Tennessee Tech edges out ETSU in top-20 matchup

JOHNSON CITY — East Tennessee State head coach referred to Saturday's game with Tennessee Tech as a, "playoff-caliber matchup." For the Bucs, they found themselves on the wrong end of a tight battle. Behind 17 unanswered points, the Golden Eagles edged out the Buccaneers, 24-17 at Greene Stadium. "We didn't finish like we should," Healy said. "Great football game. Very disappointed to be on the end that we're on right now. I feel like we missed an opportunity." In a drive that started in the third quarter, No. 11 Tennessee Tech (8-1, 5-1 Southern Conference) embarked on a 12-play march that resulted in a game-tying field goal by Carter Brown. It stung for the No. 17 Bucs (6-3, 4-1), as they opened the second half with a drive that ended in a missed 53-yard field goal. While ETSU moved the ball well on the possession, three-straight incompletions led to the march stalling. "It was a great drive," Healy said. "For us to drive all the way down and have a 53-yard field goal starting on the five-yard line. That's a great job. I told (offensive coordinator) Brian (Blackmon) that the goal in that situation is to get two first downs. We drove it all the way down and missed the field goal." After the Golden Eagles tied the game with 14:07 left, the Bucs had to punt after three-straight runs failed to pick up a first down from the ETSU 36-yard line. Tennessee Tech responded by another 12-play touchdown. Eating up just over seven minutes, the Golden Eagles cashed in with a Jax Leatherwood quarterback sneak to take their first lead since the first half. The drive was aided by a late personal foul on Jivon Oggs after Tech picked up a 2nd-and-15. "You're not allowed to body slam a guy, whether you hear a whistle or not," Healy said. "We did that. That's unacceptable in a pressure situation. Oggs has made some unbelievable plays for us for the last two years. Truly as a coach, you go back to it and say, 'Did I do a good enough job teaching him?' Because it seemed to be some confusion on was it a legal tackle or not." Still, ETSU had a chance to answer back down by seven and drove the ball down to the Tech 15-yard line with under a minute to play. An incompletion and a five-yard rush by TJ Peyton set up third down, which resulted in another incompletion. With their last gasp, the Bucs had Mason Mims drop back to pass, who was under duress immediately. He appeared to try and get the ball to a shallow cross, but it was batted down at the line to effectively end the game. Mims finished his day 15-of-32 passing for 114 yards. "I felt like we were a touch off," Healy said. "I think we're more talented on the perimeter to win some of those one-on-one matchups. I think they're really good in their secondary. They've done a great job recruiting talented guys that are experienced guys. I expected to win more one-on-one matchups and we didn't." The ETSU defense struggled in the opening series, surrendering an 11-play scoring drive to start the day. The Golden Eagles went 63 yards in 6:04 of game time, converting all three third downs they faced in the process as MJ Flowers capped off the drive with a touchdown. However, the Bucs settled in nicely for the rest of the half, allowing just 99 yards of total offense after the opening drive until the halftime intermission. It allowed a slow-moving ETSU offense to find its rhythm, as it scored 17 unanswered points. The Bucs' run started with a 92-yard scoring drive, with Peyton creating the big splash play of the drive with a 45-yard touchdown in which he hit the right sideline before cutting back to the middle of the field. ETSU then punched in a 4th-and-goal from the one, Jason Albritton lowered his shoulder across the goal line to give the hosts the lead. After the Bucs took a 10-point lead, the Golden Eagles were able to get back within a score thanks to a Qua Ashley 12-yard touchdown run heading into half. With the result, four teams across the SoCon sit with one loss at the top of the standings. Up Next ETSU will play host to Samford next Saturday in its last home game of the season. Tennessee Tech will welcome VMI to Cookeville next week. TENNESSEE TECH 24, EAST TENNESSEE STATE 17 TTU 7 7 0 10 — 24 ETSU 7 10 0 0 — 17 First Quarter TTU — MJ Flowers 6-rush (Carter Brown kick), 8:48 ETSU — TJ Peyton 45-rush (Ewan Johnson kick), 0:55 Second Quarter ETSU — Jason Albritton 1-rush (Johnson kick), 8:39 ETSU — Johnson 38-field goal, 4:05 TTU — Qua Ashley 12-rush (Brown kick), 2:21 Fourth Quarter TTU — Brown 33-field goal, 14:07 TTU — Jax Leatherwood 1-rush (Brown kick), 4:08 Rushing — ETSU: Peyton 17-121, Albritton 12-76, Jaiden Daniels 8-35, Suderian Harrison 1-(-9), Mason Mims 2-(18). TTU: Flowers 15-65, Ashley 9-58, Team 2-(-6), Leatherwood 3-(-7). Passing — ETSU: Mims 15-32-0 114. TTU: Leatherwood 18-28-0 218. Receiving — ETSU: Harrison 5-39, Peyton 2-26, Vashawn Nalls 2-18, Charlie Browder 2-6, Brandon Winton 1-11, Khristian Means 1-7, Tyler Griffin 1-6, D'Marius Rucker 1-1. TTU: Eric Weatherly 5-82, Maury Sullivan 5-44, Tre' Holloway 3-53, Ashley 2-18, Amari McArthur 2-17, Dae'Vonn Hall 1-4. Records: ETSU: 6-3 (4-1). TTU: 8-1 (5-1).