BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – Notre Dame College technically needed one touchdown to defeat West Virginia Wesleyan College, as the defense put together the first shutout of the season, on Saturday. However, the Falcons got two punt return touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns to end the day with a 41-0 win.

West Virginia Wesleyan (1-7, 1-6 MEC) received the ball to start the game and immediately put themselves in a tough spot as the offense could not get their first play off before the play clock hit zero. After the delay of game penalty, the Bobcats only made up eight yards and sent Tyler Fischer out to punt.

Marvelle Ross caught the punt and froze as he waited for his blockers to create a hole. He ran straight and juked a few defenders. He worked to the right of the field and, once he got past the punter, was able to outlast everyone else to pay dirt.

After a three-and-out by West Virginia Wesleyan, NDC (8-0, 8-0 MEC) got the ball back and marched down the field for 51 yards in 2:25. During the drive, NDC kept the offense on the field once they reached a fourth-and-two. The Falcons put the ball into Nehemiah Brown's hands and he ran to the left side of the line and broke out for 20 yards before he went out of bounds. That set up a 20-yard touchdown pass from Chris Brimm to Markus Hood, who beat two defenders to the spot. Notre Dame led 13-0 with 9:05 to play in the first quarter.

The Falcons then caught everyone off guard with an onside kick. Tanner Harding kicked the ball, chased after it and then fell on the ball at the WVWC 48-yard line. However, Notre Dame could not get a first down and had to punt the ball.

With 13:30 remaining in the second quarter, Notre Dame began their drive at their own 12-yard line. NDC moved quickly down the field and their 88-yard touchdown drive ended with a 15-yard scamper by Jaleel McLaughlin. That touchdown was the freshman's 13th rushing TD of the season, which is a new NDC single-season record.

The drive was highlighted by an 18-yard catch by Markus Hood on third-and-10 and then an eight-yard rush by McLaughlin on a third-and-seven.

With NDC ahead 20-0, W.Va. Wesleyan put together one of their longest drives of the day. Matt Vinson completed four passes and got the Bobcats to the NDC 24-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs.

With 7:41 remaining in the third quarter, Notre Dame put seven more points on the scoreboard. The drive began with four consecutive runs by McLaughlin. Brimm connected with Ross on a 21-yard pass and catch, which set up Vasean Davis for a 47-yard touchdown run. Davis broke through the first line of defense and then turned on the jets to outrun the Bobcats' defense, giving Notre Dame a 27-0 lead.

After WVWC's drive stalled at their own 36-yard line in the fourth quarter, Fischer came on to punt and booted it to the NDC 26 yard line, where Ross again took the ball and somehow worked past every Bobcat on the field, with a lot of clean blocking by his teammates. Ross finished the contest with 176 punt return yards, breaking a single-game Notre Dame record, which was set by himself last season. The 176 yards also represents the most punt return yards in a game in NDC history.

"You can't say enough about Marvelle (Ross) and the weapon that he is in the return game," head coach Mike Jacobs said. "It doesn't take much to get him open in open space. He's hard to catch once he gets out there, so I thought he did a great job. We did a great job blocking and he finished plays. Huge for us to have 14 points with those special teams plays."

The Falcons got the ball back with 11:09 remaining and Micah Massey touched the ball five times, as the Falcons kept the ball on the ground for the most part during a 59-yard drive that lasted 4:05. Fittingly enough, Massey ran the ball in from two yards out, to give Notre Dame a 41-0 advantage. Massey's score marked the third different running back to score a touchdown in the game.

West Virginia Wesleyan punted the ball eight times in the game as they struggled to get the offense moving down the field. The Bobcats came into the game averaging 244.4 yards passing, which ranked second in the MEC, but collected just 200 yards through the air, today.

"I thought our defense played fantastic today," Jacobs mentioned. "We were able to force them into being one dimensional, we held them to minus five yards rushing. I thought our defensive line put pressure on them all day, which forced quick throws. Just really proud of the way those guys tackled and went about their business today."

"I think we really keyed in on doing our job and being sound," said Curtis Collins, who led the defense with six tackles. "In practice, we had a great scout look all week and they helped us to get good looks at passing routes and focused in on the small details."

The Falcons' ran 15 more plays than WVWC and the NDC offense totaled 263 more yards of total offense.

With the help of two sacks on the Bobcats' quarterback, Vinson, the NDC defense held West Virginia Wesleyan to negative five rush yards on 18 rushing attempts.

"I was proud of how we came together as a defense," Collins said. "We played sound, we did our jobs, everybody did their one/11th (11 players on the field) and we really came together and rallied to the ball and made plays like we're supposed to, to get the first shutout of the season."

On a day that Jacobs really stressed taking care of business, he was happy with how focused the team was, from the opening kick.

"They're really growing up as a unit," he said. "I'm really proud of how focused they've been the last few weeks, especially in practice. You have to take things one at a time and that's kind of our mantra, the 1-0 stuff. Anybody can get you in any week. To stay focused and do the little things, just to finish a game, I thought they did a great job today."

The Falcons put together 325 yards on the ground and Davis led the way with 128 yards rushing and an average of 14.2 yards-per-carry. Hood led the receiving corps with four catches of 51 yards and a TD. RJ Goodwin had two tackles-for-a-loss and a sack while Vincent Ellis had the other sack.

Jujuan Linzy led the Bobcats with nine catches and 72 yards. Robby Huddleston recorded 11 tackles, with nine of them being solo. Zechariah Johnson finished the game with five tackles, a sack and an interception.

The Falcons will come home to take on the University of Charleston on Senior Day, next Saturday, October 27. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.