SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – On Saturday afternoon, No. 18 Notre Dame College started the day with an opening kickoff return touchdown, in the 49-24 Homecoming victory over the University of Charleston. The offense put up a season-high in both points and rush yards (264), while the defense had two more interceptions and sacked the UC quarterbacks five times.

"Hats off to our guys," said head coach Garrett Mack. "You can see the growth across the program, from the bottom of our roster to the very top, from week one to now. Our guys are getting better and better on the field."

Jay Sharp set the tone for the afternoon, when he took the opening kickoff 99 yards for a return touchdown. That is tied for the longest kickoff return in NDC history.

Charleston's offense took the field for the first time and had an impressive first drive. Davis Black connected with Xzavion Gordon for a 19-yard reception and then Chavon Wright ran four times for 35 yards. The Falcons did step up and put an end to the 56-yard drive, holding UC to a field goal with 11:50 on the clock.

Both teams punted the ball before Notre Dame got the ball back and flew down the field. Chris Brimm loaded up and sent a 25-yard pass across the middle of the field to Jeremy Hamilton. Then, a hole opened up and Idris Lawrence, using some moves of his own, ran 53 yards to set the Falcons up on the two-yard line. The home team put the ball right back into the arms on number four, who found his way into the endzone for his first TD of the day.

Lawrence had a career-high 173 rushing yards and tied a career-high with two rushing touchdowns. The sophomore called today's game, a huge confidence booster.

The Golden Eagles switched between quarterbacks Davis Black and Javonte Howard, until Black went down with an injury. Howard entered the game on UC's second drive. He made some solid throws, including a 26-yard pass to Thomas Ashworth, that converted a 4th and 12 situation. Howard would find Phillip Fleshman on an 11-yard touchdown pass, and Charleston trailed by just four points, 14-10, with about five and-a-half minutes to go in the first.

"We stayed positive and didn't let that get to our heads," said defensive lineman Teddy Tiokeng, speaking about the defense's mindset after the early Charleston scores. "We know that we have to keep doing our jobs."

The Falcons put an end to any momentum that Charleston had, very quickly, and UC would not score again until the fourth quarter. Notre Dame put up 28 unanswered points between the second and fourth quarter.

After scoring the touchdown, Charleston forced NDC to punt on its next drive, but the Falcons' defense stepped up again. DeMarcus Rankin pulled down his first interception of the season, near the end of the first quarter and put the ball right back into the hands of the offense.

"Defensively, our guys up front are killing it," Mack mentioned. "Same thing with our linebackers, and the defensive backs are making big plays. It's buy in [of the culture] across the roster."

Notre Dame drove down the field, with the help of a Charleston pass interference. On the 27-yard line, Brimm sent a pass into the hands of Reece Perkins, who bounced off a Golden Eagle to find the endzone early in the second quarter, giving NDC a 21-10 lead.

Charleston ran 11 plays on their next drive, but Howard would throw another interception as the Golden Eagles had gotten to NDC's 36-yard line. This time, Wendell McClain stepped in for his third pick of the season.

Later in the second quarter, the Falcons did all their damage on the ground to score again. Following a Charleston punt, NDC took over possession with 3:15 remaining in the first half. On the first play of the drive, Lawrence ran 60 yards to get NDC into the redzone, almost immediately. Krys Riley-Richardson, who made his debut on Saturday, bulldozed his way 10 yards to the endzone and gave NDC a 28-10 lead heading into the halftime break.

"One thing you see is, guys are focusing on their technique and getting better," Mack said. "They are buying into the culture, buying into the scheme. You can see it up front, it starts with our offensive line. And obviously our running backs, receivers and quarterback."

After fumbling on the first drive of the third quarter, Lawrence bounced back with a big scoring drive. Two pass interference calls and a face mask penalty on the Golden Eagles helped to move the Falcons down the field. Brimm would connect with Hamilton, again, for 17 yards. And then Lawrence pushed through with another two-yard touchdown, with 8:10 on the clock.

The rest of the third quarter became a bit sloppy, with turnovers on both sides. The Falcons did take advantage of a turnover by Charleston, late in the third. Tiokeng got into the backfield and sacked Black, who fumbled the ball. The Falcons recovered the football.

"I was just trying to do my job, everyone does their 1/11th," Tiokeng said. "I feel like it started in practice, we were playing as a team and keeping the energy up. Do our job and execute."

Tiokeng would finish the game with career-highs in tackles (11), tackles for loss (3) and sacks (2).

With the Falcons' offense struggling to move forward, after the fumble recovery, Chris Brimm tucked the ball and ran 19 yards on a 3rd and 20 play. He then went under center, took the ball and pushed forward to move the chains. NDC would score on a play ran to perfection. The Falcons first made a move to the right and then Brimm turned to find an open CJ Kiss on the left side of the field. Kiss used a block from Hamilton to score the touchdown and give NDC a 42-10 lead.

A 50-yard response drive by UC put seven points on the board for the road team, but, an onside kick attempt by the Golden Eagles gave the Falcons the ball on Charleston's 47-yard line. NDC went down the field in eight plays, and two more Charleston penalties, to reach a season-high 49 points.

Kicker Cameron Shirkey went 7-for-7 on extra points, bringing his season mark to a perfect 22-for-22.

Nathan Moore added 11 tackles for the Falcons and he continues his streak of 10, or more, tackles in every game this season. Davonte Murray also reached a career-high with nine tackles.

NDC has now won every Homecoming game played on Mueller Field since 2016.

Notre Dame will travel to Frostburg State University for a 1 p.m. matchup, on Oct. 8.