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Eastern Illinois defense had three interceptions including one by
NiJhay Burt with five seconds left in the game as the Panthers locked up their first winning season since the 2017 season with a 16-10 win at Lindenwood.
The Panthers jumped out with all their offense in the opening quarter as
Pierce Holley connected with
Justin Thomas for a couple of big pass plays on the drive which ended with a
Stone Galloway 33-yard field goal.
Holley found
Eli Mirza on the next drive for a 38-yard touchdown strike before
MJ Flowers pushed the EIU lead out to 16-0 with his 4-yard touchdown.  The Panthers racked up 176 yards in the opening quarter before finishing with 327 in the game.
EIU's defense was a large part of the story on Saturday with three interceptions.
Nick Coates had the first interception before
Blake Ruffin and Burt had interceptions in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers were also active in the Lindenwood backfield with five sacks including two by
Phoenix Porter as part of his five tackle, three tackle for loss afternoon.Â
Anthony Shockey had a team-high ten tackles followed by
Elijawah Tolbert and
Tyris Harvey both with six.
EIU held Lindenwood to 265 yards of total offense with a good portion of it coming on a late fourth quarter drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Justice to Chase Lanckriet with 1:19 left in the game.
Lindenwood's other points came on a second quarter field goal by Logan Seibert.Â
Holley passed for 245 yards with Thomas, Mirza and
DeAirious Smith all catching five passes for EIU as the Panthers are now 6-3 overall, 2-2 in the Big South-OVC.
Ethan Stuhlsatz led the Lions defense with ten tackles as Lindenwood fell to 3-6 overall, 1-4 in the Big South-OVC.
