This Week: Notre Dame College football plays on Mueller Field for the second consecutive week to host West Virginia Wesleyan College on Saturday, Oct. 16, at 1 p.m.

Records: Notre Dame comes into this matchup with a 5-1 (4-1 MEC) record after securing an important 23-21 victory over No. 23 Frostburg State. West Virginia Wesleyan comes in at 0-6 (0-5 MEC) after falling to West Virginia State, 38-3.

Coaches Corner: Mickey Mental is in his second season as head coach of the NDC football program. He was awarded MEC Coach of the Year after leading the Falcons to an undefeated 2020 season. He has a 10-1 (8-1 MEC) record. Dwayne Martin enters his first season as head coach, but sixth season on the WVWC staff.

Rankings: In the latest polls, Notre Dame is ranked No. 14 in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II top 25 and No. 14 in the D2Football.com top 25. This will be the 27th consecutive week that NDC is featured in a Division II National Poll.

Series History: NDC holds an all-time record of 6-1 against the Bobcats since the two teams first met in 2013. Although NDC's margin of victory over W.Va. Wesleyan in 2018 and 2019 was 41 and 46 points, respectively, the rest of the all-time series has been fairly close. Four of the first five matchups between these teams were decided by nine points, or less, including a 20-13 NDC loss in 2017.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame needed to bounce back after their loss to Charleston and they did just that. Frostburg State came into the game undefeated, first in the conference standings and ranked for the first time in Division II. The FSU Bobcats came out and put the first seven points on the scoreboard about mid-way through the first quarter. Notre Dame's first scoring drive started at the 11:17-mark in the second quarter, an 11 play, 70-yard drive resulting in three points. After the NDC defense forced a punt, the Falcons went down the field in 1:37 to score their first TD with Chris Brimm running the ball in. On Frostburg's second play of their next drive, Dylan Spaeth forced a fumble that was recovered by Nate Moore. That led to a seven play, 56-yard touchdown drive, capped by an Idris Lawrence TD run. Notre Dame scored 20 points in the final 3:13 of the second quarter. NDC's defense stepped up to the challenge in the second half and halted FSU's comeback, allowing NDC to walk away with a 23-21 victory. The NDC defense did just about everything except intercept a pass. That ends a streak of 10 straight games with an interception.

Notre Dame's defense has now recorded a sack in 20 straight games. The last time they did not get the QB behind the line was Oct. 5, 2019 against W.Va. Wesleyan.

In NCAA Division II this season, the NDC defense now ranks third in takeaways (19), fourth in turnover margin per game (+1.83), fourth in fumbles recovered (9), fifth in passes intercepted (10), fifth in defensive touchdowns (3), 10th in tackles for loss per game (9) and 10th in sacks per game (3.83). The offense ranks 27th in total yards per game (436.5), 27th in rushing yards per game (196) and 29th in points per game (35.5).

This season, Noah Harris-Lyles is second across all of Division II in tackles for loss per game (2.4) and third in sacks per game (1.5). Guam Lee ranks third in total fumbles recovered (2), 15th in sacks per game (1) and 15th in tackles for loss per game (1.8). Xavier Perkins is also tied for third in fumbles recovered, at two. Despite missing a week, Tyris Dickerson sits at 28th in the country with 539 rushing yards and is 30th in rushing yards per game (89.8). Chris Brimm ranks 22nd in the country with 8.59 yards per pass attempt and 28th in passing yards per completion with 14.15.

Guam Lee enters this week 11 tackles away from becoming the all-time career leader in total tackles in Notre Dame College history. He is at 302 for his career. Bryce Sheppert needs one more interception to take over as the career leader at NDC. He currently has nine in his career.

Notre Dame has won the last four games that were played on Homecoming weekend. Over those four games, the Falcons won by an average of 34.5 points.
 
Noting the WVWC Bobcats: West Virginia Wesleyan's Drew Feingold connected on a field goal late in the first quarter and the WVWC Bobcats trailed West Virginia State, 7-3, after one quarter. That was Feingold's first collegiate field goal. However, the WVSU Yellow Jackets scored the next 31 points to win 38-3. WV Wesleyan totaled 268 yards of total offense (130 rushing, 138 passing). WVWC went 2-12 on third downs and 1-3 in the red zone. WV State picked the ball off, twice. Four of the Yellow Jackets five touchdowns came through the air.

West Virginia Wesleyan has been outscored 63-9 by their opponents in the first quarter of games this season. The offense is working from behind, and rely on quarterback Nathan Payne, who has thrown three touchdowns this season, while the Bobcats' offense has four all season.

Jujuan Linzy leads the Bobcats with 24 catches for 258 yards, however, Devin Taylor is second on the team with 10 receptions for 158 yards, but he has all three of WVWC's touchdown catches. He hauled in all three of those touchdown passes against Concord, on Sept. 18. On the defensive side, Kobe Vinegar leads the team with 23 solo tackles, 14 assisted tackles and 37 total tackles.