Minnesota changed the momentum of the game late in the first quarter on Thursday evening with the first of two touchdown punt returns by Javon Tracy as the Gophers beat Eastern Illinois, 59-7 at Huntington Bank Stadium.
The Panthers fell to 1-1 on the season after last week's season opening win at Murray State. Minnesota is 1-0 after its season opening win.
Darius Taylor scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns to put the Gophers on the board with 4:29 in the first quarter on their second drive of the game.  After holding EIU to a three-and-out, Tracy took a punt return 87-yards to give Minnesota a 14-0 lead with 2:14 to play in the opening quarter. Tracy's other punt return covered 69 yards in the third quarter after Minnesota forced an early EIU punt out of the half.
Trailing 21-0 after Taylor's second rushing touchdown, EIU put together its most sustained drive of the day.Â
Charles Kellom gave EIU its first, first-down of the game stretching the ball out over the yard marker on a third down run.Â
Tyren Buggs caught two big screen passes in the flat and
Cole LaCrue had a big scramble out of the pocket to highlight the drive. Buggs capped it with an 8-yard TD reception from LaCrue with 9:00 left to play in the second quarter.
Minnesota scored two more times after the EIU touchdown to lead 35-7 at the break. After Tracy's early third quarter touchdown punt return, the Gophers added 17 more points to close out the game.
Buggs caught two passes for 38 yards as LaCrue passed for 51 yards going 7-of-12. EIU did not turn the ball over for the second straight week.
EIU's defense collected a turnover with
Mafileo Tupou knocking loose a ball that
Nick Vecchiarelli recovered for the Panthers defense.
Lonnie Burt led the defense with six tackles including 2.5 tackles for loss.
Erik Hehl had four tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss for EIU.
Maverick Baranowski led the Gophers defense with six tackles. Drake Lindsay passed for 264 yards and one touchdown as Minnesota finished with 495 yards of total offense.
