Chattanooga, Tenn. – Taron Dickens tossed four touchdown passes, including three first-half scores to James Tyre, and Cam' Ron Dabney halted a late would-be fourth quarter Chattanooga scoring drive with a second Catamount interception as Western Carolina claimed its sixth-straight seasonal victory by holding off the Mocs 35-28 on Saturday afternoon in Southern Conference action at Finley Stadium.
 
WCU matched its series-long win streak against Chattanooga with its fourth consecutive win over the Mocs, each coming in one-possession games, as a total of 16 points has decided the past four meetings. The six-straight seasonal wins are the most consecutive for the Catamounts since six in a row spanning the end of 1984 and start of the 1985 season, and are the most within a season since the 1983 run to the NCAA I-AA (now FCS) national championship game.
 
Dickens threw for 225 yards on 18-of-29 passing with four touchdowns, connecting with Tyre on scoring strikes of four, seven, and 13 yards, and freshman Michael Rossin on a 10-yard touchdown reception for the eventual game-winning score. Redshirt freshman tailback Markel Townsend added a two-yard scoring plunge in the winning effort.
 
A combined 10 different receivers caught passes on Saturday, with Tyre scoring on three of his team-high five receptions. Rossin caught two passes for 28 yards and a score, with Malik Knight (2-for-37), Branson Adams (2-for-26), and Dominic Dutton (2-for-17) recording multiple receptions. Dutton finished with 111 total yards, including 90 on a pair of kickoff returns and four yards on two rushes to accompany his receiving yardage.
 
Making his seasonal debut since returning from injury, WR Jaylin Terzado had WCU's longest reception of the day on a drive-extending 39-yard snare for his first catch as a Catamount.

Rossin capped a 66-yard, fourth-quarter scoring drive with his second career touchdown reception to push the Catamounts ahead, 35-21. But, two minutes later, the Mocs marched 75 yards in just three plays to close back to within a score as Justus Durant plowed in from eight yards out with just under eight minutes to play. On the ensuing possession, WCU managed to drain a little over two minutes off the game clock before a failed fourth down conversion gave the football back to Chattanooga with five minutes showing on the Finley Stadium clock.
 
Aided by a 15-yard scramble by quarterback Camden Orth and a pair of pass interference calls, the Mocs marched into the red zone, poised for a potential game-tying or the go-ahead score with a two-point try.
 
After a pair of rush attempts from the four and five-yard line, respectively, were turned away by the Catamount defense, UTC ran a play-action pass. However, WCU's Kenyon Partridge blew the play up with pressure in the backfield, chasing Orth from the pocket to his left. Under duress and scrambling against his natural throwing side, Orth tried to force a pass into the end zone, but Dabney jumped the route for the game-sealing interception.
 
Dabney, who added a pair of solo stops, had one of two interceptions for the Catamounts in the winning effort as Ken Moore Jr. picked off his second pass in as many years against the Mocs on a pass deflection in the first half to accompany six tackles. Safety Samaurie Dukes and linebacker Ryan McKinnis were seemingly everywhere for the Catamounts, both credited with a team-high 10 tackles, a career-high for the latter, who also added a pair of quarterback sacks. Bo Simpson-Nealy was crucial in run support, finishing with seven tackles,  including two for loss, with Moore Jr. and defensive linemen Jamichael  Wilson and Justin Wallace credited with six tackles apiece, Wallace posting WCU's third sack.
 
For Chattanooga (4-5, 3-2 SoCon), the loss snapped a three-game win streak. Orth passed for 241 yards on 15-of-27 passing with a touchdown, adding 50 yards on the ground and one of three Mocs rushing TDs. Wofford transfer Ryan Ingram ran for 60 yards on 15 touches with a score, while Durant finished with 48 yards and a TD. Markell Quick finished with a game-high 126 receiving yards on just three receptions, while tight end Nathaniel Eberly-Rodriguez caught a four-yard TD pass.
 
Dominic Dutton opened Saturday's game with a 67-yard kickoff return to give Western Carolina the tremendous starting field position it enjoyed for two of its first-half drives. Set up at the UTC 26-yard line, Dickens and the Catamounts utilized eight plays, including a converted fourth-down and three before Tyre caught his first of a career-high three TD receptions on an easy four-yard toss for the early lead.
 
On the ensuing drive, Chattanooga churned its way into the red zone before stalling at the WCU 29-yard line with the Catamounts registering a defensive stop as a  47-yard Gray Kelley field goal attempt missed well short and right of the uprights.
 
With the Mocs again on the march early in the second quarter, Ken Moore Jr. collected a pass deflection for a drive-halting interception that likewise turned the home squad away inside the red zone.
 
Markell Townsend was the workhorse on WCU's next scoring drive, accounting for 35 of the 45 yards, including 24 on the ground and an 11-yard reception. Dickens then found a wide-open and stationary Tyre for a seven-yard TD just inside the left pylon for the 14-0 lead.
 
Chattanooga found paydirt to make it a one-score game before the break as Ingram plunged in from a yard out to cap a 70-yard scoring drive with 5:25 remaining before intermission. But the Catamounts weren't done. After Julian Quintero recovered a low-liner on an attempted onside kick, again setting up WCU with the ball near midfield, Branson Adams made his return to the lineup felt by recording 27 of WCU's 54 yards as the Catamounts regained a two-score lead. Tyre caught his third scoring reception of the day as WCU took a 21-7 lead into the halftime locker room.
 
Chattanooga owned most of the third quarter, opening the frame by grinding out an 11-play, 75-yard drive to pull back within a score at 21-14 before ultimately tying the game with a 50-yard drive after obtaining the football on a WCU failed fourth-down play. Orth scampered into the endzone for a 21-21 contest with 2:18 remaining in the third.
 
Dickens and the Catamount offense went back to work, though, marching 70 yards in just five plays, spurred by a gritty 37-yard catch-and-run by Malik Knight that set the Purple & Gold up with field position inside the 10-yard line. Townsend did the rest behind a powerful surge by the offensive line for a two-yard TD as the Catamounts took the lead for what proved to be for good.
 
WCU's defense forced a punt on Chattanooga's first, early-fourth quarter possession and Dickens knew what to do with it. Handing to Patrick Boyd Jr., three times netted 27 total yards, Josiah Thomas added a 13-yard catch, while Michael Rossin had two receptions for 28 yards, including the 10-yard score while streaking across the Mocs' defense in the endzone for the 35-21 lead that set up the final frame frenzy.
 
Western Carolina (6-3, 5-0 SoCon) opens back-to-back home games in a crucial stretch in its 2025 SoCon schedule, hosting nationally-ranked and the current first-place squad in the Mercer Bears next Saturday, Nov. 8, on Homecoming, before hosting mountain-rival ETSU for the "Blue Ridge Border Battle" on Senior Day / Hall of Fame Day on Nov. 15.
 
Single-game tickets for Saturday's pivotal Homecoming game and the Nov. 15 rivalry match-up for "the Rock" traveling trophy against ETSU are on sale now at CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets or by phone by calling (828) 227-2401.
 
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