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Eastern Illinois had a pair of touchdowns from
MJ Flowers to sandwich the halftime break on Saturday night at Nissan Stadium which cut a 20-3 Tennessee State lead down to 20-17 with 11:04 to play in the third quarter.
TSU answered with a pair of drives capped by Draylen Ellis touchdown passes as the Tigers pulled away for a 41-17 win over EIU.
The Panthers fell to 1-6 on the season, 0-3 in the Big South OVC. TSU improved to 5-2 overall, 3-1 in the Big South OVC.
Both teams had good opening drives to start the game but both drives ending with missed long field goals.Â
Julian Patino put the Panthers on the board first with a 30-yard field goal on the opening play of the second quarter.
TSU then ran off three straight touchdowns with Ellis hitting Karate Brenson and Bryant Williams for touchdown passes while CJ Evans ran in with a four-yard rush. Ellis passed for 224 yards and four touchdowns in the contest.
EIU scored with 1:31 left in the half as Flowers caught a nine-yard pass from
Pierce Holley and scored after bouncing off a TSU tackle. Flowers then scored on the opening drive of the second half scoring on a 1-yard drive. Â
Holley passed for 338 yards. Â
Cooper Willman and
Quenton Rogers were his top targets in the game.  Willman had eight receptions for 141 yards. Rogers hauled in five passes for 103 yards.
Ellis hit Jalal Dena for a 31-yard touchdown and Gerard Bullock 8-yard touchdown to give TSU breathing room once again with the two third quarter scores.
NiJhay Burt had eight tackles to led EIU's defense. Â
