Sweeney sets yet another record as Tech spoils UT Martin Homecoming with 35-28 win
Senior quarterback Lee Sweeney set a new Tech record for career passing yards Saturday as the Tennessee Tech football team downed UT Martin 35-28 to spoil UTM's Homecoming and get an Ohio Valley Conference victory.
MARTIN, Tenn. - Senior quarterback Lee Sweeney passed for over 300 yards for the sixth time in his career, and sophomore receiver Tim Benford caught six passes for a career-best 159 yards as the Tennessee Tech football team hung on to beat UT Martin 35-28, spoiling the Skyhawks' homecoming and improving to 2-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play on Saturday afternoon.
Sweeney completed 19-of-25 passes for 318 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. After his first completion he set the school record for passing yards, ending the day with 6,346 in his career, passing Robert Craft for the all-time lead. Tremaine Hudson led Tech with eight receptions for a total of 80 yards.
"When everybody else does a good job of blocking and running the ball and running their routes, it makes the quarterback's job easy, and it makes me look good," Sweeney said. "There's no feeling like it when your receivers are making plays and the offensive line is doing a great job blocking, and everyone is doing their job. It's just like backyard football when you're a kid."
The Golden Eagles had a balanced attack of run and pass as they had 26 runs and 26 pass attempts. Dontey Gay led Tech's ground game with 15 carries for 58 yards and a touchdown. Jimmie Blair had three carries for 10 yards, and Cedric Wilkerson scored on a two-yard touchdown run on his only carry.
But despite the efficient offense, the play of the game for the Golden Eagles came on defense. With UT Martin down by 28-21 and driving with momentum on its side, junior Dustin Dillehay stepped in front of a Cade Thompson pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown, putting the game out of reach for the Skyhawks. It was the second interception of the season for Dillehay, and the first touchdown of his career.
"That was a great feeling, I haven't been in the endzone in the last four or five years, since high school," Dillehay said. "We knew we had to keep fighting the whole game, and we had to make the plays to help us win."
Dillehay also led the Golden Eagles with 14 tackles, including 10
solo tackles. Taron Ryce and Caleb Mitchell each finished the
contest with 12 tackles, while Jerry King had 10. Ryce had one sack
for 12 yards and LaDarrius Verge also had a sack for the Golden
Eagles, for a loss of 10 yards.
Tech made mistakes at times, turning the ball over twice, and finishing with 10 penalties for 80 yards. But UTM hurt itself with mistakes of its own, including two interceptions and 12 penalties for 164 yards.
"It's neat to come up here and not play a great game, but find a way to win," head coach Watson Brown said. "Our offense got it done for three quarters, and then it was time for our defense to make some plays, and they did that in the fourth quarter. It wasn't pretty, but we made a couple plays when we needed to."
UT Martin got a break early in the game to get things started. Tech kicked off, and after forcing a three-and-out, UTM's punt hit the backside of Tech's Corbin Miles, and the Skyhawks recovered. Martin would turn that turnover into a touchdown when Miguel Barnes carried the ball seven yards into the endzone to put the Skyhawks up 7-0.
Tech would answer on the very next drive, as Sweeny helped the Golden Eagles drive the ball down the field, and capped a 60-yard scoring drive with a three-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jamere Hogue.
The Skyhawks would threaten to score on their next possession, but Tom Hansen's 42-yard field goal attempt fell just short and to the left. But after a Sweeney interception the Skyhawks wouldn't need to settle for a field goal attempt, as they drove 96 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter, taking a 14-7 lead. That would be UTM's last lead of the game, as Tech would go on back-to-back touchdown drives and take a 21-14 lead into the break.
The Golden Eagles would pick up in the second half right where they left off, taking the ball 61 yards, capped by a 10-yard touchdown run by Dontey Gay to open the third quarter and take a 28-14 lead.
But the Skyhawks would not go away. They answered on their next possession with a 13-play, 63-yard touchdown drive that ate up nearly six minutes of clock and pulled UTM within a touchdown. And after forcing a Golden Eagle punt, the Skyhawks were driving. But that's when Dillehay returned an interception for the game's deciding score, putting the Golden Eagles up by 14.
UT Martin would add a touchdown with a minute and a half left, but couldn't convert an onside kick, and Tech would run out the clock to seal the 35-28 victory.
"What they're doing right now is when it gets close, they're just finding ways at the end of the ballgame," Brown said. "When you get on a roll sometimes that's what happens. Somebody seems to find a way to make a play."
The win puts Tech at 2-0 in the race for the Sgt. York Trophy, in a competition with the four OVC schools in Tennessee; Tech, Austin Peay, UT Martin and Tennessee State. Tech will face Tennessee State on Oct. 31 in Cookeville on Homecoming.
The Golden Eagles improve to 3-2 overall, and 2-1 in OVC play. Tech will visit No. 25 Eastern Illinois in Charleston, Ill., next Saturday.
"We can't worry about who we're playing, we've got to get better this week," Brown said. "We had a lot of guys miss time with the flu last week, and I didn't feel like we got better."
Tech will return to Cookeville in two weeks to host Southeast Missouri on Oct. 24. Kickoff will be at 1:30 p.m. in Tucker Stadium. For tickets call the TTU ticket office at 372-3940.
