The running game dominated Eastern in a 21-10 homecoming loss to Gardner-Webb.

The Panthers allowed 251 total rushing yards which is the most they have given up this season.

Gardner-Webb’s offense started off hot with an 11 yard rush and 10 yard rush by graduate running back Quasean Holmes. 

This came after Eastern failed to convert on 4th down at Gardner-Webb’s 41 yard line after converting on 4th down twice earlier in the opening drive. 

The Bulldogs first drive went eight for 59 yards. The opening drive ended with a 14 yard touchdown pass from  graduate quarterback Nate Hampton finding Holmes as his checkdown, fighting his way into the endzone. 

Gardner-Webb scored in two minutes and 44 seconds.  

Eastern did a good job of controlling the time of possession for the first half but explosive plays hurt the Panthers on defense. 

On second and four in their own territory, Gardner-Webb’s redshirt junior running back Carson Gresock made a jumpcut and found a hole on the right side of the offensive line and ran 64 yards for a touchdown. 

This put Gardner-Webb up 14-0 with twelve minutes and 36 seconds in the second quarter. 

Two drives later, Gresock hurt the Panthers again. 

This time he ran outside on the left side of the field and took it 55 yards for a touchdown. 

This put Gresock at 134 yards on four carries for an average of 33.5 yards per carry. He got two carries in the remainder of the game. 

“I felt like we overcompensated for the run game, we kept on trying to mix up the front.” senior linebacker Tylan Foster said. 

The Panthers only allowed 65 rushing yards in the second half.

“When we said okay, we are done doing that, we’re just going back to base calls and base fits, that’s when we shut them down, I feel like we started slow and we did too much. We needed to stay to what we know,” Foster said. 

Foster led the Eastern defense with 9 tackles and four being solo. 

Graduate safeties Jihad McCall and Tienne Fridge record five solo tackles each.

Fridge also forced a fumble on a Gardner-Webb drive that got to Eastern’s two yard line. 

Gardner-Webb went into the half with 186 rushing yards and a 21-3 lead over the Panthers. 

The Panthers offense had 119 total yards of offense at the half. 

Redshirt freshman Connor Wolf went down with an injury in the second quarter and did not return. 

Redshirt sophomore Cole LaCrue replaced Wolf for the remainder of the game. 

Head coach Chris Wilkerson says Wolf’s suffered a midbody injury and is to be announced later on but does not believe it will be long term. 

LaCrue hit redshirt junior receiver CJ Nelson over the top of the Gardner-Webb defense, in the back end zone and was ruled incomplete on the field and the call was confirmed after review with one minute and 49 seconds left in the first half. 

Gardner-Webb got after LaCrue in the 2nd half recording three sacks. 

Senior Robert Holtz had two of the eight sacks for the Bulldogs. Five other players for Gardner-Webb recorded a sack. 

LaCrue said that the Gardner-Webb defense had different looks compared to other defenses he has seen this season. In this meeting last year Gardner-Webb recorded 11 sacks.

The Panthers put a touchdown on the board in the 3rd quarter with a 19 yard run from LaCrue. The run gets LaCrue his sixth rushing touchdown of the season.

Besides the touchdown, Eastern’s offense couldn’t get much going. The Panthers went six for 18 in third-down conversions and did not get into the red zone in any other offense drive of the game. 

LaCrue finished the game 11 of 23 passing for 95 yards. 

“I just have to make some better plays and just help out our guys a little more,” LaCrue said.

Redshirt junior Charles Kellom added 56 rushing yards. That puts his total at 384 rushing yards on the season. 

Eastern finished the game with 229 total yards of offense which is the lowest in a game this season.

“There were some things that we did very well but we just didn’t do enough to win, they are a very good football team. It’s back to the drawing board now,” Wilkerson said. 

This game for the Panthers marks the sixth year of a loss on homecoming. The last homecoming win came in 2018 against UT Martin.

Also with this loss, Eastern does not control their own destiny if they want to win the OVC-Big South conference.

The Panthers continue conference play as they travel to Cape Girardeau, Missouri next Saturday to take on Southeast Missouri, Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Cameron Thomas can be reached at 581-2812 or at cathomas8@eiu.edu.