The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs knew what they had to do to earn another shot at Jacksonville State in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs: Beat Fordham.
With a dominant first half Saturday, they earned that rematch with the team that beat them in the season opener.
The seventh-ranked Mocs (9-3) piled up 326 yards in the first half and built a 31-0 halftime lead, cruising to a 50-20 victory over the 14th-ranked Rams in front of 4,888 fans at Finley Stadium.
The Mocs will travel to face the top-ranked Gamecocks, the top seed in the FCS playoffs, a week from today in Jacksonville, Ala. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST.
The UTC offense piled up a season-high 560 yards, with 349 on the ground. The Mocs had a pair of 90-yard drives for the first time since Russ Huesman became the coach - both in the first half when they built the comfortable margin by scoring on each of their four possesions.
Lucas Webb had his school-record third career interception return for a touchdown and his second this season in the first quarter.
"That was one of the blitzes we've practiced all week," Webb said. "The linebackers did a great job of executing and rushing the quarterback. It was something we'd practiced to help out the other guy with the quarterback being a scramble guy. He just kind of threw it to me, I got a great block on the edge and was able to take it back."
Webb's ninth career interception ties the Mocs record set by his head coach from 1978 to 1981.
"If you stay tied with me, I'll kill you," Huesman told Webb afterward.
Quarterback Jacob Huesman had 340 yards of total offense. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder completed 17 of his 25 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 129 yards on 15 carries. That was his fourth consecutive game with at least 100 yards both passing and rushing.
Derrick Craine had 154 yards on 23 carries for his second-best total of the year. James Stovall had two touchdowns on his three catches for 57 yards, while C.J. Board had a team-best 59 yards on three catches.
"Tremendous job by our football team to beat a team that's really, really good," Coach Huesman said. "We played well, especially offensively. We executed offensively and were tremendous today. When you score (41) points and do the things we do, I'm proud of them."
Huesman added that while he was disappointed in the defensive effort after the score reached 38-0, "Fordham had a lot to do with that." The Rams finished with 416 yards, but their 20 points were a little more than half of the 38.8 they averaged in 11 regular-season games.
UTC limited the Rams to 145 yards of total offense in the first half. Fordham running back Chase Edmonds, the Patriot League offensive player of the year with 1,643 yards and 20 touchdowns, had 5 yards on three carries and played only the first two drives after an injury suffered in the season finale on Nov. 14 against Georgetown.
The Mocs played without receiver Xavier Borishade and defensive tackle Josh Freeman. Backup quarterback Alejandro Bennifield dressed but did not play.
The Rams showed some more life in the second half, with 271 yards, including 227 passing by quarterback Kevin Anderson, who finished with 329 and three touchdowns despite being sacked five times by the Mocs. Phazahn Odom had six catches for 85 yards to lead Fordham, while Jarred Brevard replaced Edmonds in the lineup and had 70 yards on 10 carries.
Fordham returned only three starters from last season's team but opened the season with a 37-35 win over Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Army and finished 9-3.
"You have to credit Coach Huesman and his staff. They have a tremendous top-flight program and did a great job game-planning," Fordham coach Joe Moorhead said. "The big thing we harped on all week, when you reach this part of the season and there are 24 teams left, the speed of the game and the margin of error relate to each other. The margin for error when playing a team like UTC is small, but we competed until the end and I'm proud of these kids."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at @genehenleytfp.