Western Carolina Steamrolls UTC To Snap Streak

Loss Costly For Mocs As Bennifield, Tiano Both Get Hurt In 45-7 Romp

  • Saturday, September 30, 2017
  • John Hunt
Western Carolina's Tyler Sexton jumps over two Mocs on his way out of bounds Saturday night in the Mocs 45-7 loss.
Western Carolina's Tyler Sexton jumps over two Mocs on his way out of bounds Saturday night in the Mocs 45-7 loss.
photo by Greg Davick

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the Chattanooga Mocs football team this fall, but more lows than highs for first year coach Tom Arth.

The Mocs started off the season with three straight losses to really good teams before bouncing back with a 63-7 victory at VMI last Saturday.

That high didn’t last very long as the Mocs got waxed by the Western Carolina Catamounts at Finley Stadium Saturday night, the visitors from North Carolina ending an eight-game losing streak against Chattanooga with a resounding 45-7 victory.

To add insult to injury, the Mocs lost their top two quarterbacks.

Senior southpaw Alejandro Bennifield, who was suspended by the NCAA for the first four games, was the starter for the Mocs and completed his first three passes on Chattanooga opening drive.  Two plays later, he got blasted on sack by Western’s Nate Link.

He left the game and never returned before being taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

Transfer Nick Tiano replaced him and played really well as UTC’s most productive offensive player with 22 yards rushing and 11 pass completions in 23 attempts for 88 yards.

His night ended on the second play of the fourth quarter when he picked up three yards on a keeper from the Western 8 to the 5, but he was hit by big Marvin Tillman and left the field holding his left shoulder.

Dominic Caldwell came in to replace Tiano and completed a six-yard pass to Darrell Bridges for Chattanooga’s only touchdown with 11:59 left in the game.

The Catamounts came back and scored one more touchdown for the final 45-7 margin of victory, but the outcome had long been determined before those final two TDs.

UTC’s Arth can only wonder how much worse things can get for him and his scrappy Mocs.

“We’re in a bad situation and we put ourselves there early.  It was just a bad night all the way around for our football team,” he expressed afterward.

“Dro (Bennifield) went down early and I really feel for him, but we just didn’t do a good job of protecting him.  They put pressure on us all night, but we never really recovered after he went out.  All of the tests have been negative and we hope all is okay, but we really don’t know much at this point.

“Western Carolina has a fine football team.  They executed and made a bunch of big plays, but we just need to see where we can be better.  We struggled on offense all game as we never had a whole lot going.  Now we have to try to bounce back next week against Furman,” he added.

Trailing 24-0 near the end of the first half, the Mocs had their best opportunity to score as they marched from their own 25 down to the Western 9, only to have Tiano stopped for no gain on fourth-and-8.

Arth was asked about the call to go for a possible touchdown rather than kicking what may have been a sure field goal.

“Maybe we should have kicked it at that point, but we had a good play called.  James Stovall was wide open, but Nick got flushed out of the pocket and never had a chance to get it to him.  We were needing touchdowns at that point and that’s why I chose to go for us instead of kicking a field goal,” the first-year coach explained.

The Catamounts came in averaging more than 40 points per game and 571.3 yards offense per contest.  They were limited to just 392 total yards Saturday night, but that’s all they needed after the defense scored a pair of TDs in the second half.

Needless to say, Western Carolina coach Mark Speir was overjoyed with the final result.

“All I can say right now is Wow,” he began his post-game comments outside the Catamount dressing room.

“We had an emotional win over Samford last week, but we had a great week of preparation and I felt like we played with a lot of confidence tonight.  I can’t say enough about our defense as we were totally swarming to the ball.  It was a physical football game.

“That was probably the best defensive performance since I’ve been here, but we played a complete game, didn’t have any turnovers and beat a really good team on the road,” the sixth-year coach added.

The Catamounts finished with 392 total yards, including 222 on the ground and another 170 through the air.

Corey Holloway was the leading rusher with 105 yards on 14 carries, including a long of 58 yards that led to a 39-yard field goal by Will Horton with 1:59 left in the first quarter.

Quarterback Tyrie Adams completed eight of 15 passes for 125 yards and a 38-yard TD strike to Steffon Hill late in the third quarter.  He also added 44 rushing yards on 10 carries.

That 10-0 lead after one quarter stretched to 24-0 by intermission as the defense scored both touchdowns.

The first came with 7:19 to play when Tiano got blasted by Tahjai Watt near the end zone and fumbled before A.J. Newman recovered for a TD. 

The second one came about three minutes later when Tiano was again blasted as he tried to pass by Newman as Nate Link recovered for the touchdown.

Holloway, who had scored Western’s first touchdown in the first quarter on a run from the one, added another one-yard TD run in the third before Adams hooked up with Hill on the 38-yarder to give the visitors a commanding 38-0 lead.

Holloway’s second TD may have been the easiest of the game for the Catamounts.

The Mocs were in punt formation on fourth-and-11, but punter Colin Brewer was hit by Jacquez Williams and fumbled, only to have Bruce Squires recover at the one.  Holloway scored on the next play.

Bridges kept the Mocs from being blanked when he scored at the 11:59 mark of the fourth quarter while backup quarterback Ray Smith tossed a 26-yard TD to Jordan Mathis for the game’s final score with 6:57 to play.

Chattanooga finished with 172 total yards, including 49 on the ground and another 123 through the air.  The Mocs had a pathetic two yards rushing in the first half and only 71 through the air.

Richarde Bagley was the leading rusher with 34 yards on 10 carries while Tiano had 22 on 13 attempts and Bridges 16 yards on eight carries.

Bingo Morton was the leading receiver for Chattanooga with six catches for 49 yards.  Bridges had four grabs for 27 yards and the one TD while Joseph Parker had two catches for 20 yards.  Wil Young, Bailey Lenoir and Bagley all had one catch apiece for the remaining 27 yards.

The Catamounts, now 4-1 overall and 2-0 in SoCon play, is on a four-game winning streak after a season-opening loss at Hawaii.  They will be on the road again next week at No. 7 Wofford.

The Mocs are now 1-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play.  They will be back at Finley Stadium next Saturday for a 4 p.m. homecoming kickoff against Furman.

The announced attendance was 10,101, but in all truth, there may have been half that many in the stands and most were gone by the time the game ended.

WESTERN CAROLINA  10  14  14  7  --  45

CHATTANOOGA  0  0  0  7  --  7

WCU – Corey Holloway 1 run (Will Horton kick), 5:03 left in first;

WCU – Horton 39 field goal, 1:59 left in first;

WCU – A.J. Newman fumble recovery in end zone (Horton kick), 7:19 left in second;

WCU – Nate Link fumble recovery in end zone (Horton kick), 4:20 left in second;

WCU – Holloway 1 run (Horton kick), 8:49 left in third;

WCU – Steffon Hill 38 pass from Tyrie Adams (Joshua Gibson kick), 3:45 left in third;

UTC – Darrell Bridges 6 pass from Dominic Caldwell (Victor Ulmo kick), 11:59 left in fourth;

WCU – Jordan Mathis 26 pass from Ray Smith (Gibson kick), 6:57 left in fourth.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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