INSTITUTE, W.Va. – For the second consecutive season, the Mountain East Conference football trophy is coming back to South Euclid. Notre Dame College becomes the second team in MEC history to win conference titles in back-to-back seasons with a 31-14 victory over West Virginia State University, on Saturday afternoon. The victory also gives NDC back-to-back double-digit win seasons.

"To make history and be the first senior class [to win back-to-back], is definitely special and you can't take it for granted," said Sha'haun Williams. "We're living in the moment and we appreciate it. It's crazy how far this program has come and how much I have seen since 2014. I'm speechless and proud to be a part of it."

Notre Dame received the ball to start the game and for the ninth time in NDC's 11 games this season, the team who started with the ball scored on the opening drive. Jaleel McLaughlin returned the opening kick 21 yards and then took the handoff on the first three plays of the drive, totaling 21 yards. Two passes to Tay Johnson put the Falcons on West Virginia State's 25-yard line. That's when McLaughlin took the ball again, found a hole and scored, capping a 62-yard drive, over 3:21.

Notre Dame got the ball back at the 5:29-mark in the first quarter, following a West Virginia State punt. On the first play of the drive, Chris Brimm again connected with Johnson, who had room to run, and did so for 37 yards. McLaughlin then ran for 21 yards over the next two plays. It looked like the drive might stall after Ladennyawn Greene was stopped for no gain and McLaughlin caught a pass running out of the backfield and went out of bounds for a three-yard loss, but a late hit personal foul, gave the Falcons the ball on WVSU's 15. A jet sweep pitch pass to Zaire Mitchell, was a success for 12 yards. Two plays later, McLaughlin ran in to put Notre Dame ahead, 14-0, with 2:04 remaining.

Needing a score to stop the bleeding, the Yellow Jackets converted a first down with a 17-yard pass to Zach Pate. But, three plays later, West Virginia State found itself staring at a 3rd and 9 situation. Quarterback Donovan Riddick was able to roll out and find some space. He ran toward the sideline but slid a yard short of the first down marker. Starting the second quarter on fourth down, Riddick missed Dant'e Jones on a short pass, giving the ball back to Notre Dame.

NDC immediately took advantage, as Brimm found Marvelle Ross in stride for a 50-yard pass into the breadbasket on the first play of the drive. The Falcons led 21-0, 13-seconds into the second stanza.

"He's always going to make the play when the ball comes to him," Brimm said. "I just had to make the throw and I knew he was going to make the catch."

"I was going through my assignment, really," Ross said. "I saw [the defender's] feet stop, I took it up field, put my head down, kept my eyes on the ball and then CB [Brimm] threw that nice ball and the offensive line held up. That was a good play call for us."

Not going away, the home team found a way to get down the field and score their first touchdown. Using eight run plays and five pass plays, West Virginia State went 75-yards in just over six minutes. Isiah Scott capped the drive with a very nice catch on the far-right side of the endzone, jumping and freeing himself from Tavon Hooks, who could not have played any closer. With 8:25 remaining, Notre Dame still led by two touchdowns.

Notre Dame was then stopped for short yardage several times on run plays, with just three plays of over five yards on the ground on the final two drives of the half. Brimm stepped up on the final drive of the first half, completing passes to Jeremy Hamilton and Ross, as well as running for eight yards. The Falcons also received help from a second WVSU personal foul call of the first half, setting up a 41-yard field goal for Tanner Harding which ended a 67-yard drive. Notre Dame led 24-7 at halftime.

Brimm went 9-for-13 over the first 30 minutes for 144 yards and a touchdown. The Falcons had 252 yards of total offense at halftime.

"[West Virginia State] tightened up what they were doing, run-wise," head coach Mike Jacobs said. "We had to do a little bit better job staying on blocks and things like that. All in all, we know people are going to load the box. The thing that really helped us today: Chris Brimm was significantly better for us… Chris did a good job working through his reads, much better than last week. He distributed the ball. Again, he was on target more often today. That was a big key to us winning the football game."

"We knew coming into this week that we would have to pass the ball, so we just had to focus on that all week," Brimm mentioned.

Both teams stalled out in their first two drives after coming out of the locker room. With 6:42 remaining in the third quarter, a 17-yard reception by Pate gave WVSU a first down. Two plays later, a holding penalty pushed the Yellow Jackets back to a 2nd and 19. Then on 3rd and 11, the play broke down and Riddick ran for 36 yards. Two plays later, a direct snap to Jones, who ran to pay dirt, and an extra point gave West Virginia State seven more points and they pulled within 10 points, 24-14, with under four minutes to play in the third.

Notre Dame punted on back-to-back drives, but the NDC defense stepped up. WVSU ran 10 plays, for 26 yards over four minutes. However, the drive ended at the 50-yard line. Riddick's pass to AJ Barrette on 3rd and 6 was incomplete. Then, on 4th and 6, Notre Dame's Derrick Brumfield broke through the line and chased down Riddick, forcing the QB to throw the ball away.

"We had to get off the ball," Brumfield said. "It was tough today, because we weren't playing on the turf that we're used to. But we had to play physical, play with our hands and if we do that, our defensive line is the best in the country. If we do that all game, we're going to win."

With eight minutes remaining in the contest, Notre Dame put the game away. Starting with just half of the field to go, Brimm was excellent, completing two passes and even taking a big hit as he ran for a first down on 4th and 1. McLaughlin was the catalyst to the whole drive, though, as he ran for 46 of the Falcons 50 yards on the drive, including a seven-yard scamper to the endzone. The drive took about six and a half minutes and gave NDC a 31-14 advantage with just 90 seconds remaining.

"This was one of our big goals this year, to win the conference outright," Jacobs explained. "I couldn't be more proud of these players for everything that they accomplished. To bounce back from a tough week and tough loss to Glenville State, to come out today and play really well, on the road, against a good West Virginia State team, I'm super proud of this group and blessed to be their head coach."

"It was a great challenge to be honest," McLaughlin said. "I love to play against competition like that. I love to play against challenging players because it does nothing but make me, and our whole football team, better. It's definitely something needed going into the playoffs. Those guys came out and competed and everything they did today was great."

Notre Dame also had a couple players come back from injury and make an impact. Greene ran 11 times to help take a few hits off McLaughlin. Sha'haun Williams was back on the defensive line, recording seven tackles, two tackles for a loss and one sack.

"Every carry that DJ [Greene] took, he worked hard," McLaughlin mentioned. "Also, when he was out there blocking for me, it was great. It was great having him back, I love DJ to death, that's my brother for life."

"Sha'haun had been out the last couple of weeks and he played pretty well today, from what I could tell," Jacobs said. "And to have all the pieces together, in a really big game, was big for us."

"Those two weeks [sitting out] felt like two months," Williams said. "Especially after last week, I was sitting back and I was watching my brothers. That was one of the hardest things I've had to do, physically not being able to help. But getting back out there today, it was a lot of fun. Today was the perfect day to come back."

Ross moved into second place in MEC history in all-purpose yards, with his 78 receiving yards. He needs 27 all-purpose yards to break 5,000 for his career. McLaughlin finished with 137 rushing yards and he now needs just 18 yards to reach 2,000 rushing yards for the second consecutive campaign. Head coach Mike Jacobs reached 40 wins today, in just four seasons at the helm of the Falcons.

Brimm finished 15-for-22 with 179 passing yards, a touchdown and nine rushing yards. Tay Johnson caught a season-high four passes for 52 yards. On the defensive side, Nathan Moore led the team with 13 tackles, including 11 solo tackles, and still leads the team this season with a total of 92. Guam Lee was second on the day with 12.

"I credit my defensive line and the back half," Moore said. "Guam Lee has really taken me under his wing, he's like a true brother to me. And just the whole defense, they get more credit than I do, because we fly around and make the plays."

The Falcons entered the game ranked third in Super Region I, with the top-seven teams making the NCAA Division II playoffs. NDC will find out who their opponent will be, during the selection show, which will which air on Sunday, at 5 p.m. You can watch on NCAA.com.