A balanced team performance moved Eastern Illinois to 2-0 in Big South-Ohio Valley Conference play with 31-7 over Tennessee State Saturday at O’Brien Field.
This is the first time since 2017 Eastern has started 2-0 in the conference.
Eastern was dominant on the defensive side of the ball. The Panthers (3-2, 2-0) got three takeaways and only allowed 160 yards of total offense which is the lowest number of yards they have allowed all season.
Junior linebacker Ja’Wuan Nickson led the Panthers in tackles with seven and one tackle for loss.
Redshirt sophomore Trevon Piggee had the one sack for the Panthers coming in the third quarter.
“We know what we can do, once everybody’s on the same page, we communicate, fly around and make plays,” Nickson said.
The Panthers bottled up the Tigers’ (1-4, 0-2) run game allowing 30 yards on 2-0 attempts.
“If you’re pretty good up front, you have a chance, it helps your back end in coverage and helps keep your linebackers clean and they can make a number of tackles,” head coach Chris Wilkerson said. “So proud of of the way the whole organization played today, offense, defense and special teams,”
Tennessee State went three for seven on third-down conversions.
Graduate safety Tienne Fridge forced a fumble on a drive where Tennessee State got down to Eastern’s 25 yard line.
Junior safety Brandon Worsley added an interception late in the fourth quarter that was the first of the season for the Eastern defense.
Both junior safety Saipeti Maiava Jr. and senior linebacker Tylan Foster recorded four tackles and credited with half a tackle for loss.
The special teams unit for the Panthers made big plays as well.
In the third quarter, TSU’s punt returner mishandled the ball and fumbled, which allowed redshirt freshman Max Loveall to recover it, and put the offense back on the field.
Tennessee State’s defense gave the Eastern offense a boost.
The Tigers had seven penalties for 85 yards which the Panthers capitalized on.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Cole LaCrue ran up the middle for a three-yard touchdown after a pass interference penalty against TSU on third and six at the Tiger’s 16-yard line.
LaCrue added another rushing touchdown in the third quarter which gives him five touchdowns on the season.
Redshirt freshman Connor Wolf had 85 total yards passing and capped the day with a 25-yard touchdown pass to graduate receiver Cooper Willman in the fourth quarter
“I can’t say enough about the way they have handled this situation as we have gone forward,” Wilkerson said. “We had a plan in the first 15 plays for Connor [Wolf] to start, and we also knew that we were going to get Cole [LaCrue] in there for a three-play series.”
Wilkerson said it felt good to be able to capitalize on the penalties made by the Tigers since they have been in a similar situation this year and the players have taken accountability and understand they have to be the more disciplined team to win games.
Eastern finished the game with 339 yards of total offense with 168 yards through the air.
The Panthers rushed for 171 yards in the second half after only having 32 going into halftime.
Redshirt junior Charles Kellom led the way on the ground with 20 carries for 69 yards. Redshirt freshman Jacarre Fleming rushed for 41 yards on nine attempts and redshirt junior Jay Pearson had 35 yards with five attempts.
Wolf said he feels this is the best game the Panthers have put together so far this season and can be dangerous with a performance like today.
Redshirt senior tight end Joe McNab made a contested jumping catch in the endzone for his first career catch.
This gave Eastern a 17-0 lead in the second quarter after redshirt freshman kicker Drew Schiller made the point after touchdown.
“I kind of just blacked out a little bit you know, my coach always says hunt the ball, so I hunted and grabbed the ball, I had strong hands, brought it down and scored,” McNab said.
Eastern went 7-for-12 on third down conversions and that is an area that has been a struggle this season.
“We talked about that the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been converting on third down very well and it was a big focus for us,” Wolf said. “It’s something we focused on in practice a lot this week so, to be able to see it payoff today was big.”
Wilkerson said the team is only getting better.
“The guys are learning how to communicate together and they continue to improve and that’s what this journey is about, continuing to improve each week,” Wilkerson said.
The Panthers will host Gardner-Webb for homecoming next Saturday at O’Brien Field. Kickoff is set for 2p.m.
Cameron Thomas can be reached at 581-2812 or at cathomas8@eiu.edu.
