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Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – They say cats have nine lives, if so, the Eastern Illinois Panthers might have used their fourth of the season as they beat Tennessee Tech 24-23 on Saturday night to remain unbeaten in the Ohio Valley Conference.
EIU improved to 4-2 overall, 3-0 in the OVC. The Panthers will travel to Murray State next Saturday afternoon. TTU fell to 0-6 on the season, 0-3 in the OVC.
For the fourth time this season the game came down to a final couple of plays as EIU led 24-23 with just under two minutes remaining. On a second and ten play redshirt freshman
Mark Williams picked off his third pass of the season snatching the ball right out of the TTU wide receivers hands with 1:27 to play.
EIU was unable to run the clock out and had to punt with 24 seconds remaining. TTU quickly moved the ball into field goal range setting up a Nick Madonia attempt from 48 yards out. His attempt sailed just right and the Panthers took a knee to seal the win. Madonia had provided a good deal of the Golden Eagles offense on the day hitting field goals from 51, 32 and 33 yards out.
TTU built a 14-3 lead at the half as the Golden Eagles scored two first quarter touchdowns on a 6-yard run by Yeedee Thaenrat and a 2-yard plunge by Adam Browner. EIU twice had big plays that put the ball inside the ten yard line in the first half with a 76-yard run by
Darshon McCullough and a 47-yard reception by
Dennis Turner. EIU was only able to come away with three points on a field goal by
Matt Severino as the Panthers trailed 14-3 at the break.
Back-up quarterback
Bud Martin was placed in the line-up to open the second half and quickly responded driving EIU down the field with the drive culminating in a 43-yard touchdown pass to
Alexander Hollins. It was one of three times in the game that Martin and Hollins connected as Hollins became the first EIU wide receiver since Adam Drake in 2014 to catch three touchdown passes in a game. Hollins finished with five catches for 125 yards as both he and Turner finished with over 100-yards receiving. Turner caught four passes for 103 yards.
While EIU was putting touchdowns on the board in the second half, the Panthers defense clamped down and only allowed three field goals. On one drive during the fourth quarter the defense put together three straight sacks by
Taylon Shepard,
Tray Mitchell and
Mack Weaver. It was part of a five sack day for the EIU defensive unit.
Nick Horne led the defense with nine tackles. Williams had six tackles with the interception and one pass break-up.
Martin finished the night 10-of-14 for 204 yards with the three scores.
TTU was led offensively by Andrew Goldsmith with 121 yards on the ground. Dontez Byrd hauled in ten passes for 126 yards. Tim Collins led the defense with seven tackles.
EIU has now won its three OVC games by a combined seven points. The Panthers four victories this year are by a combined ten points.
