CHARLESTON, S.C. - Chattanooga scored on its first five possessions to build a 31-0 halftime advantage, and the Southern Conference-leading Mocs went on to post a 34-14 victory over The Citadel on Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium.
 
The Bulldogs dropped to 2-5 overall and 0-2 in the SoCon, while Chattanooga moved to 4-3 and remained undefeated in three league contests. The Mocs have won five of the last six in the series.
 
The Citadel was held to 198 rushing yards after entering the game ranked second in the nation at 325.3 yards per outing. Aaron Miller and Vinny Miller led the Bulldogs with 61 and 60 yards, respectively, and Aaron Miller scored his fifth touchdown of the season and 16th of his career.
 
Vinny Miller added a 19-yard scoring reception for the final points of the game in the fourth quarter.
 
The Mocs, ranked 15th in the nation by the FCS coaches and No. 17 by The Sports Network, entered as the top defensive team in the SoCon, allowing only 299.7 yards of total offense and just 131.7 on the ground.
 
Chattanooga piled up 478 yards of total offense, including 315 on the ground. Derrick Craine, who entered the game with 105 rushing yards on the season, carried 17 times for 135 yards. He was followed by Keon Williams with 88 and Jacob Huesman with 81 and both scored a touchdown.
 
Huesman also completed 11 of 17 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns. The reigning SoCon Offensive Player of the Year got Chattanooga started right away when he connected on a 66-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Board on the Mocs' first play from scrimmage.
 
The next time Chattanooga had the ball, the Mocs marched 80 yards on nine plays, and a 27-yard scoring pass from Huesman to Marquis Green gave the visitors a 14-point lead just seven minutes into the contest.
 
Henrique Ribeiro made a field goal from 33 yards out, Huesman scored on a 15-yard run and Williams went in from two yards out in the second quarter to make it a 31-point game at intermission.
 
The last Citadel win in the series came in 2011 when the Bulldogs rallied from 27 points down in the third quarter for a 28-27 victory, the biggest comeback win in school history. This time the Bulldogs also started strong in the third quarter, driving 75 yards on 11 plays including a 28-yard run by Aaron Miller, The Citadel's longest play of the game.
 
Aaron Miller capped the drive with a two-yard run to make it 31-7 in the opening five minutes of the period. But any realistic hope for another Bulldog comeback ended when Chattanooga took the ensuing kickoff and ran more than eight minutes off the clock, settling for a 38-yard field goal by Ribeiro that made it 34-7.
 
The Bulldogs got the ball back at the Chattanooga 46 when Joe Crochet recovered a Huesman fumble on the final play of the third quarter. The Citadel capitalized on the only turnover of the game on the Miller-to-Miller connection that made it 34-14 with 12:47 left.
 
After a pair of punts, Chattanooga began at its own 20 with 9:22 to go and was able to run out the rest of the time on 14 running plays that covered 66 yards.
 
Malik Diggs led the Bulldogs with a career-high 10 tackles. Nakevion Leslie had the same total to pace the Mocs, and Davis Tull, the recipient of the last two SoCon Defensive Player of the Year awards, had the only sack of the game.
 
The Citadel hits the road for back-to-back SoCon road games at Western Carolina and Mercer. Chattanooga hosts Mercer next Saturday.