UTC wins at Wofford with better second half
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Neither quarterback Chase Artopoeus nor any of his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga teammates are about to apologize for winning ugly Saturday night at Wofford, where the Mocs had lost nine of 13 meetings going into their latest visit to Gibbs Stadium.
Was it pretty? By no means. For the first time since the season opener, Artopoeus wasn’t sharp (“He’s human,” UTC coach Rusty Wright said of the first-year starter and UCLA transfer). The running game, which has struggled to get going this season, couldn’t get going until late. The defense was solid for the most part, but not great.
But the visitors found an offensive rhythm late, scoring 17 unanswered points, and the result was a 23-13 victory as the Mocs improved to 4-1 for the second straight season. UTC, ranked No. 22 in the Football Championship Subdivision coaches poll, improved to 3-0 in the Southern Conference to stay atop the league standings.
Now the Mocs will host Western Carolina (4-1, 2-0) at 4 p.m. next Saturday at Finley Stadium for homecoming. The Catamounts were ranked in both FCS polls this week, No. 21 by coaches and No. 17 by media, and have played four FCS opponents this year, outscoring them 183-66.
The Mocs won for the fourth straight game after dropping their opener at North Alabama, and they also posted their fourth straight win in the series against Wofford (0-5, 0-2) to pull even at 15-15 all-time.
The latest victory was all about perseverance: Artopoeus struggled, completing 15 of 30 passes with two interceptions, which is one more incompletion than he had in the past three weeks. He threw for 197 yards, with 94 from four completions to sophomore receiver Javin Whatley.
“I don’t know if you ever need a game like this, but hopefully we can turn this into a positive,” Artopoeus said. “Obviously, the game didn’t go how the offense wanted
it to, but I think the defense stepped up really big and they had a great night, so I’m proud of those guys.
“On the offensive side, though, I think we need to straighten things up, and especially myself, I take a lot of blame for this rightfully, and I think that hopefully we can turn this into a positive.”
While the defense did its part to continue giving the offense chances to get back into the game, that came after a slow start that allowed Wofford’s offense to find some gaps. The Terriers were held to field goals on their first two drives, and preventing touchdowns in the first half kept UTC close.
The Terriers did score a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half to go up 13-6, but their final six possessions ended in four punts, a Jordan Walker interception and a fumble that was forced by Jay Person and recovered by Romeo Wykle.
“We just had to stay calm and keep doing our job out there,” said linebacker Alex Mitchell, who had 11 tackles and one of six sacks by the Mocs. “We couldn’t let all the outside things affect us. We just really had to stay locked in and do our job.”
Quay Wiggles had 1.5 sacks, while Mitchell, Person, Ben Brewton and Jamarr Jones finished with one each. E.J. Thomas was credited with a half-sack.
Walker’s interception on the Terriers’ second possession of the third quarter led to the Mocs’ first touchdown, with Artopoeus running it in from 3 yards out and UTC pulling even at 13. UTC punter Clayton Crile — who handled all kicking responsibilities due to an injury to Jude Kelley — made the last of his three field goals two drives later, and the Mocs put the game away on a 10-play, 78-yard series that ended in a Gino Appleberry touchdown run.
Appleberry subbed in place of Ailym Ford, who went out with an injury in the fourth quarter, when Appleberry had 78 of his team-high 93 yards.
“What happened? Sixty-two guys figured it out,” Wright said. “Every game from here on out is going to be tough. We’ll get everybody’s best shot. We took some haymakers in the first half, took some haymakers in the third quarter, but this group figured out how to keep playing.
“It’s going to be that way every week. I don’t care moving forward as long as we’ve got one more than they do after it’s all said and done. It was ugly, bad as we could play in the first half. But you know what? Those guys figured it out.”