Box Score FINAL STATS  |  PHOTO GALLERY 

JACKSONVILLE - Most of the Homecoming crowd at Burgess-Snow Field Saturday came expecting to see Jacksonville State knock off one of its pursuers for the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

What the 18,933 on hand witnessed instead was the league race get tighter entering November.

Dontey Gay ran for the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter and Tennessee Tech's defense forced a key turnover late as the Golden Eagles claimed a 21-14 victory.

The loss, Jax State's second straight, dropped the No. 13 Gamecocks to 5-3 overall and into a three-way tie for first place in the OVC at 4-1.

No. 19 Tennessee Tech improved to 5-2 and 4-1 by beating Jacksonville State for the second year in a row.

"My compliments to Watson (Brown) and Tennessee Tech," JSU head coach Jack Crowe said. "They came in here with a plan and we had a chance to do something about it, but we didn't.

"We've got a team that's got a habit of making some critical mistakes. It's a relative term in this game, mistakes, but they made a lot fewer than we did. We played a team that had two penalties and no turnovers."

Tennessee Tech limited the Gamecocks to 40 yards below its season average of 202 yards per game. JSU's 14 points tied a season-low set a week earlier against FBS foe Kentucky.

The Golden Eagles went ahead 21-14 early in the fourth quarter, driving 78 yards in nine plays.

TTU quarterback Tre Lamb connected with a Ryan Tilghman on a 43-yard pass to the JSU 10 on the sixth play of the drive.  Gray then ran in from the 1 on third down and Zach Sharp added the extra point to put the Golden Eagles ahead 21-14 with 13:06 remaining.

After an exchange of punts, JSU took over at its 13 with 3:28 left. Coty Blanchard - who finished with a career-high 175 passing yards - completed two straight passes as the Gamecocks swiftly moved to the Tennessee Tech 30.

But on second-and-1, Calvin Middleton caught a short pass from Blanchard and was hit hard by Tennessee Tech safety Corey Watson. The ball popped loose and was recovered by Tech's Jamere Hogue, ending JSU's comeback hopes.

"I thought we were on our way to scoring when we turned it over and lost it," Crowe said. "Nobody hates it worse than Calvin does."

Jacksonville State looked unstoppable on its first possession, receiving the opening kickoff and piercing together a time-consuming 15-play, 77-yard march for a touchdown.

The lengthy drive culminated with Blanchard tossing a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Slota in the back of the end zone. James Esco's extra point made it 7-0 with 7:56 left in the first.

Tennessee Tech, which had zero total yards through the game's 22 minutes, took advantage of a gamble by the Gamecocks for its first points.

After stopping JSU on fourth-and-2, Tech drove 65 yards for a tying touchdown as Lamb completed four passes. Gay finished off the drive with a 1-yard run and Sharp's kick made it 7-7 with 1:05 left in the first half.

Both teams had long scoring drives in the third quarter.

Tennessee Tech received the second-half kickoff and went 72 yards in 11 plays to take its first lead. Adam Urbano's 5-yard TD run made it 14-7 at the 9:04 mark in the third.

The Gamecocks answered with a 13-play, 70-yard scoring drive on the ensuing possession to pull even. Middleton ran six times on the drive and Blanchard finished it off with a 13-yard TD run of his own.

Esco's extra point made it 14-14 with 2:55 left in the third quarter.

JSU's offense only had possession two more times the rest of the game.

"We got the ball three times in the second half and I don't think I have ever been around a team that only got the ball three times in a half," Crowe said.

The Gamecocks host Eastern Kentucky (5-3, 4-1) next Saturday at 3 p.m. The Colonels held off Murray State 34-33 on Saturday to tie Jax State and Tennessee Tech atop the OVC standings.

"All we can do is win out and not worry about anyone but ourselves," Blanchard said. "For all I know, I think we still control our destiny."




POST-GAME NOTES
- Captains for the Gamecocks: senior RB Calvin Middleton, junior DB Brooks Robinson, senior DE Jamison Wadley.

- Tennessee Tech won the toss and deferred to the second half.

- JSU is now 54-10-2 in Homecoming games since 1946 and 8-4 under Jack Crowe in Homecoming games.

- Jax State holds a 9-6 lead in the all time series with Tennessee Tech and has lost the last two meetings with the Golden Eagles.  It marks the first time that Tech has beat Jax State in consecutive years.

- The Gamecocks are 2-1 against teams from the Volunteer state this season.

- The seven-point loss is the first OVC setback at home since EIU's 28-24 win over the Gamecocks on Oct. 24, 2009, a span of eight games.

- Jax State's game-opening scoring drive was its first opening drive score since starting the Eastern Illinois with a touchdown on its first opportunity.

- Sophomore Jerry Slota caught his first career TD pass on JSU's first scoring drive. He had a pair of rushing TDs against Murray State and Austin Peay.

- JSU sophomore QB Coty Blanchard has now thrown at least one TD in six of the eight games this season.

- Coty Blanchard now has tossed for a TD and scored a rushing TD in three games this season and fourth time of his career. He finished with a career-high 189 yards passing on 17 completions.

- The Gamecocks are 2-1 this season when scoring first (Georgia State, Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Tech).  JSU is now 56-19 when scoring first under head coach Jack Crowe.

- JSU has scored on 23-of-25 trips inside the red zone this season, scoring 18 touchdowns and kicking three field goals.

- Jax State sophomore linebacker Clarence Jackson was credited with a season-best 13 tackles, including one for a stop.

- JSU is now 52-16 against schools in the OVC

BY THE NUMBERS
6 - Game this season with 300-plus yards of total offense and the 96th game under Jack Crowe with 300 yards or more of offense.

8 - Straight games JSU QB Coty Blanchard has passed for 100-plus yards.

14 - The fewest points scored on Homecoming since a 16-14 loss to Nicholls State in 1997.

17 - Total completions, a season-high for JSU.

23 - Times Jax State has scored in the red zone this season.  JSU is 23-of-25 on the year.

58 - OVC game with 300-plus yards since joining the league in 2003.

120 - Consecutive games in which the Gamecocks have scored, a streak that dates back to Nov.18, 2000, when they were last shut out.

18,933 - Attendance at today's Homecoming contest, the largest this season at Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium.