NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Eastern was able to use Tennessee State’s mistakes and penalties to win its third straight road game.

The 25th-ranked Panthers (7-2, 6-0) won their sixth straight game and spoiled the Tigers’ attempt to win their 10th consecutive Homecoming game with the 27-3 victory.

“I’ve been told they haven’t lost their Homecoming game in nine years; so that gives you an idea of the kind of intensity we expected out of Tennessee State,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said.

The Panthers have no problem with sending crowds of any size home disappointed.

“It’s not really a Homecoming thing,” Eastern cornerback Ben Brown said. “We like to spoil everybody’s fun.”

The 23,481 in attendance was the second largest crowd the Panthers have seen this season, as the game took place at Adelphia Coliseum, the home of NFL’s Tennessee Titans. The atmosphere was a big motivating factor for the Panther players.

“We rarely get a chance to play in a place like that,” Brown said. “Every time I come here, I’m just in another place. I mean, an NFL stadium – you can’t beat it here. “

After giving up an early 36-yard field goal to the Tigers, Eastern scored the final 27 points of the game, 14 of which came on Tennessee State turnovers.

TSU got its first three points after Eastern botched a punt near midfield. For the first time this season, the Panthers sent backup punter Zach Yates out instead of senior Tom Schofield.

Eastern special teams coordinator Steve Choate said that a left-footed rugby kick was why they went with the true freshman.

“Yates can roll those left and kick with his left foot more effectively than Tom can,” he said. “I think, in reality, we should have rolled right.”

Yates fumbled the low snap and tried to roll left but never regained control of the ball and Tennessee State’s Maurice Young recovered it on the Panthers 35-yard-line.

Seven plays and four minutes later, Tigers’ freshman kicker Eric Benson split the uprights to give TSU an early three-point lead.

“I thought we were playing well in the first half and moving the football well,” TSU head coach James Webster said. “You just can’t give a team like that turnovers and extra downs.”

With the score tied at three, the Panthers got into the end zone for the first time as Eastern went 56 yards in only 48 seconds right before the end of the half. Sophomore quarterback Mike Donato was five for six with 49 yards and junior running back Vincent Webb finished it off with a 2-yard touchdown to put the Panthers up 10-3.

This two-minute, no huddle situation was the first time Eastern was able to successfully move the ball against the OVC’s top-ranked defense.

“That’s actually one of the first times we ran it,” Donato said. “We came out with a little over a minute left and just flat-out executed.”

After an injury to TSU starting quarterback Jerald Cook and backup Andre Davis, the Tigers were forced to turn to third-stringer Richard Hartman. The junior’s first drive ended with a sack by Eastern linebacker Donald Thomas which caused another fumble that was recovered by Sellers at the TSU 6-yard line.

Two plays later, Webb punched the ball in for his second of three scores. Webb struggled early but rebounded, gaining 91 yards on 29 carries.

The Panthers sealed the victory as Yates made up for his special teams mistake in the first quarter and his 28-yard miss in the second, by making a 40-yard kick into a stiff wind. The field goal culminated a 16-play, 51-yard drive that ate up nearly seven minutes of clock.

“The wind had picked up at that point, and it was right in his face,” Spoo said. “Boy, he hit it solid. That was a big play for us.”

Eastern is now two games away from clinching its third OVC title in five years.

“To play that way and win on the road is just tremendous,” Spoo said. “If you expect to be a champion, you have to do that.”