at the end of the first quarter and nearly finished it in the second. On Notre Dame's 20 yard line, Tyre Lee ran for a two yard gain and then a five yard gain. Lee then rushed for eight yards but the ball popped out, forced by freshman
Davionn Johnson and recovered by sophomore
Curtis Collins at the NDC one yard line.
After Notre Dame punted the ball away, UIndy snatched the lead again on their next drive. A 59-yard drive was capped by a four yard touchdown pass to Higgins with 8:06 to go in the first half.
Leading 21-14, the Greyhounds got the ball again and scored on a drive that took four minutes and left only 58-seconds on the clock. A seven yard touchdown pass to Ryan Topper completed the drive.
UIndy received the ball to start the second half. During their drive, they were able to get 21 yards on the ground from Andrew Walker. Purichia did find his receivers on the drive, as well. He found Higgins on an 18-yard pass and then a 40-yard touchdown pass to go up 35-14 with 12:09 to go in the third quarter.
Toward the end of the third quarter, NDC put together a long drive, similar to their first drive of the game. The Falcons converted on three, third down opportunities, using
Brian Walker twice on the ground and then a jet sweep with
Markus Hood for three yards to convert. On first and goal at the UIndy five yard line, Grove was sacked for a three yard loss. But he was also hurt on the play. Backup quarterback
Cedric Lynch, a redshirt-freshman, entered the game as the fourth quarter started. A defensive pass interference call helped extend the drive.
Brian Walker then reached pay dirt on another third down conversion run. After a tipped extra point was no good, the Falcons trailed 35-20.
Notre Dame's defense held Indianapolis to four plays and a punt. NDC's offense went back to the air to get the ball down the field. Grove completed passes to
Darius Johnson (11 yards), junior
Tay Johnson (27 yards) and Henry (20 yards). A touchdown strike was then thrown to
Tay Johnson for 25 yards. The extra point cut the deficit to eight points, 35-27, with 9:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons defense then stopped the Greyhounds again and forced a punt. UIndy had converted on 45-percent of their third opportunities coming into the game. Down eight points, the Falcons were driving, using a pass to Walker, they were helped again by a pass interference on Mitch Dewitt of the Greyhounds defense. On third and four to go at the UIndy 43 yard line, Grove threw a deep pass to Lynch that was just out of his reach. The Falcons could not convert on fourth down, giving the ball back to the University of Indianapolis.
A 50-yard pass set up a seven yard rushing touchdown for the Greyhounds, who went ahead 42-27 with two minutes remaining. They would get the ball back on an interception in the end zone off of a lob pass intended for
Darius Johnson, sealing the game.
"We played a really good, undefeated UIndy team, it's the second top 10 team that we've played this season," said Jacobs. "It's kind of the book ends, one in the beginning of the year in Shepherd and one at the end of the year in UIndy. They have an extremely talented football team. They're disciplined and we knew we had very limited margin for error today and we came out and didn't make enough plays. They played really well, their quarterback is a really good player. I though Purichia and his timely passing and their third down efficiency were really the differences in the game."
Grove threw for 305 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 41 yards and a touchdown for NDC.
"I thought Malik did a great job prepping and today he took what they gave him on the outside and made some big plays with his feet scrambling," Jacobs said, when speaking about his quarterback. "What can you say about a guy who has done all that he's done for this program? Certainly, the quarterback with the most wins all-time in program history and he's a heck of a player."
Brian Walker had 58 rushing yards and a touchdown. Henry (102 yards) and
Darius Johnson (91 yards) both caught seven passes.
Tay Johnson caught four passes for 72 yards and a touchdown. NDC had four more first downs in the game than UIndy. Junior
RJ Goodwin had seven tackles and recorded only the sixth sack on Purichia, by any opponent this season.
Purichia went 22-for-31 with 348 yards and five touchdowns for UIndy. Lee had 121 yards on 18 carries and Andrew Walker rushed the ball 17 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. Four different receivers caught a pass for the Greyhounds, led by Higgins who had 197 yards and two touchdowns. The team had 546 yards of total offense.
"I thought we did a decent job," said Jacobs, about his defense. "We gave up a few too many yards but we knew they were a lot like us. They try to pound the football and use timely play action passing to rid of the ball quickly which is why they don't give up a ton of sacks and we saw more of that today. I always talk about not really caring about yardage as long as you buckle down in the red zone, but ultimately we gave up too many big plays in the pass game."
The defense was led by Joe Lambright who had 12 tackles and Jacob Schmatz who added 10 tackles and 2.5 sacks.
"I'm extremely proud and it's a huge privilege to be able to be the head coach of these guys. They work extremely hard for us and we ask a lot of them," Jacobs mentioned. "I'm certainly not ready for this to be the last game for the ninth team in Notre Dame College football history. I'd like to see these guys get a chance in the playoffs. We'll need a lot of help, but we'll see what happens. We'll see where it goes."
The Falcons were ranked eighth in Super Region One, according to the regional rankings that came out on November 6. The Falcons end the season with an 8-2 record in the region. Also, four teams lost on Saturday who were ahead of the Falcons in the rankings (No. 2 Assumption, No. 4 Findlay, No. 5 Slippery Rock and No. 6 West Chester).
