NOTES | QUOTES | STATS | PHOTOS
 
MACON---The Chattanooga Mocs fell by a 30-10 final at Mercer Saturday evening. Bailey Lenoir caught a career-high six passes to lead the Mocs offensively, while Darrell Bridges added his second rushing TD of the campaign.
 
The Mocs got on the board first in the second quarter with a career-long 44-yard field goal from Victor Ulmo. The drive started on their own 13. Thirteen plays and six minutes later, it was a good start for the offense.
 
Cole Copeland got it going with passes of 13 yards to Joseph Parker and 12 to Bridges. He then converted a key third down, crossing the 50 with a wonderful touch pass to Parker for 17 yards to the Mercer 41.
 
The drive was thwarted with a first down penalty at the 27. It was something of theme. The Mocs recorded a season-high 11 flags over the course of the game.
 
The Bears scored 23 unanswered points over the middle half of the contest. Kaelen Riley completed touchdown strikes of 33 and 22 yards to Marquise Irvin and Chandler Curtis, respectively, for a 13-3 halftime advantage.
 
C.J. Leggett and Cole Fisher added 10 in the third. Leggett scored on a three-yard run, while Fisher chipped in a 23-yard field goal.
 
The Mocs got a fourth quarter score to cut it to a 23-10 deficit. Copeland and Lenoir hooked up on a 21-yard pass-and-run to get to the Mercer 5. Bridges plunged in on the very next play. Ulmo's onside kick rolled out of bounds.
 
The defense held Bears in check, but Grant Goupil's punt was downed inside the 1 yard line on a nice play by Eric Jackson. The Mocs turned the ball over on downs with 3:02 to go. Tee Mitchell scored from six yards out to provide the final.
 
Bridges led all rushers with 58 yards on 19 carries. Copeland completed 22 of 39 passing for 206 yards and one interception. Derek Mahaffey had nine tackles with two for loss.
 
Riley was the key for the Bears tossing 232 yards completing 20 of 27 attempts with two scores. Mitchell had a team-best 39 rushing. The defense was paced by Stephen Houzah and Lee Bennett with seven stops apiece.
 
NOTABLE
Three notes from tonight's contest. Check out the full complement of facts and figures in the link above.

• Career-high six catches for Lenoir.
• Defense allowed 82 yards rushing today, 2.4 yards per carry. That performance came after a combined 512 yards (256 per game) over the last two.
• 12-yard third quarter run was a career long for Alex Trotter.

QUOTABLE
Check out all we heard at the quotes link at the top of this story.
 
"I couldn't' be prouder.  We have the grit.  It is just execution and the little things.  We are going to clean it up.  It is just as simple as that, we are going to clean it up." - QB Cole Copeland on the play of senior RB Darrell Bridges.
 
STATS
Check out the final stats at the link above. Here are three stats of note…

• Bridges had more rushing yards today (58) than his previous four combined (43). The running attack showed signs of life gaining 82 yards on 22 carries. Three sacks dropped the net to just 44.
• Defense matched its season-high with seven tackles for loss but with zero sacks. Also turned in seven against Western Carolina (4 sacks) and UT Martin (1).
• Ulmo is now 5-for-6 on field goals this season. The 44-yarder was a career long.  

NEXT UP
Next week's visit from The Citadel is Military Appreciation Day at Finley Stadium. All active members and veterans of the various branches of service, along with their immediate families, are admitted for FREE along with our local first responders.
 
Rising country star Drew Baldridge takes the Mocs Block Tailgate Stage for a free concert at 12:30 p.m. Access links to tickets, video, audio and live stats here on the GoMocs.com football schedule page.
 
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