Golden Eagles fall short of upset bid at Jacksonville State
The Tennessee Tech football team paid No. 15 Jacksonville State a visit with an upset on their minds Saturday, but JSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux and the Gamecock offense was too much for the Golden Eagles to handle as Tech fell 55-28 at Paul Snow Stadium in Jacksonville, Ala.
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – The Tennessee Tech football team paid
No. 15 Jacksonville State a visit with an upset on their minds
Saturday, but JSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux and the Gamecock
offense was too much for the Golden Eagles to handle as Tech fell
55-28 at Paul Snow Stadium in Jacksonville, Ala.
Perrilloux threw for 223 yards and three touchdowns, and was also
JSU’s leading rusher with 103 yards and two touchdowns on the
ground to lead the Gamecock attack.
Henry Sailes had 63 yards rushing on seven carries for Tech and
one touchdown, and also had 122 yards on five kickoff returns for a
total of 185 all-purpose yards on the day.
The Tech receiving corps was led by Demetrous Garrett and Zach
Ziegler, who each had three catches. Alden Olverson, Corey Watson,
Tim Benford and Dontey Gay had one catch each.
Tennessee Tech quarterback Lee Sweeney completed 8-of-11 passes
for 118 yards before leaving the game in the third quarter.
Dustin Dillehay led the Tech defense with eight tackles while Josh
Paz and Marty Jones each had six. Caleb Mitchell forced a fumble,
which was recovered by Dillehay for the game’s only
turnover.
The Gamecocks got on the board first with a 48-yard Perrilloux
touchdown run just a minute and a half into the game. The run
capped a three-play 54-yard march.
Tech would answer late in the first quarter, piecing together a
nine-play 88-ayrd scoring drive. A key 24-yard completion from
Sweeney to Olverson on third-and-seven that got Tech to the JSU
three-yard line set up a three-yard scamper by Sailes, his first
touchdown of the season. That score tied the game at seven.
The Gamecocks would score on a 15-yard run by Drec Lindley to go
up 14-7, and add another touchdown when Greg Smith caught a
Perrilloux pass and took it 24 yards to the endzone, going up
21-7.
But Tech was able to march down the field again, driving 64 yards
on eight plays, and the Golden Eagles found the endzone on a
one-yard sneak by Sweeney, pulling Tech within seven at 21-14.
JSU got the ball back with just over five minutes to play in the
half, and timed its 66-yard scoring drive almost perfectly, scoring
on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Perrilloux to Greg Smith with just
17 seconds left on the clock to take a 28-14 lead into
halftime.
Three consecutive JSU touchdowns to open the second half put the
Gamecocks up 48-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
Redshirt-freshman quarterback Tre Lamb played much of the second
half for Tech, and led the Golden Eagles on two second-half scoring
drives, finishing the game completing 2-of-6 passes for 26 yards,
and also running the ball seven times for 16 yards.
The Golden Eagles return home for the season finale next Saturday
against Murray State. Tech will try to go a perfect 5-0 in home
contests this season when it takes on the Racers. Kickoff for the
game will be at 1:30. For ticket information contact the Golden
Eagle ticket office at 372-3940.
Their take -- Postgame quotes from head coach Watson Brown, and players Tre Lamb and Dustin Dillehay
Watson Brown
“They’re very good. That is the best Jacksonville State
team I’ve ever seen and I’m not sure it’s not the
best team they’ve ever had. It’s a shame that team
can’t get into the playoffs because they might just win the
whole thing.”
“We didn’t challenge them defensively at all. We
couldn’t even get a stop. I really don’t think we got a
stop. They fumbled it once and they punted once and that was it for
the whole game.”
"We’re worn out, we’re tired, it’s tough on us,
but we’ve got a really good game left. We had five goals
going into the season. We already reached one of them, we
didn’t reach one of them, and we’ve got three left in
the last game.”
Tre Lamb
“When I saw Lee go down I immediately started getting warmed
up on the sideline. It’s unfortunate, we were down by 14 when
I went into the game and I tried my best to get us back in the
game, but we just couldn’t really stop them.”
“That’s the best defense I’ve ever played
against, besides the Georgia defense from last week. They’re
a lot faster than most of the other teams we’ve faced in the
OVC and that was the biggest difference to me, they close a lot
faster on tackles.”
Dustin Dillehay
“Today we didn’t play our best football. They
don’t run a complicated system but we didn’t shoot the
right gaps when we needed to and we didn’t make the plays
when we needed to. They’ve got some incredible athletes over
there, especially at quarterback with some good size and running a
running back with good size.”
