Mocs find offense in win over Portland St

It was an offensive masterclass by the Mocs (1-3) under the lights, with the UTC offense netting 567 total yards and never having to punt the ball against the Vikings (0-4). Chase Artopoeus capped off his evening with a 396-yard, four-touchdown performance in the victory, connecting with the duo of Sam Phillips (150 yards, one touchdown) and Javin Whatley (108 yards, three touchdowns) on 13 of his 24 completions.

“I thought the coaches and players did a nice job bouncing back after a tough, crazy month,” head coach Rusty Wright said following the 45-30 victory. “Winning is hard. I don’t care where you’re at, what you’re doing. It’s hard, even when you do things well.

“I thought we played well. We played a good football game tonight. Offensively we played well. Anytime you score 45 points, you got to have an opportunity to win a football game. I thought we ran the football a little better tonight, gave ourselves an opportunity to do some things that way. Played just well enough defensively to get out of our own way. We did a good job stopping them when we had to stop them.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Mocs struck early and often right from the start, with Chattanooga’s defense forcing a quick three-and-out before marching down the field on PSU. Justus Durant capped off the eight-play, 65-yard drive for the Mocs with a goal line touchdown run, his first in a Mocs uniform.

While the Vikings were able to respond right back with a touchdown of their own a minute later, the Mocs kept their foot on the gas with Reggie Davis ripping off a 24-yard touchdown scamper to once again put UTC ahead. Reuben Lowery III then pulled out the acrobatics, snagging an interception on his hip that would later lead to a 28-yard touchdown pass by Artopoeus to Javin Whatley, making it 21-7 Mocs right before the end of the opening quarter.

Portland State once again dug into the Chattanooga lead with a touchdown near the midpoint of the second frame, but the Artopoeus-Whatley connection once again came up big for the Mocs as the duo would link up from 13 yards out for their second touchdown of the night. Heading into the locker room, the Mocs were on top 28-14.

UTC carried its offensive firepower right into the second half, first in the form of a 40-yard Jude Kelley field goal with 8:00 left in the third. Not long after, Artopoeus would then hit on his longest pass of the day, finding Sam Phillips on a quick slant that Phillips subsequently took on a 78-yard house call, bolstering the Chattanooga lead to 38-14.

A Viking touchdown, a failed PSU two-point conversion, and a 35-yard field goal by Mathias Uribe closed out the third quarter for Portland State as the Mocs carried a 38-23 advantage into the fourth and final frame.

For good measure, Artopoeus and Whatley would score their third touchdown pass-reception hit of the evening to bump the UTC lead back up to 22 points. A last gasp touchdown pass by the Vikings proved too little too late, as the Moc offense cruised its way to a 45-30 victory under the Saturday night lights.

ost conversions since 12 (15) at VMI on Sept. 23, 2017…entered the contest four of 37 for the year.

2 – Scored touchdowns on the first four drives of the game…last time that happened was win the 48-3 win last Sept. 16 over The Citadel…streak stopped when the Mocs got a fourth down stop with 48 seconds to play in the half and ran twice before going into the locker room for intermission…scored on first six full possessions.

3 – The last time the Mocs had two 100-yard receivers and a 100-yard rusher was 2015…the 31-23 win on Nov. 14 over The Citadel featured C.J. Board (5-116) & Xavier Borishade (5-107, 1 TD) handling the receiving chores while Jacob Huesman ran for 118 yards on five carries with two scores…Huesman accounted for 310 yards total offense.

“That is the only thing that I care about. I want to see a group go out there and play like they are capable of playing. I think we did on one side and maybe half the time on the other. So we know we got things we need to get better at, but you know, at the end of the day, we’ve got to figure out a way to make stops when we have to have stops. But we had fun. It’s been a while since we won a football game.” – Coach Rusty Wright on what he got out of the game besides a win.

“Like I said, the flow. I think there’s a different energy tonight. We kind of had a chip on our shoulder tonight especially. You know, you’re 0-3. You got to kind of climb our way out of that pit we dug. I think that we were able to do that. I think we had more fight than we may have had against Mercer.” – QB Chase Artopoeus on the difference between playing Mercer two weeks ago to now.