Football Dominates Second Half, Routs Western Carolina 41-18 on Saturday - University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics

Saturday, October 24

Cullowhee, N.C.

2:30 PM

Chattanooga

5-3 , 4-1

Western Carolina

3-5 , 1-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Chattanooga	0	10	7	24	41
Western Caro.	3	7	0	8	18

Notes Quotes

Defense makes another crunching tackle on a Western Carolina receiver.

Photo by: Willis Glasgow

10/24/2026 7:11:00 PM | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

The Chattanooga Mocs football team scored 24 fourth-quarter points and allowed just one offensive TD to the Catamounts during Saturday’s victory.

Box Score | Notes | Quotes | Photos

CULLOWHEE, N.C. (October 24, 2026) --- The Chattanooga Mocs football team erupted for 31 second-half points and dominated the ground attack during a 41-18 rout over Western Carolina during Southern Conference action on a sunny Saturday afternoon inside E.J. Whitmire Stadium in Cullowhee, N.C.

Following the win, Chattanooga improves to 5-3 overall and now sits at 4-1 inside SoCon play. Western Carolina drops to 3-5 and 1-3 in league play after the defeat.

Quick Records & Series
Chattanooga: 5-3, 4-1 SoCon
Western Carolina: 3-5, 1-3 SoCon
Series: 52nd all-time meeting… UTC now leads the all-time series 32-20… now leads 15-12 in Cullowhee.

Game Breakdown

Chattanooga's defense came up with a goal line stop late in the first quarter to hold the Catamounts to a short 28-yard field goal, allowing the hosts to take a slight 3-0 lead (1:47).
Chattanooga grabbed a 7-3 lead with 4:01 left before halftime after QB Battle Alberson connected with WR Taylor Crumedy on a 37-yard deep shot to set up a RB Journey Wyche four-yard touchdown plunge three plays later.
Western Carolina's AJ Colombo sparked its Homecoming crowd with an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown to put the hosts ahead 10-7 (2Q 2:29) before K Jude Kelley closed the half with a school record 57-yard field goal to tie things 10-10 at the break.
QB Alberson opened the scoring on the first possession of the second half with a 19-yard touchdown run to put Chattanooga ahead 17-10 at the 13:12 mark of the third before another Kelley FG at the beginning of the fourth made it 20-10 (4Q 11:55).
Choas ensued over the game's next five-plus minutes as a pair of Chattanooga interceptions from Jaden Nelson and Kristian Ozane set up short touchdown scores and extended the lead into a 34-10 rout with 6:40 left.
After WCU found the endzone on offense for the first time, Chattanooga capped off the 41-18 victory with a 37-yard RB Lalin touchdown run with less than two minutes remaining.

Inside the Stats

Chattanooga rushed for 295 yards on 53 attempts (5.6 per rush) during the victory… 206 rushing yards came in the second half… earned a 295-76 (+219) advantage on the ground attack.
QB Battle Alberson completed just five passes on 11 attempts and finished with 103 yards… 20.6 yards-per-completion… WR Taylor Crumedy accounted for three catches and 79 yards.
RB Kevin Lalil rushed for 135 yards on 20 attempts and scored twice… averaged 6.8 yards-per-rush… RB Journey Wyche went for 105 yards and one TD on 17 rushes… Alberson accounted for 37 rushing yards and two TD.

Game Notables

K Jude Kelley's 57-yard field goal at the end of the first half is a new school record topping 53 by Scott Kielblock vs. Samford on Sept. 3, 1998...first 50-yarder since 52 by Henrique Ribeiro at ETSU on Oct. 1, 2016…it's the eighth in school history.
The 41 points scored today ties season high (Wofford)... scored on six of the last seven drives of the games including five of six in the second half... 24 points scored in the fourth quarter…second quarter of 24 points this season tallying 24 against Wofford in the second period in September.
LB Zion Rutledge passed the 200 career tackle mark in the first three plays of the game... he came into the contest with 197…tied his career high with 17 stops including 1.5 for loss which also ties a career best.

Postgame Quotes
HC Rusty Wright's overall thoughts after the 41-18 win: "That was just a bunch of kids playing their tails off. I mean, our coaching staff called a great game. But in the end, there were a bunch of kids not stopping playing their tails off. That's as simple as it gets. It wasn't very pretty a lot of the time, but we just had a bunch of dudes playing their tails off and turn it loose out there, and it was a lot of fun."

RB Journey Wyche on the running attack: "There wasn't always big holes out there, and there rarely is for anyone, and sometimes you're going to get that one yard gain, but I think our running backs are built for that. It's the steady one, three, yard gains that kind of wear defenses down. It's the little things that not everyone sees and pays the most attention towards. Our running back room, those guys are good man."

Up Next | Buy Tickets
Chattanooga returns home next weekend for Southern Conference action against VMI on Saturday (October 31). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. (ET) inside Finley Stadium. Fans can watch the game live on ESPN+, follow live stats at GoMocs.com, or listen on WFLI 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM.

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