The Lindenwood Lions won a 49-38 shootout over Western Illinois on Saturday. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer
All four home teams won in Big South-OVC Football Association action last Saturday, including Tennessee Tech and Southeast Missouri State winning nail-biters by six points or less. Tennessee-Martin scored 31 points in the second half to blow by Eastern Illinois.
But the game of the weekend was Lindenwood’s thrilling 49-38 shootout Homecoming Day win over Western Illinois, in which WIU quarterback Nathan Lamb threw for 564 yards and five touchdowns, but somehow was upstaged by Lindenwood freshman running back Steve Hall, who ran for a career-high 259 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead the Lions to the win.
Here’s a quick recap of what went down in Week 9 of Big South-OVC football:
LINDENWOOD 49, WESTERN ILLINOIS 38 | BOX SCORE
The Lindenwood football team picked up a big 49-38 win over Western Illinois on Homecoming. Steve Hall rushed for 259 yards and four touchdowns and was 13 yards shy of breaking the school’s single-game rushing record.
In the back-and-forth affair, WIU struck first in the fourth quarter to regain a 38-35 lead with just under 13 minutes to play. The lead didn’t last long as Glantz continued to find his tight ends, this time it was Darrin Fuggit who caught the ball over the middle and got into the end zone. Putting Lindenwood up 42-38 with 9:43 to go. Hall would follow that with a 93-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring.
#6 SEMO 30, GARDNER-WEBB 24 | BOX SCORE
Paxton DeLaurent threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns, and Cole Ruble ran for a career-high 122 yards and one touchdown to lead #6 Southeast Missouri (8-1, 5-0) to a 30-24 victory over Gardner-Webb (2-6, 1-3) Saturday afternoon on Homecoming at Houck Field.
SEMO, which played in front of its largest crowd of the season (7,295), stayed unbeaten at home with a 4-0 record. The Redhawks posted their seventh-straight win giving Tom Matukewicz his longest winning streak as a head coach.
DeLaurent completed 35-of-58 passes and broke SEMO’s all-time career record in total offense along the way. His 7,583 yards surpassed Matt Scheible’s previous record of 7,436 yards from 2008-11.
TENNESSEE TECH 28, CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 23 | BOX SCORE
Charleston Southern made things interesting in the fourth quarter as the Buccaneers returned an intercepted two-point conversion for two points of its own to make it a two-point contest. But Tennessee Tech persevered with stops down the stretch to win 28-23. Dom LeBlanc’s 32-yard field goal with 1:47 would go on to seal the victory for TTU.
Dylan Liable, in his second start after returning from injury, had a solid outing, completing nine of his 16 passes for 175 yards with two touchdowns. The biggest recipient was D.J. Linkins, who caught three of his four targets for 106 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown in the second quarter to put the Golden Eagles up 16-7.
TENNESSEE-MARTIN 52, EASTERN ILLINOIS 17 | BOX SCORE
Fresh off a bye week, the University of Tennessee at Martin football team kept its momentum rolling by recording its fourth straight victory behind a blowout performance of Big South-OVC Football Association rival Eastern Illinois by a final margin of 52-17. The Skyhawks improved to 5-3 on the season while picking up their third association victory in four opportunities.
WEEK 10 BIG SOUTH-OVC FOOTBALL — NOVEMBER 2, 2024
| Away | Home | Time | Location | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gardner-Webb |  Charleston Southern | 1:00 P.M. | Charleston, S.C. | TV: ESPN+ Stats Video |
 Lindenwood |  Tennessee Tech | 1:30 P.M. | Cookeville, Tenn. | TV: ESPN+ Stats Video |
 Western Illinois |  Eastern Illinois | 2:00 P.M. | Charleston, Ill. | TV: ESPN+ Stats Video |
 Tennessee-Martin |  Tennessee State | 5:00 P.M. | Nashville, Tenn. | TV: ESPN+ Stats Video |