Big plays help Golden Eagles claim 47-19 win over Central Methodist
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech got big plays from several
places Thursday night and overcame a sluggish start to earn a 47-19
non-conference victory over NAIA foe Central Methodist in front of
6,318 fans in Tucker Stadium.
The offense produced five touchdowns -- but gave away two on
interception returns -- the defense had three interceptions and one
TD, and the special teams provided a couple of Justin Kraemer field
goals to provide coach Watson Brown's team with its highest point
total of the season.
The Tech defense, led by seniors Corey Reed and Maurice Smith and
freshman Justin Vann, kept the CMU Eagles out of the end zone until
the final seconds. Central Methodist pieced together an 83-yard
scoring drive against Tech's second unit in the final minutes,
producing a 3-yard TD by Caleb Haynes with 17 seconds remaining for
the only points against the Tech "D".
The Central Methodist defense picked off a pair of Lee Sweeney
passes and returned them both for touchdowns, including a 61-yard
jaunt by Ryan Boyer on Tech's second play of the night for a 6-0
lead for the visitors.
Sweeney connected with Tim Benford for a 48-yard touchdown midway
in the first quarter to put Tech on top 7-6, and Kraemer nailed a
45-yard field goal for a 10-6 lead after one period.
In the second quarter, Tech got a 4-yard TD run by Sailes to make
it 17-6, and then Sweeney hot Colin Allen on a 55-yard TD bomb to
build the margin to 24-6.
Moments later, Golden Eagle freshman Justin Vann picked off a pass
by Josh Tipton and returned it 35 yards for a score to make it a
31-6 margin. A 33-yard Kraemer field goal followed an interception
by Maurice Smith to make it 34-6, before CMU closed the first half
scoring with a 41-yard interception return by Kelvin Bowser on
another Sweeney pass. That sent the teams to the break with Tech on
top, 34-13.
Tech got pretty conservative in the second half, adding a pair of
third quarter touchdowns to build the edge to 47-13. The Golden
Eagles didn't throw a pass in the fourth quarter.
Josh Lowery, who replaced Sweeney late in the first half, was
5-for-5 in the third quarter and led Tech on a pair of TD drives.
The first ended in a 13-yard TD run by Sailes, and the second
finished on a six-yard TD run by freshman Tremaine Hudson.
Tech finished with 413 yards of offense, getting 195 on the ground
and 227 through the air. Central Methodist had 177 yards of
offense, getting 83 on its final possession. Tech held the Eagles
to 71 rushing yard on 31 attempts, with 39 coming on a
fourth-quarter run by Haynes. CMU had 106 passing yards.
Haynes finished with 75 rushing yards on eight attempts, including
the TD. Tipton was 14-for-19 for 86 yards, but suffered two
interceptions. HGe was sacked five times. Starter Brock Brockmeier
was 5-for-10 for 20 yards/.
Sailes wound up with 88 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 10
carries, while Cedric Wilkerson added 48 yards on 10 tries.
Sweney was 6-for-11 for 156 yards and two TDs with the two picks,
while Lowery was 5-for-5 for 62 yards.
Benford finished with four catches for 99 yards.
Reed was sensational on defense, making a career-high 16 tackles
including 1.5 tackles-for-loss. He broke up a pass and had half a
QB sack. Vann, making his first career start, finished with a
career-best eight tackles, including 1.5 tackles-for-loss. He had
two interceptions.
Smith also had eight tackles and earned his eighth career
interceptions.
The Golden Eagles (3-2 overall) improved to 2-0 at home and will
now get ready to host defending Ohio Valley Conference champion
Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 4, with kickoff at 7 p.m.
POST-GAME COMMENTS FROM
COACH WATSON BROWN and PLAYERS
Watson Brown
"That was a hard five weeks we've been through. Two 1-A schools in
three weeks, with a conference road game in between. Tonight was a
nice win, and we got to play just about everybody on the team. We
are very tired. We can give them a couple of days off now. They'll
roll back Sunday and they'll be okay. We did get banged up a little
bit, I'm a little concerned about that."
"The strength of our team is the defense, and has been every game,
but I thought we improved on defense. Of course when you're
tackling guys from Western Michigan it's a little bit different. I
think our defense needed that confidence boost that they got
tonight."
"We did a lot of good things offensively, but it was totally
overshadowed by turnovers. You can not turn the ball over five
times and win a football game. Three fumbles, all three of them
going in to score. Offensively we're ok in everything except taking
care of the ball. It's hard to run this spread offense, this
wide-open offense if you don't take care of the ball. You can get
in deep trouble doing it."
"We did get to play a lot of people. We went way down in the depth
charts, that was really good. I'm really proud of our kids, we've
had a great five weeks."
"We've got the defending champion coming here next, and they are
solid. This league is much improved over last year. We're going to
find out if we have improved, and we're going to find out where we
are, because it's seven straight. In the next seven weeks there's
not a gimmie in that bunch."
"I love the rivalries that we've got, EKU is a great rivalry coming
up, and Murray is a great rivalry, then we go to Austin Peay, so
this is the fun time now. It's going to be an exciting seven
weeks."
"Fatigue is when you don't look as quick, and I think we didn't
look as quick in a lot of ways, but you take care of the ball, even
if you're dying, that's just part of the game. We did a great job
of it last week, and I thought we were over that hump, and we threw
two interceptions for touchdowns in the first half. We did get a
couple tonight, which was nice, still not as many as I would like.
The only negative of the night to me, was the turnovers on
offense."
"It was great timing for us. I'd have hated to play an OVC game
tonight. It gave us a good win. I thought we got a competitive game
from that bunch over there (CMU). They were very classy and played
very hard. It was a nice night for us to get a chance to play a lot
people and win a game, and gain a little confidence. Every time you
win one, you gain confidence."
"Lee is our starting QB. He got hurt, and then he was well and
ready to go, but he did not play well. He has got to learn he can
not just take the ball and...it is very precious. We would have a
very good shot to win these next seven if we come out with no
turnovers in the next seven. You will always hang around if you do
not turn the ball over. That is the first thing that has got to
stop, and it has got to stop immediately. And it's not just the two
interceptions, it's the three fumbles too. We fumbled a pitch. He
was going to score and he dropped the pitch. We've got some good
skilled players on this offense, but they have got to learn that
taking care of the football is more important than making big
plays."
"I thought we would have a good defensive night. I knew the
strength of this team was on that side of the ball, and they did
have a big night."
"We hope to get (Xavier) Purdy back this week. He practiced, he
still has a little bit of a limp, but it will be a big nine days
for him. Boy would it be big to get him back. We're rolling
different guys in at safety, and as the opponents get better, that
is going to be critical."
"That's what he (Tim Benford) can do, he can make plays. We'll make
plays if we take care of the ball. We've got enough skill guys
where we can flounder around and then all of the sudden we're going
to hit one. We've just got to learn to take care of the football.
And we will, I promise we will."
"I thought Josh stepped in and did a good job for us. He was very
smooth with the offense. He made some nice plays on pitches. We
need to work on our running game, and I know the last quarter the
second line played the whole time. I was a little disappointed that
we didn't run it a little better when they went in."
"We'll practice on Sunday, then take another day off, and get into
our first normal week of the football season. And then we get
another one after that, I'm going to feel like a real football
coach. But after being at UAB, I'm pretty used to these, believe
me."
"The Saturday-to-Thursday's are tough. Mark and I ought to be
pretty careful of that, and both of us know that. But I love
playing on Thursday's, so it's a Catch 22 a little bit."
"We only had one Saturday -to-Thursday week last year, and that was
TSU, and I remember how we played that week. But we made it through
this year, and now we're all excited because now it's time to do
what we all enjoy doing, and that is jump into this conference and
see what we can do."
Senior linebacker Corey Reed
"We just came out tonight and played hard. The coaches stressed all
11 to the ball all week in practice, so we just came out and tried
to do that.
"We worked hard all week in practice. Coach Taylor was on us all
week in practice, constantly, that bleed into the game
tonight."
Freshman Justin Vann
"You just have to go out there and play when you get a chance to.
When your name is called you have to perform, so I just tried to do
that. You just have to read the quarterback's eyes and go."
Sophomore Henry Sailes
"It felt good tonight. At the end of the day I didn't play as well
as I wanted to, but I learn from my mistakes. Playing a team like
this, I didn't want to play down to the competition, I just wanted
to go out and do what I needed to do. Our confidence went up a lot.
As we go into conference games I think there are some things that
we still need to execute on. Some of the things that we did tonight
are not going to fly in OVC games. So I think we still need to
improve on a lot of those things."
Freshman wide receiver Tim Benford
"I'm just trying to help my team out any possible way I can. Just
like Justin said, when time comes, you have to perform. We practice
hard, the same for any opponent. Coach Brown said, don't take the
name off the enemies."
First Half notes
-Despite giving up 13 first half points as a team, the Tech defense
did not allow a point in the first half. Both CMU touchdowns came
on interception returns. The Tech defense forced six punts, and
held CMU to -3 yards rushing.
-The Tech offense put up 274 yards in the first half, led by
freshman wide-receiver Tim Benford, who caught four passes for 99
yards and one touchdown.
-Henry Sailes and Ced Wilkerson each had six carries in the first
half. Sailes rushed for 70 yards, while Wilkerson ran the ball for
32.
-Tennessee Tech kicked off seven times in the first half. Tech K
Justin Kraemer averaged 64 yards-per-attempt, putting his average
kick at CMU's six-yard line.
-Tech QB Lee Sweeney started the game for the Golden Eagles, going
6-for-11 for 156 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Josh
Lowery also stepped in behind center, and did not attempt a
pass.
-CMU also played two quarterbacks in the first half. Brock
Brockmeier completed 5-of-9 passes for 20 yards, while Josh Tipton
went 4-of-7 for 32 yards.
-Between the two teams, there were four interceptions in the first
half. Three of those were returned for touchdowns.
-Despite giving up 13 first half points as a team, the Tech defense
did not allow a point in the first half. Both CMU touchdowns came
on interception returns. The Tech defense forced six punts, and
held CMU to -3 yards rushing.
-The Tech offense put up 274 yards in the first half, led by
freshman wide-receiver Tim Benford, who caught four passes for 99
yards and one touchdown.
-Henry Sailes and Ced Wilkerson each had six carries in the first
half. Sailes rushed for 70 yards, while Wilkerson ran the ball for
32.
-Tennessee Tech kicked off seven times in the first half. Tech K
Justin Kraemer averaged 64 yards-per-attempt, putting his average
kick at CMU's six-yard line.
-Tech QB Lee Sweeney started the game for the Golden Eagles, going
6-for-11 for 156 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Josh
Lowery also stepped in behind center, and did not attempt a
pass.
-CMU also played two quarterbacks in the first half. Brock
Brockmeier completed 5-of-9 passes for 20 yards, while Josh Tipton
went 4-of-7 for 32 yards.
-Between the two teams, there were four interceptions in the first
half. Three of those were returned for touchdowns.
Second Half notes
-After leading the Golden Eagles on a scoring drive to open the
third quarter, Lowery has now led Tech on a scoring drive in each
of the four games he has played in this season.
-Tech freshman Justin Vann, making his first career start, made his
second interception of the game early in the third quarter.
-Five Golden Eagles have scored touchdowns, including RB Henry
Sailes and Tremain Hudson, WR Tim Benford and Colin Allen, and DB
Justin Vann.
-With 4 minutes and 59 seconds to play in the third quarter, a
22-yard run by CMU put the Eagles into Tech territory for the first
time in the game.
-Tech was content to keep the ball on the ground, as the Golden
Eagles did not throw a pass in the fourth quarter.
-The Golden Eagles lost their fifth turnover of the game in the
fourth quarter. Tech lost two interceptions and three fumbles.
-CMU found the end zone for the first time with 17.2 seconds to
play in the game.
-Jeremy Woods took the final snap of the game, and his first of the
season, when he took a knee to run out the clock, and seal a 47-19
victory for Tech
Post-Game notes
-The Golden Eagles improve to 3-2, and have not had a losing record
in the 2008 season. The Golden Eagles are 2-0 at home.
-Corey Reed was named the First National Bank of Tennessee player
of the game, finishing with16 tackles, 1.5 tackles-for-loss, one
pass break-up and a half of a quarterback sack.
