The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles start the 2008 football campaign with a win over Gardner-Webb Thursday night 28-12.

Tech won the coin toss and decided to take the ball to start the game. But a quick three and out left The Tech Offense with the look of being flat.

That was followed by a shanked punt by Jason Lennartz that put Gardner-Webb on offense inside the Tech 30 yard line.

Tech's defense ca,e out and looked determined and held the Bulldogs and got the ball back for the Golden Eagle Offense.

Lee Sweeney connected with Tim Benford from 11 yards out to to put Tech up 7-0 after Justin Kraemer knocked through the point after. That scoring play came in the first quarter with 3:28 remaining.

Sweeney finished the night 19 of 31 with a pick for 199 yards, dropping the one pass into the zone for a touch.

Sweeney also found the end zone on a one yard run as he carried the ball seven times for nine yards.

The big play maker for the night was Henry Sailes who racked up 171 all purpose yards with 67 coming on two kick returns. He also hauled in ten passes for 78 yards and carried the ball ten time for a net of 26.

The Bulldogs scored twice in the second quarter with a pair of Ryan Gates field goals of 41 and 18 yards.

Tech scored in the second as well when Sailes ran in from four yards out to make it 13-3 at the 9:24 mark. Scoring also was Sweeney on his one yard run at 2:51 in the period.

Tech defense was tough all night stopping the Bulldogs in the tracks several times and a couple where the Golden Eagles took over on down after the defense held on fourth down.

The Tech defense was responsible for the other two points in the second when the rush on fourth down at 7:12 to go caused punter Michael Hanna to bobble and then mishandle the ball that ended up being swiped out of the end zone to keep Tech from recovering for a touchdown.

No scoring occurred in the third but Tech scored twice in the fourth on two Kraemer field goals of 37 and 39 yards. Gardner-Webb slapped six on the board when Philip peoples ran in from a yard out. The two point conversion failed.

Stan Doolittle threw the ball for 235 yards going 28 of 41 and without a touch but four sacks.

Peoples ran the ball nine times for 43 yards to lead the Bulldog rushing while Dobson Collins hauled in eight passes for 67 yards and Tre Perry 7 catches for 68 yards.

Tech's defense had several heros for the night. Maurice Smith had 14 tackles while Dontrell Baines tracked down 13 Bulldogs and had a sack. Corey Reed made 12 tackles to round out Tech players with double digit tackles.

Tech had 252 total yards of offense.

Tech will now travel to Loiusville next week.