COOKEVILLE, TENN. – Charleston Southern continued to roll through their conference schedule on Saturday as they faced off with Tennessee Tech at Tucker Stadium in Cookesville, Tennessee. The Golden Eagles won it by a final score of 28-23, using a late interception to put them in a position to claim the victory.
 
Tennessee Tech was the first to get on the board booting in a 30-yard field goal at the 10:01 mark in the first quarter on their opening drive. On the Buccaneers' opening drive, they answered with a long drive of their own, but theirs went for a touchdown. On the 14-play, 80-yard drive, Kaleb Jackson had a big completion to Noah Jennings on the left sideline to bring them inside the redzone and for Jackson to get CSU on the board with a three-yard touchdown run.
 
After this, the tide turned back to the Golden Eagles with them scoring 16 unanswered points with them scoring a pair of touchdowns and a 36-yard field goal. The PAT was blocked on the first score. It went into the half with Tennessee Tech leading 19-7.
 
Coming out of the halftime break, Charleston Southern's offense started to find their rhythm, scoring on back-to-back possessions to regain the lead. They got the first on the first play they had of the half as Jackson had plenty of time from his offensive line and was able to connect with Chris Rhone down the field for a 70-yard touchdown. On the next drive, they marched 70 yards down the field on six plays with it ending on a 12-yard scamper by Tyson Greenwade to the left for the score.
 
The Golden Eagles were able to take the lead back with 12:33 left to play in the game. Dylan Laible was able to find Tremel Jones for a 33-yard strike to cap off a six-play, 66-yard drive to go up 25-21.
 
Tennessee Tech then went for a two-point conversion, which Ja'Kobe North intercepted in the middle of the endzone. He ran it across the endzone and then went up the right sideline, evading the TTU players, including Lailbe. Eventually, someone started to wrap him up, but North was able to lateral it to Champ Brantley to bring it in for the final seven yards and give the two-point conversion to the Buccaneers and bring their deficit to 25-23.
 
On the following possession, CSU was unable to get their offense going, being forced to punt. The Eagles offense then fumbled the ball inside their territory, leading to a CSU field goal attempt which they missed from 35 yards out. On the Golden Eagles' next possession, they were forced to punt and had a bad bounce on it, giving CSU the ball at the TTU 32-yard line. After converting a third down, on the second down, Jackson was intercepted by Tim Courtas. The Golden Eagles were able to convert a 32-yard field goal and bump their advantage to 28-23.
Charleston Southern was able to get the ball back for the final possession with the drive starting at their own 25-yard line. The Bucs were able to piece together a drive, bringing it across midfield and them being unable to convert on a fourth down, giving the Golden Eagles back the ball to kneel once and end the game.
                                                      
Jackson set career-highs in all multiple passing categories again. He finished the day, going 14-29 for 213 yards. He had one touchdown as well. In the air, Rhone had three receptions go for a career-high 129 receiving yards, eclipsing triple digits for the first time. Noah Jennings paced the team in receptions with five for 56 yards. Tyson Greenwade had 24 carries go for 95 yards and a touchdown.
 
Gilbert Brown had another terrific day punting as he finished with six on the day, going for an average of 47.3 yards. He had three go for 50 or more yards with two of them ending inside of the 20. His long of the day was a 58 yarder.
 
Josh Hill and Darrius Bell tied for the team-lead in tackles. Bell added two sacks on the day as well, creating consistent disruption in the backfield with Dylan Manuel getting a solo sack himself too.
 
Tennessee Tech threw for 175 yards on 9-16 through the air along with two touchdowns. D.J. Linkins led them in receiving with three catches for 106 yards. On the ground, they had 38 rushes for 168 yards. Jalen Mitchell had 15 attempts for 94 yards on the ground.
 
Charleston Southern will turn their attention to Gardner-Webb for the inaugural North/South Barbecue Bowl this weekend. The game is set for Saturday, November 2 with kickoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. inside Buccaneer Field. The next weekend will mark the home finale for the Bucs as they will be hosting UT Martin.