Troy Tops Idaho; Chunn Ties Troy Record

Thursday, November 2

Troy, Ala.

8:15 p.m.

Troy University

7-2 , 4-1

Idaho

3-6 , 2-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Idaho

Troy

11/3/2017 1:24:00 AM | Football

TROY, Alabama – Jordan Chunn rushed for his 44^th and 45^th career touchdowns to tie the school record for overall touchdowns scored and carry Troy to a 24-21 Sun Belt victory over Idaho Thursday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Sun Belt Conference action.

Chunn's 45 rushing touchdowns are also four shy of setting the all-time Sun Belt record. He finished the game with 113 yards on 18 carries which moved him into second place on the school's all-time rushing list with 2,997 in his career.

Troy's (7-2, 4-1 Sun Belt) defense flexed its muscles once again, allowing less than 100 rushing yards (90) for the sixth time in nine games this season and eclipsing four sacks (6) for the fifth time. Tron Folsom led the stalwart defense with a career-high and team season-best 16 tackles.

Idaho (3-6, 2-3 Sun Belt) rode the arm of quarterback Matt Linehan, who threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns.

The Vandals scored the only points of the first quarter on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Linehan to Alfonso Onunwor, then were held off the board until the two connected for another touchdown at the 8:55 mark of the fourth quarter – Onunwor led the team with nine catches for 111 yards.

Meanwhile, the Trojans rattled off 17 unanswered points starting with a 16-yard Chunn rumble midway through the second quarter. Tyler Sumpter then improved to a perfect 4-for-4 after drilling a 40-yard field goal as the first half clock expired.

To open the second half, Troy marched 65 yards on seven plays and capped off the drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Silvers to Tevaris McCormick. It was McCormick's first touchdown of the season, while Silvers finished 20-for-30 with 212 yards.

Up 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, Chunn essentially sealed the game for the Trojans on a 7-yard touchdown one play after converting a fourth and inches.

Idaho nearly mounted a comeback after driving 81 yards on 12 plays and scoring with 23 seconds left in the game to make the score 24-21, where it would stand.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Neal Brown
"I think a lot of the credit needs to go to them and how they performed. We did not play our best, but what we did not do was self-implode. In the South Alabama game and the Boise State game, we really hurt ourselves. It was one of those things that started rolling downhill and we never stopped it. In this game, we did. We came out of the blocks really slow. We turned the ball over and went down 7-0, but we were able to put a drive together and tie it up. I thought the drive before half was critical with Tyler Sumpter making that field goal to put us up. We played ahead the whole second half."

Stat Geek
• After outscoring Idaho 10-0 in the second quarter, Troy has outscored its opponents by a 75-10 margin in the second quarter this season.

Notable
• Troy's Brandon Silvers and Idaho's Matt Linehan have now combined for 88 career starts; it marked the most combined career starts between two quarterbacks in a game in NCAA history.

• Linebacker Tron Folsom recorded a game-high and career-high 16 tackles; it was the most tackles by a Trojan since Brynden Trawick had 20 tackles against Western Kentucky in 2011.

• Jordan Chunn moved into second place on Troy's all-time career rushing yardage list with 2,977 yards passing Troy University Sports Hall of Fame member Ted Horstead. He is 465 yards shy of becoming Troy's all-time leader.

• Troy sacked Idaho quarterbacks Matt Linehan and Mason Petrino a combined six times in the game, which is tied for the third most in a Sun Belt Conference game in school history.