Football | 9/29/2017 12:03:00 AM

Box Score     WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty shut out the high-powered Notre Dame offense in the second half but couldn't quite get over the hump as the visiting Falcons survived a WLU comeback with a 24-19 win at West Family Stadium in Thursday night's MEC Game of the Week.
    After yielding 24 points and nearly 300 yards of total offense to the Falcons (4-1, 4-1) in the first two quarters, Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (2-3, 2-3) turned up the heat on both sides of the ball when play resumed.
    West Liberty took the second half kickoff and marched 65 yards in 10 plays to set up a 31-yard Christian Morris field goal, trimming the margin to 24-10 less than 5 minutes into the second half.
    The Hilltopper special teams tacked a couple more points on the board on Notre Dame's next possession when the visitors snapped the ball over their punter's head and he was tackled in the end zone for a safety.
    A short punt later in the quarter gave West Liberty the ball in Falcon territory and junior QB Brenton Colabella went over the top to freshman WR Isaiah Robinson for a 42-yard touchdown. Morris's PAT cut the lead to 24-19 at 2:53 of the third quarter.
    Notre Dame had racked up 275 rushing yards in the first half with dynamic senior QB Malik Grove accounting for 124 of them but Grove and his Falcon running mates found the going quite a bit tougher the rest of the way.
    "We made some good adjustments at halftime, mostly with gap responsibility," said WLU junior LB Cliff Clark, who led all players with 13 tackles. "Their quarterback had been giving us some problems but we were able to slow that down quite a bit in the second half."
    Grove and his tag-team tailback tandem of Brian Walker and Nehemiah Brown all surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark on the night but most of their damage came during the first two quarters. West Liberty held the visitors to just 113 yards of total offense in the second half with 96 of them coming on the ground.
    With the WLU defense keeping the Falcons bottled up, the Hilltoppers had several chances to take control of the game. Unfortunately, even though the Black and Gold drove into Notre Dame territory on three separate possessions in the fourth quarter, they couldn't find a way to come up with the go-ahead score.
    "We moved the ball pretty well in the second half," Waialae said, "but it seemed like every time we crossed the 50 we were playing behind the sticks. We'd have a penalty or give up a sack and we'd be looking at 3^rd-and-12 or 13 instead of 3^rd-and-3."
    West Liberty's last shot came with 2:31 to go when the Hilltoppers took possession at their own 31. Colabella – who completed a career-high 27-of-45 passes for 288 yards and a pair of scores – found WR Mike McLean for 18 yards and then hit HB Ian Kelly for 19 yards for a first down at the Notre Dame 37 with just under 2 minutes remaining.
    That was as far as the Hilltoppers got, however, as the Falcon pass rush got to Colabella on the next two snaps and his final two passes fell incomplete.
    West Liberty had opened the scoring with a 16-yard TD pass from Colabella to TB Jeremiah Ortiz midway through the first quarter. The WLU defense forced a 3-and-out on the ensuing possession but a running-into-the-kicker penalty kept the drive alive, giving Grove a chance to tie the game a few snaps later with a 3-yard TD burst.
    Walker and Brown added second-quarter touchdown runs and Tanner Harding nailed a late 24-yard field goal to send the Falcons off the field with a 24-7 lead.
    "You can't give an offense like that extra possessions," Waialae said, "but we had two turnovers and a penalty on a punt in the first half that put us in a hole.
    "I'm proud of the way we fought back against one of the top teams in the nation but you can't give an offense like that extra possessions," Waialae said. "We had several opportunities to win this game but we just made too many mistakes against a really good football team and it cost us."
    West Liberty had more first downs (25-18), gained more total yards (412-405) and ran more plays (80-76) than the Falcons. Ortiz topped the 100-yard rushing mark for the second straight week and third time this season with 130 yards on 26 carries. Kelly led all receivers with 92 yards on 9 catches while Robinson finished with 71 yards on 5 grabs and Osman Kargbo added 70 receiving yards on 6 catches.
    Brown had a game-high 154 yards on 13 carries for Notre Dame while Grove finished with 130 yards on 20 attempts and Walker added 116 yards on 16 carries. Grove completed just 10-of-23 passes for a mere 34 yards on the night.
    The road doesn't get any easier for the Hilltoppers as they hit the road on Oct. 7 to take on undefeated and No. 3-ranked Shepherd. Kickoff is set for noon at Ram Stadium.
  Notre Dame                            7  17    0  0 – 24
West Liberty                           7    0  12  0 – 19      WLU: Ortiz 16 pass from Colabella (Morris kick), 6:30
     NDC: Grove 3 run (Harding kick), 4:44      NDC: Walker 25 run (Harding kick), 10:45
     NDC: Brown 9 run (Harding kick), 4:01
     NDC: FG Harding 24, :09      WLU: FG Morris 31, 10:45
     WLU: Safety, Vrebac tackled in end zone, 7:52
     WLU: Robinson 42 pass from Colabella (Morris kick), 2:53
A: 1,256      RUSHING: Notre Dame 53-371; Brown 13-154; Grove 20-130; Walker 16-116; Davis 1-8; Team 2-(-4); Vrebac 1-(-33). West Liberty 35-124; Ortiz 26-130; Durbin 2-6; Colabella 7-(-12)
     PASSING: Notre Dame 10-23-34-0td-1x (all by Grove). West Liberty 27-45-288-2td-1x (all by Colabella).
     RECEIVING: Notre Dame 10-34; Smith 4-15; D.Johnson 4-9; T.Johnson 1-6; Ross 1-4. West Liberty 27-288; Kelly 9-92; Kargbo 6-70; Robinson 5-71; Ortiz 3-22; Mayo 2-15; McLean 1-18; Durbin 1-0.
     First downs: Notre Dame 18, West Liberty 25
     Fumbles: Notre Dame 1-0, West Liberty 1-1
     Penalties: Notre Dame 10-124; West Liberty 9-98
     Time of Possession: Notre Dame 28:05, West Liberty 31:55