Mocs Win Fifth Straight With 31-10 Victory Over VMI

Chattanooga Takes Advantage Of Long Drives To Dominate Offensively

Saturday, October 26, 2024
John Hunt

The current football season didn’t start out exactly like the Chattanooga Mocs would have liked as they lost three straight games, including their conference opener to Mercer.

But they’ve been on quite a roll since, including a come-from-behind 31-10 over the VMI Keydets Saturday at Finley Stadium to win their fifth straight game.

More importantly, the Mocs are now in a first-place tie with Mercer following Western Carolina’s loss at Mercer. But life doesn’t get any easier for the Mocs as they will be on the road next week to face those Catamounts.

Chattanooga improves to 5-3 overall and 4-1 in the Southern Conference while VMI falls to 0-8 overall and 0-4 in conference play.

But on a day when the Mocs celebrated homecoming, Chattanooga took advantage of a team allowing an average of 387 yards and 34 points per game.

Piling up 399 total yards for the game, the UTC offense was quite efficient as used long drives to score and forcing the VMI defense to spend long stretches of time on the field.

UTC coach Rusty Wright knows that you can’t afford to overlook any opponent, regardless of their record, but the felt like his guys were ready to play when the game began. There was nothing fancy and no explosive touchdowns, but the Mocs took care of business and that’s all that mattered.

“That was another good win as we just kept battling,” Wright began his post-game media comments.

“We just did what we were supposed to do. I had no doubt that we could play well as it’s all about how you prepare. We were just better than them and it finally showed at the end.

“We knew their defense would have a hard time if we didn’t turn it over. With the exception of the lost fumble on our second drive, I thought our offense execution was really good and that drive to start the second half was awesome,” he said, referring to a 75-yard drive that took some 6:18 off the clock as UTC ran a dozen straight plays before Reggie Davis scored from the 2 to put the Mocs ahead 21-10.

“I thought our defense played well too. I thought we played the run well and we just allowed 220 total yards for the game. I’ll take that every Saturday. We would have liked to have a few more explosive plays, but if we can be good in practice, we’re normally good on game day,” he added.

VMI took the opening kickoff but were forced to punt, a short kick that went only 12 yards and put the Mocs in business at the 39.

It didn’t take long to move those 61 yards in 11 plays, taking the early lead when quarterback Chase Artopoeus scored the first of his two touchdowns with a keeper from the 17.

The Mocs had their only turnover following VMI’s second punt and they took advantage after Steven Riveres covered a bobble by Reggie Davis at the 14.

Chattanooga’s defense stood tall, but Caden Beck got the Keydets on the board with a 25-yard field goal with 1:22 left in the first quarter.

VMI scored again on its next possession, moving 67 yards in five plays to score when quarterback Brady Hammonds hooked up with Egypt Nelson on a 26-yard pass play. Beck’s kick gave the Keydets a 10-7 lead with 11:54 left in the second quarter, but that’s all the scoring VMI would do as the Mocs pulled away with 24 unanswered points.

Artopoeus scored his second touchdown of the game on a 21-yard scramble with 3:40 left before intermission and 14-10 was the score at the break.

UTC’s offensive execution was a thing of beauty in the second half as that first 12-play drive took 6:18 off the clock while a 13-play drive covering 79 yards erased another 6:04 that ended with the TD by Davis.

Then on UTC’s final drive that covered 60 yards in 11 plays, the Mocs scored their final points on a 30-yard field goal by Jude Kelley.

Davis led the UTC running game as he finished with 131 yards on 27 carries while Artopoeus had 82 on nine attempts. Freshman Journey Wyche also showed his potential with 64 yards in 13 carries, including the last touchdown of the game on a run from the 1 with 14:56 left in the game.

While the Mocs had 285 yards on the ground, they also had 114 through the air as Artopeous completed half of his 26 throws with a long of 16 yards twice to Javin Whatley and later to Chris Domercant.

Whatley was the leading receiver with six catches for 49 yards.

Hammonds had 134 yards passing for the game with 65 of those coming on VMI’s touchdown drive that included a 27-yarder to Ethen Horne and a 12-yarder to Nathan Lhotsky on the next play before the 26-yarder to Nelson for their only touchdown.

Horne led the VMI receivers with 58 yards on two catches while Nelson had two for 34.

While the Mocs will be in North Carolina next Saturday to face Western Carolina, VMI will be home to host Furman.

VIRGINIA MILITARY 3 7 0 0 -- 10

CHATTANOOGA 7 7 7 10 -- 31

UTC – Chase Artopeous 17 run (Jude Kelley kick), 8:06 left in first;

VMI – Caden Beck 25 field goal, 1:22 left in first;

VMI – Egypt Nelson 26 pass from Brady Hammonds (Beck kick), 11:54 left in second;

UTC – Artopeous 21 run (Kelley kick), 3:40 left in second;

UTC – Reggie Davis 2 run (Kelley kick), 8:42 left in third;

UTC – Journey Wyche 1 run (Kelley kick), 14:56 left in fourth;

UTC – Kelley 30 field goal, 8:30 left in fourth.

TEAM STATS: VMI UTC