Utah Tech University football picked up its second win of the season in a back-and-forth game at home against the University of North Alabama Nov. 1.
North Alabama opened the scoring with a 31-yard touchdown run. Running back Bretton Stone then found the end zone for the Trailblazers with a 35-yard touchdown run to take the lead after UNA missed the extra point.
North Alabama responded with another touchdown before Bronson Barben found Daniel Thomason to take a 14-13 lead.
Ilya Uvaydov extended UT’s lead with two field goals in the first and second quarters to give the Trailblazers a 20-13 lead at halftime.
“The momentum has been good for the team,” Blake Rauch, a sophomore management major from Eastvale, California, said. “We went down early, then came up big with some key stops while finding ways to score touchdowns.”
Both teams were held scoreless in the third quarter before UNA scored two touchdowns to take a 27-20 lead in the fourth quarter.
Redshirt freshman running back Asa Chatman found the end zone on a 29-yard run that would send the game to overtime. Chatman ran for over 100 yards for the first time as a Trailblazer on 18 carries with two touchdowns.
“Kudos to the offensive line and playcalling,” Chatman, a general studies major from Lake Elsinore, California, said. “We got downhill today and helped our defense out and came up with the win.”
UNA got the ball first in overtime and found the end zone to take the lead, but missed the extra point. UT was able to convert on fourth-and-ten to keep the game alive before Chatman found the end zone and Uvaydov converted the extra point for the Trailblazer win.
“I think this will be a huge momentum push for Utah Tech going forward,” Hunter Cutchen, a senior marketing major from Albuquerque, New Mexico, said. “This win and coming together as a team and fan base will be amazing moving forward to finish this season strong.”
UT is now 2-7 approaching a road game Nov. 8 at Abilene Christian University.
