Chattanooga
Western Carolina
Western Carolina Tops Chattanooga 27-7
11/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
The Catamounts opened the scoring with a four-yard scoring toss from Zack Jaynes to Adam Hearns at 6:41 in the first quarter. The play came immediately after a Jeff Lloyd fumble on a botched snap on a punt attempt from the Mocs own endzone.
A 20-yard field goal by Blake Bostic made it 10-0
The game got a little crazy from there. A Jare Gault fumble on a sack and return by Jeff Bradley gave the Catamounts the ball on the Mocs one-yard line. On the next play, redshirt freshman safety
After holding the Catamounts to a punt to start the second half,
After the Mocs offense had a three-and-out, the defense came up with a big play. On second-and-nine, senior CB Raeshon Ball picked off a Jaynes pass in the flat and returned it 41 yards to cut the lead to 13-7 at 3:51 in the third quarter.
WCU then took advantage of two costly
The Catamounts defense limited the Mocs to 178 yards in total offense forcing five turnovers.
Erroll Wynn was the story on offense with a season-high 95 yards on the day on 22 rushes. The defense was led by Ball who had four tackles to go with his touchdown return. Joseph Thornton added seven tackles, while Rodney Beamon added six of his own along with one-and-a-half sacks.
Jaynes was 14-25 with an interception for just 146 yards, but his three scoring strikes made the difference. Hearns was his favorite target with seven catches for 59 yards. Levon Curtis made his first start at RB and responded with 104 yards on 18 carries.
The Mocs return to action next Saturday, Nov. 8, returning home to host SoCon leader Appalachian State with a game time of 2 p.m.
NOTES:
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>RT Brian Heflin made his first appearance, and first start, of the season. He had been out with a back injury.
>Jeff Lloyd's first quarter punt of 70 yards is a career long. It was also the first touchback of the season for a UTC punter.
>Chris Pitchford tied his career high for receptions with four in the first half and receiving yards with 34 finishing the game with those totals.
>Sloan Allison started the second half at quarterback for the Mocs for Jare Gault.
>The 73 yards on the Mocs first drive of the second half was eight more yards than the offense recorded in the first half.
>The Ball interception return for touchdown in the third quarter (3:51) is the first score on a return of any kind for the Mocs this season. It is the first interception return for touchdown since Buster Skrine last year against
>The block of the Lloyd punt late in the third quarter marked the ninth game with a block, for or against, in a
