ASHLAND, Ohio – On Thursday night to open the 2022 season, No. 10 Notre Dame College put together a strong comeback in the second half, but it was not enough to take down Ashland University. The Falcons racked up 14 points and nearly 200 yards of total offense in the final 30 minutes of a 31-14 defeat.

"There were glimpses of greatness. You can see what we did in the second half," said head coach Garrett Mack. "At times in the first half, we had a lot of mistakes. There were two drives that kind of fizzled out because of penalties, or whatever it might have been, a dropped snap, a fumble. Those are the things that we have to grow and learn from."

Ashland put the first points on the board with a touchdown, with just under five minutes remaining in the opening quarter. They would connect on a field goal in the second quarter and then a 64-yard TD run with less than a minute to go before halftime gave Ashland a 17-0 advantage heading into the locker room.

After their first two drives of the second half resulted in punts, NDC flipped the switch and looked like a different team. The Falcons' defense provided the stops and then the offense took advantage of a bad punt by Ashland, that resulted in Notre Dame starting a drive on the Eagles' 42-yard line.

In just the second play of the drive, senior quarterback Chris Brimm sent a perfectly placed pass to tight end Reece Perkins across the middle of the field. Perkins shook off a defender and found the end zone for a 45-yard TD with 7:51 to go in the third quarter.

The momentum continued to shift when the defense stepped up, again. Five Ashland plays put the Eagles into Notre Dame territory and then, on 1st and 10, AU quarterback Austin Brenner launched a pass into the endzone that floated in the air long enough for junior Jacalyn Morrison to catch up and snag it out of the air for an interception.

From there, Notre Dame had its most impressive drive of the contest. Starting on their own 20, following the touchback, the Falcons went 80 yards with 16 plays in over 8 minutes of game time. Brimm went 6-for-6 through the air on the drive and after leaving the game due to a cramping issue, sophomore Idris Lawrence ran to the left side and punched the ball into the corner of the endzone from eight yards out. NDC snuck within three points, 17-14, with 11:13 remaining in the game.

After six plays on Ashland's next drive, they were stopped by NDC's defense at the Falcons' 38 to force a fourth-down-and-long situation. After a timeout, the Eagles would go for it and got 12 yards on their next play for a first down, and would eventually score to go back up by 10 points, 24-14.

Brimm finished the game going 19-for-34 for 184 yards and a touchdown through the air. Lawrence was the top rusher, as he carried the ball 18 times for 83 yards. Perkins had four catches for 79 yards.

On defense, senior Nathan Moore (10 tackles) and junior Antoine Holloway II (9) led the way for NDC. Junior Davonte Murray recorded seven tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack.

"On offense, we had three young guys [on the offensive line] and then we had some guys who stepped up and made some plays in their debut," Mack mentioned. "Defensively, same type of thing. We played well at times, but had some mental mistakes late in the game. We can get cleaned up and have growth from week one to week two and we now have tape against somebody else. We'll get back to work tomorrow. If you look at the goals that we have, all of our goals and missions are still right there. It was an early wake up call to get better."

Notre Dame will regroup and come home to face Wheeling University, on Sept. 10. The game is scheduled to begin at noon.