Mercer Rallies To Beat Chattanooga, 13-9

Missed Opportunities Cost Mocs At Least Three Touchdowns In First Half

Saturday, November 10, 2018
John Hunt

It was a case of missed opportunities for the Chattanooga Mocs in their Southern Conference football game with the Mercer Bears Saturday afternoon at Finley Stadium.

The Mocs won the battle, but the Bears won the war.

Final score: Mercer 13, Chattanooga 9.

For all practical purposes, the Mocs should have been ahead by at least three touchdowns in the first half, but instead were scoreless with the Bears at the end of the second quarter.

Former McCallie standout Alex Trotter had his longest run of the season on the game's second play, but fumbled at the 1 after a 63-yard gain.

The Mocs had a first and goal from the 4 midway through the second quarter, but were stopped twice at the one for their second missed opportunity.

The big play in that drive was a 50 yard pass from quarterback Nick Tiano to Bryce Nunnelly.

Then late in the second quarter big senior Derek Mahaffey intercepted a pass from Mercer's Harrison Frost and appeared to be on his way to a 60-yard return.

However, he was flagged at the 2 for a personal foul called "high stepping" and that drive ended with a missed 47-yard field goal by Thomas Burks.

The situation only got worse in the second half as Mercer scored the game-winning touchdown with 2:29 to play to prevail, 13-9.

The season started out with such promise and four straight wins, but it appears unless a miracle happens at South Carolina next Saturday, it will end with three straight losses.

Saturday’s game against the Bears was certainly a winnable affair, but for whatever reason, the Mocs didn’t get the job done from start to finish.

“That was a tough day. We played lights out defensively most of the game, but early mistakes really hurt us,” said Chattanooga head coach Tom Arth after the game ended.

“We had the two-point lead there at the end and we had to decide what we would do with the kickoff. We could have squibbed it or pooched it up the air, but I chose to kick it deep. I should have kicked it out of bounds and made them drive down field.

“We gave them opportunities at the end and that’s on me. I’ll take the blame. Those early mistakes were certainly game changers, but I just didn’t make the right decisions today. There were a lot of short yardage situations that were critical and we simply didn’t execute.

“Again, this loss totally falls on me,” he concluded.

Victor Ulmo gave Chattanooga a 3-0 lead with a 38-yard field goal early in the third quarter. The former Baylor kicker than made it 6-0 with a 28 yarder early in the fourth.

Mercer took the lead for the first time with 12:32 to play when Harrison Frost tossed a 19-yard TD pass to Chris Ellington. Cole Fisher’s PAT made it 7-6.

Ulmo then booted his third field goal – this time from 19 yards – with 2:29 to play for a 9-7 Chattanooga lead, but Stephen Houzah returned the following kickoff 91 yards to the Chattanooga 1.

The Mocs stopped Tyray Devezin for no gain on the first two plays, but the stocky sophomore bulled his way into the end zone on the third attempt with less than two minutes to play.

Chattanooga had used its final two timeouts on that last Mercer drive, so the Mocs faced a huge challenge starting at their own 13 with the game on the line and a clock that was ticking.

The Mocs picked up one first down, but the drive – and the game – ended when Tiano’s pass was incomplete at the 24 with less than 40 seconds to play.

All the Bears had to do was snap the ball and let the clock expire to celebrate its first win since a 59-46 win over Western Carolina on Oct. 20.

Mercer is now 5-5 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play while Chattanooga falls to 6-4 overall and 4-4 in conference play.

Chattanooga ended up with a commanding 309-149 advantage in total yards, but a key statistic that doesn’t normally show up is the kickoff return yardage. It was huge on Saturday as the Bears had three for 177 yards.

The Mocs had 120 yards rushing and 189 passing.

Trotter was the leading rusher with 96 yards on 11 carries while Tyrell Price had 48 yards on 17 trips.

Young had seven pass receptions for 72 yards while Nunnelly had six catches for 91 yards.

Devezin was Mercer’s leading rusher with 73 yards on 22 carries.

Marquise Irvin, Stephen Houzah and Devezin all had two pass receptions for 12, 10 and 37 yards, respectively.

Mercer will finish its season at home next Saturday against Furman while the Mocs will travel to Columbia to face the South Carolina Gamecocks.

MERCER 0 0 0 13 -- 13

CHATTANOOGA 0 0 3 6

UTC – Victor Ulmo 38 field goal, 11:37 left in third;

UTC – Ulmo 28 field goal, 12:50 left in fourth;

MER – Chris Ellington 19 pass from Harrison Frost (Cole Fisher kick), 12:32 left in fourth;

UTC – Ulmo 19 field goal, 2:29 left in fourth;