East Tennessee State Runs Over Western Carolina 58-31
East Tennessee State is 2-1 and Western Carolina is 2-2, and the 58-31 score undersells how one-sided the first half was. The Buccaneers led 27-0 when the Catamounts finally got on the board with 1:11 left before halftime.
It was a ground game. D'Marius Rucker and Jason Albritton scored on 2-yard runs in the first quarter, Albritton added a 3-yarder in the second, and Ewan Johnson kicked field goals of 33 and 49 yards. Mason Mims threw a 12-yard touchdown to Charlie Browder for 34-7 right before the break. In the second half TJ Peyton, Albritton again and Jaiden Daniels each ran one in, all from inside 4 yards. That is six rushing touchdowns, and 543 total yards against 368 for Western Carolina.
Neither team turned the ball over. That makes this the cleanest blowout you will see: East Tennessee State had 44-14 in hand entering the fourth quarter without needing a gift.
Lex Thomas kept the Catamounts alive in the box score. He ran for touchdowns of 37, 5 and 10 yards, and Patrick Harding threw an 8-yard touchdown to Santana Carlos with 19 seconds left to make the final margin 27. Thomas was 16 of 32 for 163 yards through the air with no touchdown pass, so his 29.7 points came on the ground.
For fantasy, Thomas (29.7) led all scorers even in a 27-point loss, Albritton had 22.1 on three short touchdowns and Mims had 19. Mims also caught a 20-yard pass of his own, which is not a sentence you write often about a quarterback.