COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Dontey Gay rushed for 139 yards and scored two touchdowns, including the game-winner late in the fourth quarter to give Tennessee Tech (3-1, 2-0) a thrilling 38-31 win over Southeast Missouri (0-3, 0-1) Saturday night at Tucker Stadium.

Gay's decisive 4-yard touchdown run came with 2:38 left after Southeast scored 14 fourth-quarter points to tie the game.

Neither Southeast or TTU has won by more than 12 points in any of their meetings since 2002, so it wasn't surprising tonight's contest went down to the wire.

Southeast trailed, 31-17, with under five minutes left to play before mounting its comeback.

Ron Coleman scored his first career touchdown on a 1-yard run to polish off a 6-play, 27-yard drive with 11:49 on the clock.

After Steve Hendry recovered a fumble at the TTU-49, Levi Terrell took the handoff on the second play of Southeast's ensuing possession and ran 40 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 31-31 with 5:28 left.

The Golden Eagles, however, answered by going 53 yards in eight plays to secure the victory.

“I think we grew up a little bit as a team and I'm curious to see how we respond this coming week,” said Southeast head coach Tony Samuel. “It's always tough to lose these close battles.”

Southeast's defense held on a 4^th-and-1 during TTU's first possession and Drew Geldbach's 49-yard field goal attempt came up short when it bounced off the crossbar in a dramatic start.

Zach Sharp later gave TTU an early 3-0 lead when his 27-yard field goal capped an 11-play, 58-yard drive at the 7:12 mark of the first quarter.

Southeast tied the game on a 21-yard field goal by Geldbach with 11:48 remaining in the second quarter.

After a personal foul gave TTU first down at the Southeast 25-yardline, Lamb hit Benford for an 18-yard completion, setting up a 1st-and-Goal at the seven. Lamb then scored on a 1-yard run to extend the Golden Eagles lead to 10-3 at the 5:10 mark.

Terrell led the Redhawks to their next score when he carried the ball five times for 53 yards during an 8-play, 70-yard march.

Terrell took a pitch from quarterback Matt Scheible and dashed 15 yards to the end zone, giving the game its second tie at 10-10 with 1:57 left.

TTU would grab a 17-10 advantage just before the half when Lamb delivered a 15-yard touchdown pass to Benford with 19 seconds on the clock. Lamb found Benford in the back right corner of the end zone.

Southeast turned the ball over on the second play of the opening drive of the second half. Dwight Evans forced the fumble and Austin Tallant recovered at the Southeast-47.

Five plays later, Cody Forbes hit paydirt on a 4-yard run to give TTU a 24-10 lead with 12:44 left to play in the third quarter. 

Gay added another touchdown on a 9-yard run to push TTU's lead to 31-17 at the 4:35 mark of the third quarter.

Southeast had a season-high 320 yards rushing and 495 yards of total offense.

Terrell ran for 154 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries, averaging 10.3 yards per rush. He became Southeast's first 100-yard rusher this season.

“Once we got going, you could really see Levi's ability,” said Samuel. “I told him before the game that tonight was going to be a big night.”

D.J. Foster also had a big night, making several acrobatic catches. Foster finished with seven receptions for 115 yards, becoming the first Southeast player to finish with 100 or more receiving yards in a game since Miles Edwards had 100 at Murray State a year ago.

Meanwhile, Scheible completed 13-of-25 passes for 175 yards. He also rushed for 87 yards on 16 attempts.

Defensively, Blake Peiffer had a career-high 17 tackles, while Bryan Blanfort followed with 11. The Redhawk defense forced two turnovers, as well.

Lamb completed 27-of-37 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown.

Gay had over 100 yards receiving in addition to his 146 rushing yards. He caught seven passes for 101 yards.

Benford followed with nine catches for 98 yards and a touchdown.

Talliant led the TTU defense with 13 tackles. Howard Griffin and Jake McIntosh followed with 12 and 10 tackles, respectively.

The TTU defense stopped Southeast three times on fourth down in the second half. One of those was a goal line stand on its own 1-yardline. The Golden Eagles held the Redhawks on three-straight rushing attempts on that drive.

Southeast returns home to host Eastern Illinois during its Family Weekend on Oct. 1. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m., CT, at Houck Stadium.