They had a good week of practice.

It was Homecoming Night.

And they had just stopped their opponent on the game's opening drive.

All the signs seemed to favor a special night for Northwestern.

But with one play, all the positive vibes in Tiger Stadium seemed to disappear in an instant.

Notre Dame took the opening kickoff Friday night and marched to Northwestern's nine-yard line in nine plays. But the Tigers benefitted from a Crusader holding call and eventually came up with a stop on fourth down to take possession of the ball.

On their first play from scrimmage, though, Josh Snyder's team fumbled the ball right back to their Colonial League foes.

Two plays later, Notre Dame's Noah Miller tossed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Stanton Santos for a quick 7-0 lead.

While veteran clubs can put events like those behind them, most people are aware that the Tigers are not a veteran team.

Northwestern never fully recuperated from the start and ended up dropping a 35-7 decision.

"We thought we could bounce back (from the loss to Southern Lehigh the week before)," said Snyder. "I thought we had a pretty good week of practice. The kids were intense ... I thought we had a good pre-game in the locker room. I liked the emotion, the intensity and the attitude.

"It hurts, though, when you come out and your defense makes a stand, and then your first play on offense you cough the ball up and they go in and score. That's rough for a team trying to overcome adversity."

If that would have been the only adversity his team would have to overcome, the situation may have been different.

But the young Tigers continued to make mistakes and continued to fall behind on the scoreboard.

Two missed exchanges during the same series at the end of the first quarter not only had the Tigers moving backward, but it eventually gave the Crusaders a short field to work with once they got the ball back.

Miller and Co. took advantage by moving 40 yards in 10 plays. Miller went the final six to push the margin to 14-0.

"We just have way too many negative things happening," said Snyder. "We had at least four bad center-quarterback exchanges out of the gun. And there just aren't many second-and-20 plays that will get you the yardage back. We just weren't in synch, specifically on offense. We only ran (14) plays of offense in the first half (to Notre Dame's 34). We scored one long touchdown only to come back on defense and give up a blown-coverage touchdown."

As Snyder said, the Tigers did get right back in the game only to see momentum leave them again.

Mason Schuler ripped off a 31-yard run and Frank Dangello hit an open Tyler Richardson over the middle for a 46-yard scoring pass. That trimmed the margin to 14-7 with 4:16 left until halftime.

But Miller moved his team 73 yards in just seven plays, one of them a 41-yard strike from Miller to an open Owen Loughlin to set up Miller's six-yard TD and a 21-7 edge.

"When adversity comes, it's tough to overcome," said Snyder, whose team is now 2-3. "We talk about (overcoming adversity) all the time, and people having to step up. When things are going well and something bad happens, you just have to overcome it."

Northwestern tried to overcome the deficit at the start of the second half. A solid opening drive stalled on a failed fourth-down run and a turnover gave them another shot.

But with a struggling Tiger offense and the play of Miller, who finished with three touchdown runs and a pair of scoring tosses, the game got out of reach over the final 16 minutes.

"I thought offensively that first drive of the second half wasn't too bad," said Snyder. "We gained nearly 40 yards (to the Crusader 26). Good football teams finish with points and finish with the ball in the end zone. We're not there yet, but we're finding our way. It's going to take us some time.

"We did break some longer runs which we've been struggling with all year. So there was a positive in the run game. Offensively, we still have a long, long way to go ... Our defense is just on the field way too long."