SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – "A sixty-minute game against a good opponent is always going to be a little bit like a rollercoaster."
 
That's what head coach Mike Jacobs had to say about the momentum swings between his Notre Dame College football team and Hillsdale. The Falcons won the NCAA Division II Football Second Round game 19-14, but it was a back-and-forth battle with the Chargers throughout the contest.
 
The first four drives of the opening quarter ended in punts, but Hillsdale, using the wind, put Notre Dame in tough positions. Jack Shannon's first punt of the day went 72 yards and was downed at the NDC two-yard line. His second traveled 67 yards to the NDC 24. Two plays later, after Chris Brimm was flushed from the pocket and throwing against the elements, the Chargers intercepted a pass to start a drive just outside the red zone.
 
A 25-yard pass put Hillsdale two-yards shy of the goal line as they looked to be the first team to score. On their first attempt to punch it through, Sha'haun Williams met the HC runner for a four-yard loss moving the ball back to the six-yard line. The second attempt would have likely scored on a run to the outside, but Hillsdale fumbled the ball at the one yard line due to the wet conditions. The Falcons recovered the drop to drive 82 yards and kick a 33-yard field goal.
 
Tanner Harding hit his first field goal try of the day to score the first ever points in a playoff game for Notre Dame. The 82-yard drive took 13 plays and 4:49 off the clock, which bled into the second quarter as NDC scored with 14:41 left in the first half.
 
NDC bookended the second quarter with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Brimm to Zaire Mitchell with 2:21 left on the clock to give NDC a 10-0 lead at halftime.
 
The Falcons strong first half was led by Mitchell in the air and Jaleel McLaughlin on the ground. Mitchell had four receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown while McLaughlin ran for 146 yards in the first 30 minutes. The true-freshman running back ran for 138 of those yards in the first quarter.
 
After the game, Jacobs said that people are used to seeing McLaughlin take off for 50-, 60-, 70- or even 80-yard plays, but he can also get it done in smaller chunks. Overall, NDC had seven run plays in the first half that gained over 10 yards.
 
Notre Dame was climbing the hill of their rollercoaster in the first half before Hillsdale pushed them on the fast decline at the start of the third quarter.
 
The Chargers opened the second half with a six-play 70-yard touchdown drive that took just over two minutes to complete to make things 10-7.
 
NDC came right back at Hillsdale on the next possession, marching 50 yards to the HC 14 where Notre Dame faced a fourth down. Tanner Harding came on to take what looked to be his second field goal of the day, but was actually a planned trick play. Harding attempted a pass that fell incomplete in the end zone.
 
The teams traded possessions again before the Chargers put up another seven points on just one play. After receiving the ball at the NDC 40-yard line Chance Stewart, the HC quarterback who threw for over 3,500 yards this season, hit his favorite target Trey Brock for the 40-yard score.
 
Hillsdale led 14-10 at the end of the third quarter and after earning a first down at the NDC five-yard line on the penultimate play of the quarter three, the Chargers looked primed to build that lead even more.
 
With the ball at the six, Stewart ran for five yard to be stopped just one yard shy of the goal line. On the next play, Stewart kept the ball again, this time on a quarterback sneak, only to have the ball ripped from his hands by Clarence Theophile who came up with the ball for Notre Dame's second fumble recovery in the red zone.
 
Snapping the ball in their own end zone, the Falcons needed a big play to shift any kind of momentum Hillsdale had. On second-and-nine, with the ball at their own two, that's just what NDC got. Brimm hit Marvelle Ross for 38 yards to give their team the breathing room necessary, but ultimately that drive ended in a punt.
 
The clock kept winding down on Notre Dame's attempt to reach the top of the rollercoaster once more, and on the next drive the Falcons went 43 yards down to the HC seven-yard line. Trailing four with 5:22 left to play on fourth down, Jacobs sent Harding back on the field, this time to really kick the ball and score on a 25-yard field goal. 14-13 Hillsdale.
 
Jacobs discussed his decision to kick the field goal after the game.
 
"I thought, with the way the defense had been playing [in the fourth quarter], it was pretty important to get the points at that time. It's the playoffs and you want to take chances, and I took a chance running the fake field goal in the third, but we were playing strong defensively and had all three timeouts so I wanted to take those three points."
 
The choice worked. On the following NDC drive, the Falcons scored on a 26-yard pass from Brimm to Markus Hood, who has now caught three touchdowns in the last six games.
 
"We ran [the same play] against [West Virginia] Wesleyan and had the same results of a touchdown," Hood said. "When we got the play call, [Zaire] told me it was my play. Boom. Came across the middle and saw the defense go towards Conner Henry in the post so I went up the seam and was wide open. It was a perfect pass from Brimm."
 
Hillsdale got the ball back with 2:15 to play starting at its own 25. 14 plays later, the Chargers moved the ball down to the NDC 14, but came up short as the Notre Dame defense held strong to secure the win.
 
"I feel fantastic," Jacobs said in the postgame press conference. "This program has come an awfully long way in the short 10 years since we've been in existence. This has been a season of firsts for us certainly and we didn't want to just have a chance to be in the playoffs, we wanted an opportunity to win in the playoffs. To play the way we did and stay together against a really tough opponent, I just couldn't be more proud of this program or this team."
 
Adding to the year of firsts was McLaughlin whose 191 yards on the day pushed him over the 2,000-yard rushing mark to become the first player in NDC and Mountain East Conference history to hit that milestone.
 
"It's outstanding when you work hard for something and your dreams start to come true because of how hard you worked," McLaughlin said. "I just think about the offensive line. They treat me like their little brother. To be the first to clinch 2,000 yards is great.
 
"I just want to do more. I want to do more for the offensive line. I like the recognition, but they need it also. I want to give all my yards to them because of how hard they're working."
 
McLaughlin also gave credit to the wide receivers who have blocked for him downfield as well.
 
As a whole, the offense recorded 16 plays of 10-plus yards and eight plays that went for more than 20 (the touchdown plays were 23 and 26 yards). Things opened up for both the run game and pass game at different points on Saturday, which allowed both to succeed.
 
"They made some nice adjustments [to the run], which opened up our passing," Jacobs said. "I thought Chris Brimm did a great job today for us running the football. He had one little mistake, but other than that he played tremendous football."
 
Defensively, Notre Dame actually gained yards on the ground as their nine tackles for a loss, which included six sacks, resulted in negative two yards rushing for Hillsdale. The Falcons also kept the Chargers to fewer than 50 percent completion through the air.
 
"We knew this quarterback was a great passer and we always wanted to affect his throw by having him raise it or turn his arm," defensive lineman Vincent Ellis said. "We wanted to keep getting pressure and keep him on his toes."
 
Ellis finished the game with two sacks along with Sha'haun Williams who also tallied two. Williams, Jeffrey Thomas and Curtis Collins each led the team with seven tackles.
 
Already the best red-zone defense coming into the game, NDC stopped the Chargers three times today inside the 20 on the two fumble recoveries and the timed out drive to end the game. Notre Dame has now only allowed 16 scores on 34 red zone attempts by opponents.
 
"Our kids attack the football and that's something we do every day in practice," Jacobs said. "On the first one their player just dropped it. It was a little wet and slipped out of his hands. Better to be lucky than good sometimes. The goal line strip was huge though to go in there and get it like that. Just as big as the strip was the play to get us out of there, the 36-yard pass to Marvelle."
 
Jacobs said field position played a huge role throughout the game especially in the opening half with the wind blowing.
 
Notre Dame will host Slippery Rock on Saturday, December 1, in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Start time has not yet been determined.