Football Drops Heartbreaker to Tennessee Tech, 29-22

Saturday, September 19

Cookeville, Tenn.

6 pm

Mercer University

Tennessee Tech

Football Drops Heartbreaker to Tennessee Tech, 29-22

9/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Mercer University football team suffered its first loss of the season, as Tennessee Tech rallied in the fourth quarter to pull out a 29-22 victory on Saturday night at Tucker Stadium.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer falls to 2-1 with its first loss of the season, while Tennessee Tech improves to 1-2 with the victory in its home opener.

TURNING POINT
After managing just one first down on its previous four drives, Tennessee Tech came up with the game's decisive scoring drive, moving 77 yards on 12 plays on the series. The Golden Eagles took a 27-22 advantage on Krys Cate's eight-yard scoring grab, before pushing its lead to seven, 29-22, following a successful two-point conversion.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Tennessee Tech scored touchdowns on three of its first five possessions to jump out to an early 21-6 advantage. However, the Bears' defense would force four straight punts to help key a big comeback by Mercer.

Mercer got back-to-back field goals to end the first half, pulling within nine, 21-12 at halftime. The Bears carried that momentum to the second half, using consecutive three-and-outs by the defense and 10 unanswered points by the offense to grab its first lead of the contest, 22-21.

The Golden Eagles outscored Mercer 7-0 though in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.

STAT OF THE GAME
Missed opportunities in the red zone plagued Mercer, who came into the contest with touchdowns in each of its previous eight trips inside the opponents' 20-yard line. However, the Bears scored just two touchdowns on Saturday night, despite working its way into the red zone on five occasions.

OFFENSIVE STANDOUT
Tee Mitchell had another breakout performance for the Bears, finishing with a career-high 130 yards on 19 carries. The big night was the sophomore's second triple-digit rushing output of the season, as he averaged a team-high 6.8 yards per carry.

DEFENSIVE STARS
Zach Jackson led the defense's by-committee approach, tallying six tackles including a team-leading 1.5 tackles-for-loss. One of those came via a big sack in the third quarter, as the junior safety tripped up TTU quarterback Jared Davis for an 11-yard loss to help key the team's second straight three-and-out.

MERCER NOTABLES

The Bears lost for the first time to a non-conference opponent during the Bobby Lamb era, falling to 11-1 in those contests.

Mercer rushed for over 250 yards for the third time this season, averaging 5.1 yards per carry en route to 261 yards on the ground. The Bears have now eclipsed the mark 15 times since 2013.

Mercer scored on four straight possessions to grab its first lead of the game. The Bears had field goals on back-to-back drives to end the first half, before another Lieb field goal and a touchdown run by John Russ handed the Bears a 22-21 lead.

The defense held Tennessee Tech to just 56 yards rushing, the third straight opponent it has held under 60 yards on the ground.

After giving up 261 yards of total offense in the first half, the Bears' defense held TTU to just 96 yards of total offense in the final stanza.

OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS

John Russ threw a touchdown pass for the third straight game, giving him six passing scores this season. He connected with Avery Ward, who now has five career touchdown receptions, for the second straight week.

Russ broke his own program record with 19 completions in the contest. He finished with two total scores and 213 yards of total offense.

Mitchell's 24-yard run in the first quarter, helped set up Mercer's first score of the game and gave the sophomore his fourth run of 20 yards or more this season.

Avery Ward led the receiving corps with a career-high seven receptions, covering 63 yards including his second score of the year.

Jagger Lieb connected on two first half field goals, 27 and 26 yard attempts, before breaking a program record with his third field goal of the game, a 19-yarder in the third quarter.

DEFENSIVE NOTES

Mercer had six different players record a tackle-for-loss in the game, as the team put together eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of 45 yards.

Isaiah Buehler, who came into the game ranked second in the SoCon in tackles-for-loss, recorded another one in the first half, giving him a team-high 4.5 for the year.

The Bears had four sacks in the game, getting solo stops by LeMarkus Bailey, Jackson and Jalen Penn and an assisted effort from Buehler and Kyle Trammell.

Matt Shiel downed three punts inside the 20-yard line, including his best punt of the year, a 61-yarder that had the Golden Eagles starting the ensuing drive at their own two-yard line.