SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Defense wins championships. The quote originated by Bear Bryant, and repeated too many times to count since, has been disputed and debunked several times. But on Saturday, when the Notre Dame College football team took on the University of Charleston to clinch the Mountain East Conference Championship, Paul William Bryant was right.
 
The NDC defense held the Golden Eagles to just 214 yards on offense, the second-fewest yards against in a game this season. The Falcons also recorded 14 tackles for a loss and seven sacks, both marks rank second all-time in Notre Dame history.
 
Both defenses played well as the Falcons were held to a season-low 327 yards.
 
Going into halftime, the score sat 0-0 after both teams missed field goals and both teams lost a fumble. Charleston's loss of possession came at a more meaningful drive, however as UC was facing a second-and-goal on the two yard line and fumbled on a dive play that may have scored. Sha'haun Williams stripped Jimmy Wheeler of the ball and Curtis Collins recovered it in the end zone for a touchback. It is the third time this season NDC has had a take away in its own end zone.
 
Head coach Mike Jacobs knew it was going to be a battle. At halftime, he was happy with how his team performed so far and knew they had a chance to do better in the second half. His message to the team at the break was simple.
 
"Keep swinging the stick," Jacobs said. "Our defense was playing really fantastic football. Offensively we had done a few good things and moved the ball some, but we hadn't finished a drive yet. We had a lot more in the tank and knew if we kept going and kept plugging at it that eventually we'd click. We knew we were in for a dog fight. I've been saying all week that Charleston has a great defense and we had to play 60 full minutes of football today to win the game."
 
At the opening of the second half, Charleston took a little over five minutes off the clock on a 12-play 30-yard drive that ended with Kevin Weiman making a 47-yard field goal to put his team up 3-0.
 
Notre Dame had a three-and-out on its first possession of the third quarter, but was able to break their scoring drought on its second try. A pass from Chris Brimm to Conner Henry went 53 yards for a touchdown after Henry was able to break free from the coverage.
 
"He caught a quick slant and broke a tackle for a big play at a time that we really needed a big play," Jacobs said. "They had just scored a field goal to go up 3-0 and to put a drive together and finish after that makes it one of those key drives of the season. Conner is a player that's been doing things for us all season, but you don't see a lot of it because he's been blocking his butt off in the run game. That was as big a play as we've had all year."
 
In the fourth quarter, Charleston was able to score on a big pass play of its own as Mason Olszewski and Michael Strachan hooked up for a 37-yard score to put the Golden Eagles back on top with just 5:37 left to play.
 
Facing just their second fourth-quarter deficit of the season, the Falcons took the ball 46 yards on seven plays in their next drive to put Tanner Harding back on the field for a 41-yard field goal attempt to tie the game. Harding had missed a 42-yard try earlier in the game, but there was no doubt that he would make this attempt with 3:37 left on the clock.
 
"With great snaps and great holds, I'm confident from wherever I kick it," Harding said. "I knew I missed the one earlier and it was about the same distance, and I knew we needed a big kick to tie up the game and give our guys a chance to go win the game. You have to have short-term memory as a kicker. I knew I had to come up in the fourth quarter and make it."
 
"I have a ton of confidence in Tanner," Jacobs said. "I think he's one of the best kickers in the conference and we see that every day in practice. He came up huge to tie the game. You can't say enough about having a weapon like that."
 
With the game tied, Charleston started a possession on their own 19-yard line. Olszewski ran the ball for no gain before having a passes batted down by Williams. On third down, the defensive line created more pressure to flush Olszewski to his left. Vincent Ellis ran down the quarterback to force him to throw the ball away and bring out the UC punt team.
 
"We just felt like we needed to press the pocket to keep them from throwing deep passes to receivers," Ellis said on the defensive line's success throughout the game. "That's what we did, we just pressed it."
 
After the Golden Eagles punt, NDC fumbled on the return. There was confusion for a moment as both teams waved their hands in their own direction, but it was Marvelle Ross who recovered it at the bottom of the pile to secure the ball for his team.
 
With 2:42 on the clock and 79 yards to go, Notre Dame began its drive. Jaleel McLaughlin started things off strong with an 11-yard run, but on the next play, Brimm was sacked for a 12-yard loss. McLaughlin gained that back and more on the third play with a 31-yard run followed by a 23-yard carry on play number four to bring the ball up to UC's 26-yard line.
 
McLaughlin ran again for a gain of five to get it just outside of the red zone. NDC then took a timeout with 55 seconds to go. Vasean Davis came in to plow through for a seven-yard pickup and earn a first down at the 14. With time ticking down, McLaughlin took the ball again for four yards and broke through to gain 10 and score on the seventh play of the drive. The Falcons were able to go up 17-10 with just 13 seconds left to play.
 
"We were just trying to score any way we could," Jacobs said. "I didn't want to leave any time on the clock. We were going to do everything we could to get it in the end zone, and if we couldn't get it in the end zone, we were going to save one of our timeouts and get it down to win the game or go into overtime. Jaleel McLaughlin and our offensive line just put this team on their backs to finish the game for us.
 
"When you run the ball as much as we do and you have an offensive line that can put weight on guys and you try to move the line of scrimmage early in the game and it's maybe a one- or two-yard run or even a negative-yard play. And then those runs become three- and four-yard runs and five- and six-yard runs and the next thing you know [Jaleel] gets out in the open. He had two huge runs for us on the last drive and he was a big part of our victory."
 
Senior offensive lineman Austin Treneff had a front-row seat to the action on the final play as one of the leading blockers.
 
"I was pretty close to [Jaleel]," Treneff said. "I pulled around on the right side and saw a few Charleston defenders out there. I just had to pick one and see what Jaleel could do. He's obviously an amazing player, but it was three versus one and he fit in there somehow. Every weight of the world was dropped and I felt free. It was one of the best feelings of my life."
 
After the kickoff just seven ticks remain on the clock. Charleston was able to complete a nine-yard pass and get out of bounds with just one second left. With the ball at their own 42, UC brought in Jermaine Kelly at quarterback to try a Hail Mary. But Kelly was stuffed for a 24-yard sack by Sha'haun Williams to end the game.
 
Williams recorded 3.5 sacks on the day and set a new NDC single-season record with 11 sacks on the year.
 
"Sha'haun is a guy who played outside for most of his career as a defensive end," Jacobs said on Williams's evolution as a player. "We moved him inside over the guard to play three-technique for us. He's athletic, he's violent and physical. He has a high motor and has a savvy football mind. I'm proud of the season he's had."
 
Jack Kosko was also able to make a huge impact with 2.5 sacks of his own.
 
"I thought our defensive line did a really nice job making them one dimensional," Jacobs said. "They had 37 rushing yards so for them to be able to keep that part of the game in check is huge. The thing that I'm most proud of the d-line about is that UC's quarterback can run and I thought we contained him and bottled him up today."
 
RJ Goodwin led the defense with 12 tackles, including one tackle for a loss. Davionn Johnson and Williams each recorded nine stops. Guam Lee and Curtis Collins tallied seven tackles each while Lee had 3.5 tackles for a loss and Collins had one.
 
Even with the outstanding play from the defense, Collins was quick to acknowledge to the offense as well after the game.
 
"The defensive line did amazing and our [defensive backs] played great," Collins said. "The whole defense, from start to finish, was solid. We never gave up on each other. I don't want to credit just one unit or one side of the ball though, we're a whole family. It's a family win."
 
On offense, McLaughlin finished with 185 yards on the ground to break the Notre Dame single-season rushing record with 1,612 yards. McLaughlin also added a touchdown on the day to increase a record he already holds to 14 rushing TDs on the year.
 
"It means a lot to break a record, of course, but I have to give credit to the offensive linemen," McLaughlin said. "When you break multiple records you know it's not just you doing something, it's the offensive line doing most of the work."
 
Notre Dame is the third team to win the Mountain East Conference after Shepherd has won four and Concord has won one.
 
The Falcons will travel to UVa-Wise on Saturday, November 3, to finish out their conference schedule.