The defense again keyed the Bucs to victory, 32-10, picking off three passes and limiting Chattanooga to a single garbage-time touchdown Saturday, as ETSU won its third straight to climb back over the .500 mark.
“Hats off to the defense once again,” quarterback senior Matt Wilhjelm said after his final game in the Mini-Dome.
With less than five minutes to go in the third quarter, linebacker Scott Brumet intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown, putting the Bucs up by three touchdowns. Cornerbacks Tony Tiller and Allen Davis had an interception each and Lamar Beam forced a fumble that Andrew Simmons recovered.
“Wherever they throw the ball, we’re going to be there,” Davis said of the defensive secondary.
“The exciting thing is, we have so much youth,” head coach Paul Hamilton said of his defenders, who have overachieved despite their inexperience and without preseason All-Southern Confer-ence safety Ocasio Cofield, now out for the season with a pinched nerve in his neck.
In fact, Simmons was the only senior listed on ETSU’s defensive two-deep against the Mocs.
Meanwhile, special teams got into the act early, while the offense did not get untracked until the second half.
Charvin Clark blocked a punt out the back of the end zone for a safety on the game’s first drive, forging a 2-0 lead less than two minutes in.
With the exception of the ensuing drive, on which the Bucs gained 62 yards on 10 plays, including an 18-yard Andrew Nuckolls touchdown run, the offense sputtered, totaling only eight more yards the rest of the first half.
“We made some adjustments at halftime,” Hamilton said. He added that the offensive tinkering specifically addressed the 3-3 defense that UTC employed Saturday, a scheme Hamilton said is becoming common.
In the second half, the Bucs came out passing, and broke through in the middle of the third quarter with a 50-yard completion to receiver Tim Turner, who had only four receptions on the season.
While he maintained it’s not important who makes the receptions, “Of course I wanted to get the ball,” said Turner, who had his only other catch, for four yards, earlier in the period.
After the Brumet interception return, Wilhjelm would connect with Nick Spearman for his second of two touchdown passes, and Wes Sands tacked on a 30-yard field goal to put the game out of reach.
Still, after netting only 58 yards rushing and actually being outgained 240 yards to 217, Hamilton knows the Bucs have plenty of room for improvement.
“We still have some inconsistency on offense,” he said. “We’ve got to go to work on offense.”
Yet, even though he maintained his team is not playing at the level at which it “needs to be,” in the wake of a three-game winning streak that began with a landmark upset of Georgia Southern, Hamilton feels a sense of gratification.
“I’ve got to admit, it feels good today,” he said.
Wilhjelm said, “Everyone doubted us except the guys who wear the gold helmets and blue shirts.”
The triumph was especially sweet for him, coming in his final on-field appearance in the city in which he will have attended both high school and college.
He’s also part of a senior class that, with a win either Saturday at Wofford or on Thanksgiving Day at VMI, can become the first since 1955 to string together three-straight +.500 seasons.

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