The University of Notre Dame pulled off a bit of an upset this past week, beating Davenport 36-24 on the road to record the Fighting Irish's first victory of the season.

Notre Dame had previously lost to Ohio State, Lindenwood-Belleville, and Grand Valley State and had been hit relatively hard by Indiana.

Against a Davenport team that was dealing with some injuries, the Irish finally came through with a Thursday night victory that put them into the FloRugby Top 50. 

Notre Dame No. 8 Pat McMahon scored two tries in the game, and sophomore lock Mike Matarazzo, sophomore prop Max Coduti, senior prop Aristotle Zervoudakis, and sophomore scrumhalf Jake Randle all touched down.

The result could be something of a momentum-changer for Notre Dame. Head coach Justin Hickey has been trying to bring the school up to the level of some of the other Catholic programs, such as Wheeling Jesuit, St. Bonaventure, Boston College, and Notre Dame College.

It is taking some time, but a victory over one of the top programs in the nation doesn't hurt.

"I would call it a signature win for us," said Hickey, who coached at Davenport some years ago. "There's a friendly rivalry with them, but Notre Dame had never beaten them. People realized this was an elusive one."

Hickey said this was a long-term milestone win for the Irish program because the team is so underclassmen-heavy. 

"We've got a lot of young talent," he said. "The young guys have expectations to be successful now. We expect to do well in the future, but we expect to be successful now. There were a lot of things we could have pointed at — on the road, 0-3, academics piling up — but we didn't."

Next up, Notre Dame will face Western Michigan (Oct. 27), Wheeling Jesuit (Nov. 3), Navy (Nov. 17), and Stanford (Nov. 26), with all but Stanford being at home. 

If the Irish can come away 3-1 in that run — and not be hit too hard by Navy — Notre Dame could solidify a ranked spot for the foreseeable future.

"We feel like we're improving and doing the right things," Hickey said. "But if you're not winning it just makes it harder. We felt like we needed a win, for now, and for us to go into fall break with a positive vibe and then come back energized and with some confidence that is a big corner for us to turn."