INSTITUTE, W.Va. –  On a very warm Saturday afternoon, Notre Dame College defeated West Virginia State University 47-35 as DJ Greene broke the NDC single game record for rushing yards.

The Falcons (2-1, 2-1 MEC) improve to 4-1 over the Yellow Jackets, all-time. Today represented Notre Dame's first win in Institute since 2013. WVSU's (1-2, 1-2) defense allowed more than 34 points for the first time all season and lost to a conference opponent at home for the first time since October 15, 2016 when they fell to Shepherd.

The Yellow Jackets started the contest by using the passing game to get down the field. The first two plays involved the quarterback Matt Kinnick throwing for a seven yard reception followed by an eight yard pass that was caught. After Calil Wilkins rushed for three yards and Kinnick rushed for four yards, the Jackets turned their attention back to the air. The 11 play, 74 yard drive culminated with an 11 yard pass to Wilkins in the end zone, giving the home team a 7-0 lead. Kinnick found five different teammates to throw to during the drive.

The Falcons responded with junior running back DJ Greene and senior quarterback Malik Grove using their legs to get down the field. Grove only threw the ball twice, two completions to Marvelle Ross, on the opening drive for the Falcons. Junior running back Brian Walker finished the deal as he ran four yards to pay dirt, putting the Falcons on the scoreboard. However, redshirt-freshman kicker Tanner Harding missed the extra point.

Notre Dame's defense then came up big, getting the ball right back to the offense after redshirt-freshman defensive back Jeffrey Thomas came up with an interception, the first of his career, as he fell to the ground with 2:14 remaining in the first quarter.

After the game, Thomas described the play that led to his interception.

"I read it well," Thomas said. "It looked like the receiver and the quarterback had some miscommunication but he still threw the ball, so I just went up for it and got it."

After the Falcons had to punt the ball away, Kinnick came through, leading the Yellow Jackets back down the field and running it in himself for a touchdown. But the Falcons offense responded and worked themselves right back into the end zone on their third drive with 10 rushing plays for 67 yards by Grove, Green and Walker. The Falcons quarterback dashed into the end zone for a 12 yard score at the 8:03-mark in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to one point, 14-13 after the extra point.

The momentum started to turn in the Falcons favor toward the end of the first half. Down 17-13 following a Yellow Jackets field goal, NDC used a 10 yard run by Walker which was sandwiched between a 26 yard run and a 10 yard touchdown run by Greene to grab their first lead of the game, 20-17.

Notre Dame added on quickly as Keshun Horton scooped up a Yellow Jackets fumble and took it to the West Virginia State two yard line. Less than 15 seconds after his first touchdown of the game, Greene touched pay dirt again, putting the Falcons up, 26-17.

After the game Greene wanted to shout out the offensive line that helped him gain positive yards on the ground.

"Thank my linemen," he mentioned. "They were up here all summer working out so at the end of the day, I have to thank them for creating the big holes for me."

Aaron Ball put his second field goal through the uprights before the end of the half and at the break, NDC led, 26-20. In the first half, Greene had 95 yards rushing and Grove had 87 yards on the ground. For West Virginia State, Kinnick had 207 yards passing and Quinton Gray caught seven passes for 75 yards.

Notre Dame received the second half kickoff and Marvelle Ross was able to bring back the return 23 yards to put the Falcons in very good field position. The "DJ Greene Show" continued in the second half as he put six more points on the board with a 58 yard run on the first play of the drive.

Both teams then went three and out, WVSU did so twice, before Notre Dame scored with 7:39 remaining in the third quarter. Grove ran into the end zone and Harding tacked on the extra point to put the Falcons up 40-20, which would end up being their largest lead of the game.

The Yellow Jackets did not go away and scored on the next drive. The offense went back to the passing game with 12 of the 14 plays in the drive coming through the air. A Dionta Brown run with 1:57 in the third quarter made it a 40-27 game.

NDC struck again before the fourth quarter and took advantage of a 15 yard penalty. Greene followed the penalty with a 65 yard touchdown run.

The only score in the fourth quarter came when Kinnick completed a 25 yard touchdown pass to Gray with 13:50 remaining. The extra point attempt was tipped up in the air by the Falcons but the Yellow Jackets lineman, Rhidzo Breidel picked the ball up in the endzone for an unconventional two-point conversion, making the WVSU deficit just 12 points, 47-35.

Notre Dame rushed for 433 yards today. Greene (286 yards) broke Grove's single game rushing record, which was 251 yards, and was done back in 2015. Greene also had four touchdowns. Grove had 96 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns and 38 passing yards. Senior defensive end Claudy Mathieu recorded two sacks in the game. Thomas and freshman linebacker Guam Lee led the team with eight tackles, each.

"We got a new running backs coach (this year) and he changed up our footwork," Greene said after the game. "It just took me a minute to slow things down and get used to the footwork but it's coming along well. And plus I have a great offensive line. Like I said, they've been up here all summer and hard work pays off."

Head coach Mike Jacobs also talked about Greene's big game, and said, "The biggest thing is you talk about the offensive line and we felt that, throughout the week, what they were doing would give us a chance to run the football pretty well today. What I think was great about DJ today was that you saw him break the first level and then yards after contact in the second or third level and finish runs in the end zone. The best thing was that he protected the football better than he protected it in the last year. I was really happy. He's a guy that has worked really hard and it was good to see him get back on track this week."

For West Virginia State, Kinnick threw for 372 yards (38-for-52) and two touchdowns. He also ran for 12 yards and had a rushing TD. Wilkins, who came into the game with 392 yards over two games, ran for just 49 yards on Saturday. Gray led the team in receptions with 12 and receiving yards with 123 yards along and had a touchdown. Moises Valcarcel and Darius Goode led the team with nine tackles, each.

"I felt like we did a pretty good job," Jacobs said, when talking about the defense going up against the Yellow Jackets offense. "Again, I'm ok with these chunks of yardage because that's just the way that college football is right now. We talk about points per possession and what was really great to see was that they stood tall late in the game and made a couple big stops. That's encouraging because that's something that we can build on. We generated a bunch of turnovers today, at least had the ball on the ground and I think we recovered two of them. We were physical today and that was great to see in all three phases of the game."

The Falcons will come home to play Concord University on Mueller Field next Saturday, September 23. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 12 p.m. and will represent the Homecoming Game on Notre Dame's campus.