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A historic day for Eastern Illinois wide receiver
Cooper Willman came up just short as the Panthers lost at Gardner-Webb 31-28 on Saturday afternoon at Spangler Stadium.
EIU trailed 31-7 after Carson Gresock scored his second rushing touchdown of the day with 8:10 remaining in the game.
The Willman show would start about that time as on the next drive he caught a pass pushing him over the 1,000 yard mark for his EIU career, the 35th player in program history to pass that mark.
Willman capped that drive with an eight-yard reception from
Pierce Holley with 3:19 to play in the 3rd quarter.
Early in the 4th quarter Willman and Holley hooked up again on an 80-yard strike pulling EIU to within ten points at 31-21 with 11:30 left in the game. Holley passed for 458 yards and four touchdowns.
His third touchdown connection to Willman came with five minutes left in the game bringing EIU to within a field goal. Willman ended the day setting an EIU school record with 291 yards receiving on 11 receptions.
EIU had the ball one final time but after a sack pushed EIU into a fourth and long and out of field goal range, Miles Richardson intercepted a pass in the end zone to end the Panthers come-back bid.Â
CJ Nelson also had a 100-yards receiving with five catches for 101 yards and the first EIU touchdown in the opening seconds of the second quarter.
In the first half Gardner-Webb used some momentum on special teams to set up a couple of Runnin' Bulldogs scores.
GWU built a 7-0 lead with an 11-yard run by Carson Gresock with 9:56 to play in the opening the quarter, the first of his two touchdowns.
On the next possession, GWU blocked a 29-yard EIU field goal attempt and then answered on a GWU school record 54-yard field goal by Jay Billingsley with 1:16 to play in the first quarter.
The Panthers cut into the Bulldogs lead with the Holley to Nelson touchdown at the 14:48 mark of the second quarter.
Special teams played a factor in the next drive as a good kick return set up the GWU offense for its second touchdown of the first half as Caleb Borders had a 17-yard touchdown reception from Tyler Riddell. GWU added a final first half touchdown with 27 seconds left to lead 24-7 at the half.
The Bulldogs expanded the lead to 31-7 with Gresock's second touchdown of the day.
GWU's defense finished with 11 sacks including the big one on the Panthers final fourth quarter drive.
NiJhay Burt led the Panthers defense with seven tackles.
