STATS |
NOTES |
QUOTES |
PHOTOS
CHATTANOOGA---The Chattanooga Mocs battled back from an early two-touchdown deficit before succumbing to a 37-14 defeat to No. 2 James Madison on Davenport Field Saturday evening. It was a disappointing second-half finish after a first quarter flurry put the Mocs in good position.
JMU looked like it would put the game away early. Two scoring drives offensively and three-and-outs defensively made it look like a long day for the home team.
The offense settled in.
Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks broke tackles on a key third down catch-and-run for 21 yards into JMU territory. Two plays later,
Nick Tiano spotted
Bryce Nunnelly for 13 more yards to the 19. Another two and
Chris James caught a 19-yard strike from Tiano for the Mocs first score.
Thomas Burks' kickoff was bobbled by the JMU return group and
Rashun Freeman pounced on the loose ball. Tiano hit
Reginald Henderson on a 31-yard toss to the Dukes two. Tiano bulled his way in behind the right-side of the offensive front for a 14-14 score. The two touchdowns were a freaky-fast 22 seconds apart.
The defense also held strong. JMU continued to attack, but the Mocs would not break. Two field goals by the visitors sent the Chattanooga contingent into the locker room down 20-14.
There was no comeback from there. The offense managed 98 yards in the second half. The defense held JMU to an early field goal before touchdowns on a 48-yard screen pass from Ben DiNucci to Brandon Polk and a 1-yard plunge by Percy Agyei-Obese ended the scoring.
"That's what good football teams do," Coach
Rusty Wright shared. "They figure out ways to win. We have to quit shooting ourselves in the foot early. When you play guys like this and Jacksonville State, everything is magnified. Everything. You can't make mistakes because that's what good football teams do, they take the second-half kickoff and drive down and get points.
"I knew it was going to be tough and I'm not faulting our players at all, they fought their butts off. They fought really hard, that was a physical football game out there today."
The Mocs had 245 yards of total offense with Tiano completing 12 of 26 passes for 161 yards with the touchdown and an interception. His counterpart DiNucci was 19 of 25 for 264 yards and a score. Agyei-Obese led all rushers with 114 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns.
RECORDS – Chattanooga (1-3) | James Madison (3-1)
SERIES – Chattanooga trails 0-1.
QUOTABLE
"You hate 1-3, obviously, with how much we have put into it. This isn't the result we wanted, but it was four really tough games. We showed a lot of good things and fought really hard. All our goals are still in front of us, we can still go win the conference and do all the things we want to do. We just have to use this as fuel, get better and learn from our mistakes." –
Senior QB Nick Tiano.
"Just excitement. Scoring a touchdown against the number two team in the country, it was pretty surreal. It just gives me confidence knowing that I can go out and compete against the best teams in the country." –
Senior TE Chris James on his first career TD reception.
Check out all we heard at the quotes link at the top of the story.
3 NOTES TO KNOW
- Second-ranked James Madison is the highest-ranked team to visit the Mocs at Finley Stadium since No. 2 Georgia Southern on Oct 27, 2012. They're the top-ranked non-conference opponent since the move to the Southside Chattanooga facility in 1997. The last non-conference opponent ranked better in the polls? No. 1 Middle Tennessee on Sept. 29, 1990.
- First non-conference matchup with a Virginia-based school since Richmond in 1978.
- TE Chris James had his first career reception at Tennessee last week and today caught his first touchdown pass. James signed with the Mocs in 2017 as a QB from Hutchinson (Kan.) C.C. He moved to tight end in fall camp.
Check out all the extra info at the notes link at the top of the story.
3 STATS TO KNOW
- Bryce Nunnelly caught five passes for 47 yards. The total marks is the third time in four games this season and 14th in the last 15 that he's had five or more receptions.
- The Dukes amassed 532 yards of offense in very balanced fashion with 268 on the ground and 264 in the air.
Check out all the numbers at the stats link at the top of the story.
NEXT GAME – Western Carolina at Chattanooga (Homecoming) | Sat., Sept. 28 | 4 p.m. |
2019 Schedule
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