Faced with a must-in situation if they were going to keep their hopes of a winning season alive, the Bucs marched into Finley Stadium and defeated the Chattanooga Moccasins 24-22 last Saturday night.
The Buccaneer defense came up huge, holding Chattanooga quarterback Chris Sanders to just 254 passing yards and zero touchdown passes, both well below his season averages.
On the other side of the ball the Bucs were led, like they have been all season, by quarterback Todd Wells. Wells completed 20 of 35 passes for 249 yards and threw two touchdown passes with no interceptions. Wells also ran the ball 11 times for 39 yards.
With 288 yards of total offense, Wells set the all-time total offense record, bringing his total to 8,613 yards, surpassing former record-holder Greg Ryan’s 8,232.
“Todd Wells is the best quarterback in the Southern Conference,” said ETSU Head Football Coach Paul Hamilton. “He led by example today. He was knocked around in the first half, but came back in the second half and showed what it’s all about.”
Wells got a lot of help on the offensive side of the ball from receiver Cecil Moore, who made 12 catches for 165 yards and caught both of Wells’ touchdown passes. Moore also came up with important first downs, it seemed, whenever the Bucs needed them.
After trailing 15-3 going into the half, it seemed the Bucs losing streak might have reached a season high three games, with losses to Georgia Southern and Wofford the past two weeks.
But the offense came out firing in the second half and on the Bucs first possession it took just 58 seconds for them to get their first touchdown of the game. A 24 yard pass from Wells to Moore put the score at 15-10.
“Our offensive football team came out to play and made the difference,” Hamilton said. “We had not played well and were only down 12. I told the defense to keep playing hard for us.”
After the defense came up with a big stop, the offense came right back and put the Bucs up for the first time in the game, behind a 26-yard run by Wells and then a 3-yard touchdown pass from Wells to Moore.
The Bucs then went for the two-point conversion and who else but Cecil Moore got the call, as Wells found him for the conversion putting the Bucs up 18-15.
“We believed we could come back and win this game,” Hamilton said.
The Buccaneer offense was not finished. The Bucs capped a 15 play 96-yard possession with a one yard touchdown run by fullback Corey Carter putting them up 24-15 following a missed extra point with 8:15 to go in the game.
On the possession the Bucs received a huge catch from Moore as they faced third down with 26 yards to go. Moore caught a Wells pass and brought it down to the Chattanooga 22-yard line to get the first down and set up the touchdown.
Chattanooga answered right back with a long drive of their own, 12 plays for 73 yards, culminating with a touchdown to bring the score to 24-22.
However the Mocs’ possession took too much time, leaving only 3:17 in the game, and all the Bucs had to do was run out the clock.
The Bucs benefited from 15 penalties levied against Chattanooga for 165 yards that cost the Mocs on an important possession in the third quarter.
Late in the third the Mocs recovered a Wells fumble and got to the Buccaneer 27-yard line, but ended up being penalized all the way back to their own 43 yard line ending their chance of regaining the lead.
A winning season will be on the line for the Bucs next Saturday night when they conclude their season against Charleston Southern.
The kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Memorial Center.

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