The milestones just keep piling up for this year’s edition of Skyhawk football.

The team snapped a 41-game Ohio Valley Conference road losing streak with a 35-16 win over host Tennessee Tech that featured a 214-yard rushing performance by senior tailback Don Chapman.

Not to be outdone, redshirt junior Jaymond Perry rushed for 38 yards on three carries and scored the first two touchdowns of his career in the first half.

As a team, the Skyhawks rushed for 289 yards, more than double the Golden Eagles’ total of 107 yards.

The Skyhawks averaged 6.6 yards per carry while the Golden Eagles averaged only 2.7 yards per carry.

Also contributing to the effort on the ground were Marcus Dawson, who rushed the ball nine times for 31 yards, and Greg Preston, who carried the ball four times for 13 yards.

“I was really pleased with the offensive line, our tight ends and our running backs. I thought we ran the ball hard and that was the difference in the game,” said Skyhawk head coach Jason Simpson. That effort proved to be crucial on a night when poor weather conditions hindered the passing game, resulting in only two completions in the game for UTM quarterback Dexter Anoka.

Anoka and Preston combined to complete 2-of-12 passes for 40 yards, with 30 of those yards coming on one play.

Although they got little accomplished through the air, quality proved to be more important than quantity as one of the completions was a 30-yarder to Jamaal Akbar for a touchdown late in the third quarter to put the Skyhawks on top by a score of 28-16.

That score gave the Skyhawks a little bit more breathing room after the Golden Eagles had pulled to within five points at 21-16 with a touchdown pass of their own.

The Skyhawk defense got things started early in the game by forcing a turnover on the Golden Eagles’ first drive.

Tech quarterback Lee Sweeney completed a short pass and threw an incompletion from his own 39-yard line before the turnover occurred.

Skyhawk linebacker Markeseo Jackson came up with the big play by sacking Sweeney and forcing a fumble that was recovered by Nate Wilson at the Tech 36-yard line and returned to the 25.

Six plays later, redshirt junior tailback Jaymond Perry plunged into the end zone from the three-yard line to put the Skyhawks on top with the first touchdown of his college career.

“Jaymond Perry is a great program guy. I don’t have enough good things to say about Jaymond,” Simpson said.

“He is what college football is all about. He loves this program, he loves his teammates, and he is the epitome of what you want a student-athlete to be,” he continued.

Perry added his second score on a 32-yard run on the Skyhawks’ first drive of the second quarter that provided an answer to a field goal by Tech’s Nate Johnson.

“Scoring tonight was just awesome. To score twice is just awesome,” Perry said.

Johnson connected on another field goal from 25 yards out to send the teams to the locker rooms at halftime with the Skyhawks holding a 14-6 lead over the home team.

A good kickoff return by Larry Shipp set up the Golden Eagles in good field position to start the second half.

However, the Skyhawk defense clamped down in the red zone and held the Tech offense to a third Johnson field goal. Jack Greenwood and Dontrell Miller combined to sack Sweeney on a 3rd-and-8 play to force a field goal attempt.

The kick cut the Skyhawk lead to 14-9 but they found the breathing room they needed in the blink of an eye.

Merely 18 seconds after the ball sailed through the uprights on one end of the field, it found its way back into the end zone on the other end of the field in the form of a dazzling 96-yard kickoff return by UTM’s Jesse Burton.

That play shifted the momentum back to the visitors’ sideline if only for a short while.

The pesky Golden Eagles picked themselves up after the score and put together a drive that found the end zone for the first time and trimmed the Skyhawk lead to 21-16 with just under 4:30 remaining in the third quarter.

Running back Derek White opened the drive with a 23-yard gain that was followed by a 15-yard completion by Sweeney that moved the Golden Eagles into Skyhawk territory at the 48-ayrd line.

A 19-yard run by Anthony Ash then set up a touchdown pass from Sweeney to Shipp.

That score would be the last time the Golden Eagles would challenge the Skyhawk lead.

The Skyhawks scored quickly at the close of the third quarter to stretch the lead to 12 points at 28-16.

Chapman ran for 30 yards on the drive, while Anoka completed a 10-yard pass to E.J. Daniel and a 30-yarder to Akbar for the score. The final score came after the Skyhawks forced a Golden Eagle punt on the first possession of the fourth quarter.

The Skyhawks took over at midfield and used a steady dose of Chapman to pound the ball down the field.

The backbreaker for the Golden Eagles was the second play of the drive, a Chapman run that went for 31 yards to the Golden Eagle 21-yard line.

On 4th-and-1 with the ball on the Golden Eagle 12 yard line, Chapman plowed ahead for the score.

The final Golden Eagle drive stalled at their own 38 after a five-yard completoin left them one yard shy of gaining a first down. With the win, the Skyhawks moved into a tie with Eastern Illinois for first place in the OVC with a 2-0 conference record and a 5-1 mark overall.

The winning streak is the longest for the program since 1988. The win also brought to an end the team’s lengthy conference road drought that began during the 1996 season.

“I am real proud of our kids,” Simpson said.

“It wasn’t the prettiest, but ultimately you are judged on wins and losses. We found a way to win this game,” he added.

The Skyhawks’ quest for a sixth consecutive win will wait an extra week as the team will enjoy a break before heading to Birmingham for an Oct. 21 game against OVC foe Samford.

The Bulldogs are tied for last place in the OVC with Murray State at 0-3.