It was a not-so-subtle message to his football team, but one that underscored the importance of Saturday’s homecoming affair against Western Carolina University.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Rusty Wright, his Mocs reeling from three consecutive losses and starting Southern Conference play, wrote on the team’s message board: “1-0. However it happens, nothing else matters as long as we go 1-0.”
The Mocs responded with a 60-36 win at Finley Stadium, putting up nearly 600 yards of total offense and pounding the Catamounts with 400 rushing yards.
UTC 60, WCU 36
Staff writer Lindsey Young breaks down the game in bits and pieces.SATURDAY’S STARFreshman running back Ailym Ford had 195 yards and two touchdowns on 30 punishing carries to lead a bruising ground game for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He was 7 yards short of the Mocs’ freshman rushing record. Ford shared time in the first half with Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks but had to pick up more of the load in the second half due to Ibitokun-Hanks being injured.SATURDAY’S STAT84. The 400 rushing yards were the most for UTC since 2013 against Georgia State. In addition to Ford’s 195, senior graduate transfer Ibitokun-Hanks added 125 on 10 first-half carries before he was injured and quarterback Nick Tiano ran for 49. The offensive line, beat up a bit and starting a new right tackle in Colin Truett, consistently opened holes and kept Tiano clean.TURNING POINTThe Mocs were facing third-and-long on their first drive of the second half after Western Carolina University had just scored to make it a 37-28 game. Tiano was pressured and seemingly stopped short, but a personal foul for illegal hands to the face extended the drive. A facemask personal foul followed, and UTC soon scored on a Jeffrey Wood 13-yard run..HIGHLIGHT PLAYIt didn’t match the flash of the numerous big offensive plays, but a fourth-down stop in the fourth quarter will go down as one of the game’s most important moments. Ahead 47-36 with more than 10 minutes remaining and having not stopped the Catamounts in the second half, the Mocs rose up on fourth-and-4. Elusive quarterback Tyrie Adams kept the ball but was met in the hole by Ty Boeck and then cleaned up by Aaron Floyd.WHAT IT MEANSThe Mocs wanted to fix what ailed the offense, and they did that by totaling 589 yards and scoring on all but two of their possessions. Though the defense did not take a step forward and will still have its own problems to correct against better teams, the homecoming win puts a good taste in the team’s mouth heading into a big league game at Mercer.
“The run game was awesome,” Wright said. “I would much rather hand the ball off and win football games. We have some guys who can do some things. Any time you can line up and run for 400 yards, it’s going to be a good day. I told them Monday and every day this week that this was going to be one of the hardest games we’ve played this year to win, and it was. That’s the way we have to play. I don’t know if we’re going to score 60 points every time, but we can run the football. We can block up front, and we took some shots when we had the chances.”
The Mocs (2-3) were paced offensively by freshman running back Ailym Ford, who had 195 yards and two touchdowns, with Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks adding 125 and two scores before being injured and Jeffrey Wood II contributing 50 total yards and three touchdowns.
“We’re so happy to get a win,” quarterback Nick Tiano said. “It’s been a tough three weeks for us, so to get a win like this is great. We’re ready to go get another one next week.
“There are going to be games like this when we have to score 60 to help the defense, and there are going to be nights when they have to get stops to help us. I thought it was a great job of us playing team football and helping each other out.”
UTC punted only twice, including after an unproductive opening possession, and led 37-21 at halftime after producing scoring drives of 42, 75, 58, 75 and 75 yards and amassing 419 yards. The Mocs needed it as the Catamounts (1-3, 0-2) had nearly 300 first-half yards and used a pair of surprising special-teams plays to extend two of their scoring drives.
The first, a fake-field-goal run by Curtis Roach to the 3, set up a 7-6 early lead for WCU. The second was more painful for Wright as Catamounts punter Caleb Ferguson took a fake 55 yards for a touchdown after UTC had gone up 20-7.
“It looks like a shootout on the scoreboard, but it really wasn’t,” Wright said. “Insane special-teams play led to, what, 16 of their 36 points (including a late 2-point run on a fake)? I have to do a better job with special teams.”
The teams exchanged scores via big runs, the first a 73-yarder by Ibitokun-Hanks to put UTC up 27-14, the second a keeper by Tyrie Adams that followed a 39-yard run by Connell Young, who led all rushers with 218 yards.
It was part of an offensive eruption in which the teams combined for four consecutive 75-yard touchdown drives to end the first half. The Mocs capped the scoring barrage with Victor Ulmo’s 34-yard field goal to take a 37-21 lead.
The Catamounts opened the second half with another 75-yard run to cut the lead again to 11 and appeared to have stopped the Mocs. However, a personal-foul call on a third-down stop extended the drive, which ended with Wood scoring from 13 yards.
The Catamounts again scored quickly on an Adams pass to Owen Cosenke, the 2-point conversion making it a one-possession game at 44-36. The lead grew back to 11 on an Ulmo field goal before the Mocs’ defense rose to seal it.
On a WCU fourth-and-4 from the UTC 47, Ty Boeck (game-high 15 tackles) and Aaron Floyd combined to stop Adams short. The Mocs scored moments later on a short Ford run.
“I just saw the quarterback pull it, and Ty came up and made him cut back in,” said Floyd, who later added an interception. “He hit him first and I hit him second. He almost got away, but we got him. I thought we did everything right today despite the yards and points. This was a big win for us.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.
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