CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Western Kentucky coach David Elson dusted off a clich/ from his answer-the-media playbook Saturday.

The dreaded phrase of the day was “ugly win.”

Western Kentucky got a 12-yard touchdown run from Marell Booker with 53 seconds remaining to survive a scare from host Chattanooga, 28-21.

Click here to see photos of the game.

“That was about as ugly as it gets when it comes to a victory,” Elson said. “But the bottom line is, when you play 12 games there’s going to be days, especially on the road, when you’re not clicking on all cylinders.

“And we’re not going to be real pleased with what we see on the film, but at the end of the day the objective is to win the football game, and I thought our senior leadership stepped up to make the plays we needed to make at the end of the game.”

While Booker’s touchdown run was obviously big, it might have never happened without another big play from a WKU senior.

With the score tied at 21-21 and Chattanooga (2-7) driving inside the WKU 30, senior safety Bo Smith snatched up an Antonio Miller pass to give the Hilltoppers (6-3) life – and more important, the ball.

“Things weren’t going great for us on defense for many reasons, here and there,” Smith said. “But coach told us someone needed to step up and make a play and that championship teams find a way to win.

“The ball just came my way, I saw it, and I grabbed it. Some might say it was lucky, but I’ll take it. A win’s a win.”

The entire WKU defense stepped up in the second half, allowing 153 total yards, with 55 of those coming on Chattanooga’s desperate final drive. Western gave up 248 yards in the first half.

“To win games in the fourth quarter, your seniors have to step up and make plays,” Elson said. “And that’s what happened today. I thought Bo, Andre Lewis and Chris Walker all did great jobs in the second half. Zach Thuney and Terrance Houston on the offensive line gutted it out also.

“And that’s what’s got to happen to win tough games. When things aren’t going well, your playmakers have to step up and make plays.”

After Smith’s interception, the Hilltopper offense took only six plays and 1:48 to cover 75 yards and set up Booker’s score. Much of the yardage on the drive came from sophomore running back Tyrell Hayden, who racked up 51 of his career-high 149 yards on the final push.

“That just shows the kind of heart this team has,” WKU quarterback David Wolke said. “From day one, I knew we had a good football team, and even though it was ugly, we came out and finished.”

Most of the game was ugly for the Hilltopper offense. WKU came up with no points on five separate occasions after driving the ball inside the Chattanooga 30.

Two of the drives resulted in fumbles, another ended with a sack on fourth down, a fourth stalled out due to a missed field goal and a fifth ended when a fake field goal attempt on fourth down fell short of a first down.

“It was so frustrating,” Elson said. “It felt like the Bowling Green and Ball State games where we were moving the ball effectively and getting down there where we should be able to get points, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot turning the ball over.

“And you can’t do that and expect to roll and win big, so that was probably the biggest key because it kept things close and kept their (Chattanooga) spirits up.”

Wolke agreed, but explained that while things were difficult and frustrating, the offense found a way to pull through and gut things out.

“Everybody was kind of like, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” Wolke said. “But the main thing for us, and what the coaches emphasized was to keep pushing and not give up, and we were able to just come out with a good win.”

Things got off to a promising start for the Hilltoppers, as Wolke found sophomore receiver Jake Gaebler on a wide receiver screen play that covered 51 yards for a score on WKU’s first drive – the longest play of both Wolke’s and Gaebler’s careers – to put the Hilltoppers up 7-0 with 9:43 to go in the first.

After the next two Hilltopper drives stalled, the Mocs launched a 13-play, 82-yard march that resulted in a three-yard plunge from Miller to tie the game at 7-7.

The Hilltoppers moved the ball on their next two possessions, but once again couldn’t find the end zone.

Chattanooga was able to capitalize midway through the second quarter when running back Brian Fitzgerald found the end zone off right tackle from five yards out to give the Mocs a 14-7 lead.

The Hilltoppers struck back quickly though, as Wolke led the team on a nine-play, 63-yard drive that ended in a 13-yard scoring strike to Jessie Quinn to tie the game at 14-14 just before the half.

Things went from bad to worse with 41 seconds left in the third quarter, when Mocs defensive back Buster Skrine intercepted a tipped pass from Wolke and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to put Chattanooga up 21-14.

WKU moved the ball deep once again, getting all the way to the Mocs’ one-yard line. Elson elected to go for a field goal, but the Hilltoppers were flagged for a delay-of-game penalty, pushing the ball back five yards. Chris James’ 22-yard attempt sailed wide left.

After forcing the Mocs to punt on their next possession, the Hilltoppers tied the score at 21-21 when Stephen Willis found pay dirt from 11 yards out with 7:47 to go.

Wolke finished with a career high 213 passing yards to go along with two touchdowns, while receiver Curtis Hamilton led the receiving corps with 95 yards on five grabs. Gaebler finished with 90 yards on five catches.

While there is room for improvement on both sides of the ball for WKU, Elson said this was the type of game a team hoping to compete in Division I-A has to be able to win.

“I’m not going to be happy watching the film and it’s going to be frustrating,” he said. “But with the 12-game season, which is something we’ll be dealing with at WKU for the rest of our lives here as a I-A program, you’re going to have these days.

“But like I said before, we found a way to win.”