Box Score CHARLESTON, W.Va. – After observing the scores from the past two years in the Notre Dame College-University of Charleston matchup, it's no surprise that the final score on Saturday was a difference of 10 points. NDC won by a total of five points in 2017 and seven in 2018. But, over those two games, the teams combined to score 56 points. In this season's matchup, the Falcons fought off a late UC run to win, 63-53.

"I'm really proud of the team. We showed some resiliency, when things didn't go our way, the entire day and got a win against a good football team on the road."

This quote from head coach Mike Jacobs was a very quick summary of an exciting, yet complex, day on the gridiron.

The first Charleston pass of the day was almost intercepted by Davionn Johnson, but that did not rattle Charleston's quarterback Brant Grisel. The very next play was a completed pass to Tyreik McAllister. Later in the drive, on 3rd down and five yards to go, an offsides call on NDC gave Charleston the first down. Four more pass completions led to a five-yard scamper to the end zone by Joe Street.

"You have to give Charleston a lot of credit," Jacobs said. "Dynamic passing offense. They've started games extremely fast, [105-36] that they've outscored opponents in the first half of games. We knew they were going to come out and we kept their first drive alive with a couple penalties, we missed a chance at an interception there. But then I thought we settled in and played really good football, until the third quarter."

Marvelle Ross lifted the NDC spirits quickly with his third career kick return touchdown, tying him for the program lead. The 80-yard return and extra point tied the game at seven with 12:50 remaining in the first quarter.

Two plays into UC's second drive, Grisel connected with Mike Strachan for a 75-yard reception to pay dirt. With 9:25 to play, the home team's offense was hitting on all cylinders. Grisel, who came into the game third in NCAA Division II in passing yards, was 7-for-8 through the air on his first two drives.

NDC's offense then came out for the first time, looking to match Charleston's drives and they did just that. A 35-yard strike from Chris Brimm to Zaire Mitchell set NDC up at Charleston's 19-yard line. Jaleel McLaughlin ran the ball past the goal line for his first score of the day, tying the game at 14 with 6:20 remaining in the first stanza.

A field goal by the Golden Eagles, on their next drive, was significant because it gave Charleston a 17-14 advantage and for the first time this season, the Falcons trailed after the first period. In Mike Jacobs' tenure as head coach at Notre Dame, since 2016, the Falcons have only trailed 10 times after the initial 15 minutes.

McLaughlin put seven more points on the scoreboard with another rushing TD early in the second quarter. That gave Notre Dame their first lead of the contest, 21-17. After that touchdown, both teams traded punts, which ended both teams' streak of scoring on their first three drives.

Notre Dame wasn't done in the first half. Ladennyawn Greene rushed for a combined 41 yards over two consecutive plays to get into the end zone with just under seven minutes in the half. Then, with under five minutes to go, Ross again proved to be important in the return game, as he returned a punt 31 yards. That led to a seven-play drive that was capped by a TD run by McLaughlin to put NDC up, 35-17. Notre Dame would finish the game 4-for-6 in red zone opportunities, while Charleston went 4-for-4.

Charleston scored one more time, in just over a minute, and went into halftime, trailing the Falcons by 11 points, 35-24.

In the first half, Notre Dame had 225 yards of total offense, while Charleston racked up 309.

Notre Dame's defense began to step up in the second and third quarters. Between those two quarters, the defense forced UC to punt the ball away five times and the Golden Eagles had a 14-percent third down conversion rate. They also held Grisel to 101 combined passing yards in the second and third after 175 in the first quarter.

Following two passing touchdowns of over 20 yards from Brimm to Jeremy Hamilton and McLaughlin, NDC led 49-24 with 5:40 remaining in the third quarter and looked poised to walk away with an easy victory for the second week in a row.

Mistakes became the theme late in the third quarter and into the fourth for the Falcons. On the other side, Charleston was more then happy to take advantage.

Leading by 25 points, NDC forced a three-and-out, but the Golden Eagles' punt touched a Notre Dame blocker and UC recovered. They drove down the field, and scored with two long passes.

On the next NDC drive, McLaughlin was stripped by D'Vaughn Whitt, which resulted in a recovery and touchdown. On NDC's next possession, Brimm threw his fourth interception of the season, resulting in another scoring drive for Charleston followed by a successful two-point conversion.

Down by three points, less than 10 minutes in the game, UC's defense stopped the Notre Dame offense. Two plays later, Tremaine Ross got a step ahead of the defense, and ran 88 yards into the end zone. That score stunningly gave Charleston their first lead since early in the second quarter, 53-49.

As the Falcons have done for two seasons, they looked to McLaughlin for a big play. The sophomore obliged and found a seam that resulted in a 70-yard score on the first play.

"It was great, to see that open seam because that's the spark that our team needed," McLaughlin said. And coming off a turnover that I had, that was a spark."

With that touchdown, McLaughlin became the program leader in rushing TD's in just his 19th career game, passing Pedro Powell. The Falcons' running back now has 34 in his career.

"It's great, it shows the hard work that is put in and I just like to reward my offensive line because of how hard those guys work," he said. "It's a great accomplishment, but we have to keep going in practice and keep trying to run the number up as high as we can."

To put an exclamation point on this one, a low snap on a punt attempt for Charleston was fumbled and recovered in the end zone by Nik Cotton, giving NDC a 63-53 lead.

Notre Dame's defense buckled down and did not allow UC to score in the final 9:40 of the game.

"I thought our conditioning up front on the defensive line was fantastic," Jacobs explained. "I thought that our guys played with better eye discipline toward the end and that group of starters has played a ton of football together. They've been in a couple of these close ones, they know never to quit and know that we may need them to go back out there and give us a stop. I'm really proud of the way they fought back and helped us win the football game."

McLaughlin finished the game with 184 rushing yards and four touchdowns. For the second consecutive week, Brimm threw for over 200 yards, with 255 today. He also had two touchdowns. Zaire Mitchell was his top target, as the tight end caught six passes for 74 yards. Jeffrey Thomas led the team with 11 tackles, while Nathan Moore tallied 10. Jack Kosko had two of NDC's four sacks.

"My first sack, we had a good game plan," Kosko said. "We ran a stunt and Derrick Brumfield set me up and I came free. On the second, the center slid to me and I just swiped his hands down and made a play… We had a bunch of sacks against them [UC] last year so it's just something about this team, we're able to get back there and get some sacks."

Grisel completed 27 of his 45 passing attempts for 464 yards and four touchdowns for Charleston. McAllister ran for 82 yards and caught five passes for 88 yards. Strachan led the team with 207 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Tremaine Ross had 186 receiving yards. The Golden Eagles offense totaled 199 of their 464 passing yards in the fourth quarter.

"We see really good offenses every week," Jacobs said. "I can't say enough how good the competition in the Mountain East is. Between their [Charleston] quarterback and certainly a couple of their wide receivers, Strachan and Ross both are fantastic, explosive football players and they had big days. At the end of the day, we came out, finished the game, won the fourth quarter and came away with a road win."

Notre Dame comes home to play Wheeling University on October 19. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.