Football Earns SoCon Road Win at VMI, 21-14

GoMocs- The Chattanooga Mocs football team rebounded from last week’s defeat with a strong defensive effort to notch a 21-14 victory over VMI at Alumni Memorial Field in Lexington, Virginia, during Southern Conference action on Saturday afternoon.

Quick Records & Series
Chattanooga: 2-4, 1-1 SoCon | VMI: 1-4, 0-1 SoCon
Series: Chattanooga now leads the all-time series 21-9-1.

Breakdown

• Both teams punted twice during a scoreless first quarter before Chattanooga capped off a 10-play, 72-yard drive with a six-yard TD strike from Camden Orth to Josh Williams on the first play of the second frame to take a 7-0 lead (2Q, 14:54).
• After VMI converted a 37-yard field goal (2Q 8:10), Chattanooga went 99 yards in nine plays with the touchdown drive ending on a Ryan Ingram eight-yard plunge ahead of the halftime break to take a 14-3 lead.
• The Keydets cut its deficit to just three, 14-11 (3Q 6:14), after a 75-yard interception return for a touchdown and a successful two-point conversion. Ingram scored his second rushing touchdown of the day just four minutes later to put the Mocs ahead by 10, 21-11 (3Q 2:10).
• The Chattanooga defense stood tall all day in Lexington and held the Keydets offense out of the endzone for the duration of the contest while allowing just a late fourth-quarter field goal, capping off the 21-14 victory.

Scoring Plays
2Q 14:54 (UTC) · J. Williams 6-yd TD rec. from C. Orth (XP) · 7-0 (UTC)
2Q 8:10 (VMI) · B. Shrewsbury 37-yd FG · 7-3 (UTC)
2Q 0:23 (UTC) · R. Ingram 8-yd TD rush (XP) · 14-3 (UTC)

3Q 6:14 (VMI) · A. Allen 75-yd INT return for TD (2PT GOOD) · 14-11 (UTC)
3Q 2:10 (UTC) · R. Ingram 10-yd TD rush (XP) · 21-11 (UTC)

4Q 6:30 (VMI) · B. Shrewsbury 31-yd FG · 21-14 (UTC)

Resources: Stats | Notes | Quotes | Series

Chattanooga Top Performers
QB Camden Orth: 14-23, 123 yards, TD
RB Justus Durant: 20 carries, 144 yards, 2 receptions, 15 yards
RB Ryan Ingram: 13 carries, 60 yards, 2 TD
DB Kamari Todd: 14 tackles, TFL
DB Kam Baah-Slay: 9 tackles

Notes to Know

• 99-yard scoring drive in second quarter to go up 14-3…all 99 yards came on the ground (8 carries) with the big jolt coming on a Justus Durant 52-yard dash…was followed by runs of 12 (Durant) and 11 yards (Ryan Ingram)…Ingram completed it by bulling his way eight yards through all three levels of Keydets….1st 99-yard march since the Sept. 22, 2018 win over Samford…that went 13 plays in 5:50.
• The win is the 30th in SoCon contests under Wright…he is the fastest Mocs head football coach to 30 wins in league play (46 games)…that’s one faster than fellow alum Russ Huesman (30-17).
• RB Justus Durant had a UTC career-high 144 yards on 20 carries…topped the 2,000-yard mark during 52 yard run towards the end of the first half converting a key third down in the TD drive…Durant now has 2,089 career rushing yards including his first two years at Shorter.

Quotable
Rusty Wright, head coach – “It was good because it wasn’t like it was one guy. We had guys all over the field today. For a 21-14 game, it had a bunch of ups and downs. I’m happy for our players and coaches to get this done on this long trip. I thought we were ready to play and played well out of the gate. It was great to just see so many guys contribute today. We can get so much better, too. Just super proud of these kids for going out there and playing.”

Justus Durant, running back – “Last week, we rushed well, but the offensive line, man, they really worked this week. We moved the ball so well today. We laid it all out on the line and we knew what we had to do. We accomplished that.”