CHARLESTON, Ill – Eastern Illinois wrapped up fall camp on Saturday morning with its final scrimmage as the Panthers will now turn their focus to the season opener on Thursday, August 30 against Southern Illinois.  Kick off for the season opener is at 6:30 p.m. at O'Brien Field. 

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The final scrimmage played out much the same way the fall camp has with the teams essentially have a balanced camp effort on both sides of the football.

“I am very pleased with camp,” said first year head coach Dino Babers.  “I thought camp was a very 50-50 camp between success by the offense and defense.  That was evidenced by the scrimmage today where both sides had some good things happen and made some plays.”

The scrimmage which featured each offense series starting at a set yard line was led by a strong offensive performance in the first half.  The first team offense was able to score touchdowns on four of its first six possessions with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo throwing three touchdowns.  The first scoring connection was with senior wide receiver Chavar Watkins who had a big day with seven catches for 74 yards and a 20-yard touchdown grab.

“In the first half of the scrimmage we tried to mix it up as we would in a game and we had some success,” said Watkins.  “Our key to success is getting up to the ball and keeping that high tempo.  We want to set the pace of play.”

Garoppolo also connected in the early going with Erik Lora and Chris Wright with both pulling in 19-yard touchdowns.  Wright would add a 21-yard score later in the scrimmage finishing with six catches for 66 yards. 

Following a halftime break the defense was able to step up to the challenge and make some big plays.  Tavares Crawford picked off a pair of passes, one from Garoppolo and another against Taylor Duncan which served as the final play of the scrimmage.  The defense added three stops in the red zone including a pass break-up by Pete Houlihan in the end zone on a fourth and goal.

“I thought the defense played well, especially at the end when they forced some turnovers,” said Garoppolo.  “It's great to see our defense play well and get turnovers because that will lead to more possessions for our offense to try and score.”

Garoppolo finished the day 18-of-34 for 234 yards with three touchdown passes and the one interception to Crawford.  In the two scrimmages this fall, Garoppolo has passed for more than 600 yards and nine touchdowns with the lone interception yet he still sees room for improvement.

“As a quarterback I need to continue to improve on my decision making.  I have had a bad habit of turning the ball over and I'm working on improving that,” added Garoppolo.  “As an offense we just need to continue to work on improving our tempo, getting up to the ball quickly and getting a play going.”

In addition to solid play by the first team unit, Ben Krol who has been quarterbacking the second team looking good in today's exhibition.  Krol was 12-of-24 for 167 yards and two touchdowns.  His favorite targets were Adam Drake with five catches for 69 yards and Trey Pendergrass with two catches for 71 yards including a 46-yard touchdown.  Freshman Ryan Meyer added an interception playing with the second unit defense.

Eastern Illinois will start classes on campus on Monday as the Panthers will now move into a normal practice schedule in preparation for the season opener.  The depth chart and game plan for the August 30 game against SIU will now start to be formulated.

“In today's scrimmage I thought we ran the ball efficiently but we still have areas we can improve upon as we get ready for the Salukis on August 30,” said Babers.