SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Play started off with a bang in the First Round of the NCAA DII Football Playoffs as Marvelle Ross of Notre Dame College took a kick return 95 yards to pay dirt to put his team up 7-0 with just 14 second ticked off the clock.
 
The Falcons used momentum from there to gain a 31-10 lead before holding off a comeback attempt by West Chester University. WCU was stopped at the one-yard line as time expired and Notre Dame held on to win 31-24.
 
The nation was able to witness Notre Dame's signature bend-don't-break defense first hand as Falcon fans held their breath as West Chester marched downfield. But everyone at Mueller Field was able to breathe easy after Nathan Moore came up with the big stop to hold the Golden Rams just short of the goal line.
 
"It was huge," said head coach Mike Jacobs. "It's not always great to be the bend-but-don't-break defense, but you need to be able to make plays at critical times. To get a big stop with the game on the line says a lot about our team's mental fortitude and how hard they play."
 
NDC was still able to win by seven after allowing 14-straight points to West Chester towards the end of the game due to a built up lead that began with Ross's big return.
 
"Anytime you can open the game with a huge play like Marvelle's kickoff return – I was kind of surprised they kicked it to him – that really energizes everybody from the crowd in the stands to the players on the field to the coaches," Jacobs said. "That's the way you start a game. To be up 7-0 just 14 seconds into the game was huge for us today. Our kickoff return team did a fantastic job getting a hat on a hat. Marvelle is as dangerous as anyone in the country when he's in the open field."
 
Ross was quick to pass along praise after the game and down play his own contribution. After all, this is old hat for Ross by now as he has nine combined kick and punt return touchdowns in his career.
 
"Really, I was just doing my job," Ross said. "I caught the ball and saw the hole and ran through it. There's 10 other guys out there with me that deserve credit."
 
West Chester, on the following drive, was able to move downfield seemingly with ease to tie it up on the next drive. After the six-play, 76-yard possession by the Golden Rams, it looked like it would be a back-and-forth game.
 
But the Falcons were able to hold tough on defense throughout the rest of first half as Notre Dame scored 17 unanswered points to go up 24-7 at the break.
 
Again, it was Ross with a big play to give NDC its lead back. The senior wide receiver scored on a 40-yard catch and run with the help of a crucial and ferocious block by fellow wide out Tay Johnson.
 
"My number was called and I was ready," Ross said. "As soon as I caught the ball I saw Tay blocking for me. That block was needed and after the play I congratulated him. That's what we do here. Everything for the man next to us."
 
With two remarkable plays in the first half, in what is just the fourth playoff game in Notre Dame's short history, Ross revealed a telling mindset.
 
"Every time I touch the ball I'm thinking north, south, touchdown."
 
The pattern of big plays held true on NDC's next scoring drive as running back Ladennyawn Greene took off for 55 yards in the middle of the field to cross the goal line and put Notre Dame up by 14. After sitting out last season with an injury, Greene said it was very important to him to contribute in today's game.
 
"I wanted to go out there and do my part, playing for my brothers," Greene said. "I knew they needed me last year so it's nice to be able to do that this season."
 
Both Ross and Greene passed big milestones in their careers with the help of their big plays. Ross surpassed 5,000 career all-purpose yards while Greene eclipsed 3,000 career rushing yards.
 
Two others added to their biographies as well. Jaleel McLaughlin earned his 2,000th rushing yard of 2019, becoming just the second player to run for 2,000 yards in back-to-back seasons at the DII level. The sophomore is just the seventh player at any NCAA level to complete the feat, and the first to do so in his first two seasons. And sophomore linebacker Nathan Moore has now totaled 102, becoming just the third player in NDC history to total 100 tackles in a season.
 
But none of the players were thinking much about those accolades after the playoff victory.
 
"The great thing about our team is that they don't care about that stuff, they just want to win," Jacobs said. "I'm ecstatic for their personal accomplishments, though, and it's something that they will be able to look back on later and truly understand what it means for them to do something that momentous."
 
Also coming up big for the offense in the first half was quarterback Chris Brimm. With the running game stalling at times, Brimm was able to bring life to the NDC offense and spread the West Chester defense out a bit.
 
In the first half alone, Brimm was 9-of-14 for 159 yards and a touchdown. He moved the chains five times in the first two quarters, accounting for the majority of NDC's seven first downs in the first half.
 
"I am really proud of Chris today," Jacobs said. "I thought he threw the ball as well as he has all season. They did quite a bit of man coverage so he was able to sort through some of that stuff and complete passes in tight windows. As the year goes on and we continue to run the ball at a good clip you can feel the box compress in around you. To extend the field and loosen people up by throwing the ball was a big part of our win today."
 
On the defensive end, it was Saivon Davis who made the highlight plays in the first half. Davis came away with 2.5 tackles for a loss, which included one sack, all in the second quarter. The sophomore from Barberton, Ohio has come on strong in the last four weeks, totaling 17 tackles. His six tackles for a loss in the past four contests match the six he recorded in the first seven weeks of 2019.
 
"Saivon is a kid who is a really talented pass rusher," Jacobs said. "He's really violent with his hands and he's a guy that has done a nice job for us getting pressure."
 
In the second half, it was another big special teams play that gave NDC some momentum. After an eight-play drive stalled at the WCU 37-yard line, the Falcons elected to punt on fourth down. Notre Dame purposefully took a delay of game penalty to back up and give Dominic Buttzzoni more room to punt.
 
But Buttazzoni had a plan of his own and after holding the ball to seemingly let his coverage make their way downfield, he took off. Buttazzoni gained 18 yards on the fake to give Notre Dame a first down at the 24-yard line.
 
On the very next play, Jaleel McLaughlin bounced out to the right side of the field to score and give the Falcons a 31-10 lead.
 
After the game, West Chester head coach Bill Zwann gave credit to the Notre Dame special teams saying the return and fake punt were two momentum swings that his team just could not get past.
 
"Dom saw something with what they did in their coverage, retreating a bunch," Jacobs said. "He made a heads up savvy play on a punt to set up what would be the game-winning touchdown for us."
 
From there, however, it was all West Chester. The Golden Rams scored with two minutes left in the third quarter and again with 6:29 left in the fourth to make it a one possession game.
 
WCU looked to have everything going its way. NDC was able to take some time off the clock on an eight-play, four-minute drive that ended with Buttazzoni pinning West Chester at its own 17-yard line.
 
With no timeouts left, the Golden Rams methodically moved their way down field. WCU kept things going with chunks of six, eight and nine yards before breaking off bigger plays over 15 yards. Ultimately this landed the visitors at the one yard line knocking at overtime's door. Quarterback Paul Dooley, whose number was called on all 13 plays in the final drive, dropped back to pass before putting his head forward for a rush attempt. There to meet him was Nathan Moore, who stopped him just short as the clock expired and the NDC sidelines cleared in celebration.
 
"We were all looking to the sideline to get the call, but it happened too fast because the clock was running down and they didn't have any timeouts," Moore said on the final play. "So at the end of the game someone just had to make the play. Our whole defense stepped up huge with our backs to the goal line. It was huge for us and a huge step for our defense."
 
Notre Dame is now 3-0 at home in the post season. The Falcons move on to the Second Round of the NCAA DII Playoffs to take on No. 2 seeded Kutztown.
 
NDC will travel to Kutztown on Saturday, November 30. Game time will be determined on Monday.