ATHENS, W.Va. – Following a halftime deficit, Notre Dame College's defense held Concord University to 21 second half yards and zero points while the offense rushed for 440 yards in the game and totaled a season-high 565 total yards to win 47-22, on Saturday afternoon.

The first two drives for both teams resulted in punts. For NDC's defense, Sha'haun Williams came up big with one and-a-half sacks on third down during both drives. Vincent Ellis was also credited with a half sack to help force fourth down.

Concord was the first to put points on the board as they broke through with eight points. Josh Maxwell rushed the ball twice for a combined 21 yards to get the Mountain Lions down to the Notre Dame 29 yard line. CU used a trick play to get the ball in the end zone when Tywan Pearce took a handoff on a reverse play. He ran to the left side of the field before throwing a pass to Brandon Plyler in the endzone.

Peare gave the Mountain Lions an 8-0 lead as he took the ball on a two point conversion and ran into the left side of the endzone, jumping over the pylon with 3:02 remaining in the opening quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, Jaleel McLaughlin returned the ball for 26 yards. On the first play of the drive, Nehemiah Brown rushed for 47 yards before being taken down by Jonathon Roebuck. With the Falcons on Concord's 22, redshirt-sophomore Tanner Harding hit a field goal from 39 yards out.

On Concord's fourth possession, CU's punter and backup quarterback, Adam Fulton, took over as the signal caller for the Mountain Lions. He got the drive started with a 12 yard run, but the drive resulted in Fulton punting early in the second quarter.

After, McLaughlin ran three times, redshirt-freshman Dylan Akers, who started for the injured Chris Brimm, threw a pass to Marvelle Ross for 32 yards. Two plays later, he threw again to Ross for 28 yards before being forced out of bounds. He then hit Ross in the endzone from nine yards out. The score put NDC up 10-8 and took just 2:35 off the clock.

"Really proud of Dylan, he came out in his first college start and he was 11-for-18 and had a touchdown pass and most importantly he put us in really good situations running the football with the counts in the box and he protected the football. He didn't lose us the game and I thought he did a really good job and I'm really proud of him and I'm excited to see a kid play so well," head coach Mike Jacobs said.

With 11:05 to go in the second quarter, and NDC on a 10-0 run, CU needed to respond. Akin reentered the game and immediately threw two passes of 10 yards and 12 yards. Following two more completed passes, Josh Maxwell ran the ball in for a 15 yard TD. The Concord running back broke through the line and then needed to cut all the way to the outside to reach the endzone near the sideline. This gave Concord a 15-10 lead.

With about seven minutes to go before the half, Notre Dame came right back. A completed pass to Ross was followed by the McLaughlin show as he single-handedly moved the ball down the field. He ran the ball four times for a total of 63 yards. The final run was 23 yards to find pay dirt and put NDC ahead 17-15.

Concord put the final seven points on the scoreboard when they moved down the field in just 3:40. The Mountain Lions threw the ball five times and rushed three times. Akin completed a pass to Plyler for the receiver's second touchdown.

NDC trailed 22-17 at halftime, marking the first time this season that NDC trailed after the first 30 minutes. Concord had 158 passing yards at the half and led the time of possession stat 18:18 to NDC's 11:42.

The Falcons looked much difference in the second half, after some adjustments in the locker room.

"They (Concord) were doing little things differently in the run game from we had seen on film, so we had to adjust to that," Jacobs mentioned. "Once we got ahead and forced them into passing downs a little more, again our depth on the defensive line was able to shine through. We got good pressure on the quarterback throughout the second half."

Throughout the second half, the Falcons defense held the Concord offense to just 21 yards. They finished with 258 yards. Kyle Akin was the quarterback for the majority of the second half and could only throw for 21 yards in the final 30 minutes of play, after throwing for 115 in the first half.

The Falcons received the ball to begin the second half and immediately put together an eight play, 68 yard drive. The drive used three runs from McLaughlin, two runs from Brown and one run from Brian Walker. McLaughlin ran in from one yard out, finding room past the left guard and moved untouched past the goal line, giving Notre Dame a 24-22 lead.

With 11:35 to go in the third quarter, Akin threw a pass that was nearly intercepted by Cedric Lynch. After a four yard loss on the ground, the Mountain Lions went back to the air, but Akin under-threw his receiver and Jeffrey Thomas reached out and made the catch for the Falcons' sixth interception of the season.

The Falcons started with the ball on Concord's 30 yard line, then scored in less than 90 seconds with a five yard run by Vasean Davis, his first of three touchdowns on the day. It was also his first touchdown run of the season.

"I've been playing football my entire life so I'm used to this," Davis said, regarding his big day. "My coaches in high school told me, 'when you get in, make some plays, run as hard as you can with a lot of effort."

Notre Dame led 31-22 with under nine minutes to go in the third quarter. A bad snap on a punt attempt led to a safety because the ball rolled out of the back of the endzone.

The next drive was a quick one with Brown rushing for 31 yards and then Davis finished it off by running into the endzone for 32 yards.

"What's funny is, I don't think they saw me," Davis said. "We ran a counter and I just kind of ran past everybody. They didn't see me until it was too late so I snuck through."

Davis again finished the deal with an 11 yard touchdown at 4:30-mark in the game. The Falcons went 93 yards on the drive, giving the Flacons a 47-22 lead.

"Just really proud of our kids," said Jacobs, after the game. "Give a lot of credit to Concord, they had a nice game plan in the first half and we had to make a few halftime adjustments. But for the defense to come out and pitch a shutout in the second half and certainly our offensive line, the way we ran the football today, was something special. For us to finish a game, in my opinion, for the first time all season, I'm really proud of the way our kids played today."

NDC rushed for 440 total yards and four players (Brown, McLaughlin, Davis, Walker) who each rushed for over 50 yards. Brown ran for 135 yards, leading the way, and an average of 22.5 yards-per-carry.

"They (the offensive line) know how deep we are, we have an extremely talented running back room and our guys love blocking for them because they know any of them can have a big day," Jacobs said. "And those guys take a lot of pride in rushing for a lot of yards and controlling the line of scrimmage in a game. That's one of our goals each week and one of the things that we want to hang our hat on. They buy into it and our running backs did a great job of protecting the football today and played well."

Dylan Akers went 11-for-18 with 125 passing yards and a touchdown. Ross had six catches for 89 yards.

The defense had seven pass breakups and RJ Goodwin led the team with eight tackles. Williams finished with two-and-a-half sacks on the day. Derrick Brumfield had a sack and two and-a-half tackles for a loss.

For Concord, Plyler had nine catches for 122 yards. Zach Malone led both teams with 11 tackles. CU's defense only had one pass breakup and no sacks. The Mountain Lions' offense finished the game with just 52 yards rushing, which marks the third time in four games that the NDC defense has held an opponent to under 85 yards rushing and two games with the opponents rushing for less than 60 yards rushing.

The Falcons now come home to play West Liberty University in their Homecoming game, on September 29. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.