Illinois Gets Thumped, EIU Downs Murray State

It wasn't a happy trip to Happy Valley for Illinois, losing 39-0 to Penn State Saturday.

The Fighting Illini dropped to 4-4 on the season and look ahead to play at Purdue this Saturday at 11 a.m.

Wes Lunt threw for 129 yards on 16 completions. Dionte Taylor was Illinois' leading receiver with 45 yards on four catches.

The Fighting Illini picked up a handful of sacks. Jihad Ward, Dawuane Smoot and Tre Watson brought down Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg. Watson, a redshirt freshman, registered his first career sack. Junior LEO Smoot has at least one sack in four of the last five games.

Senior DB Clayton Fejedelem, the team's leading tackler, had 13 tackles, 1.0 TFL and one forced fumble. He entered the game ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten in tackles.

Illinois blocked both of Penn State's first two extra-point attempts; the first time the Illini blocked two kicks in a game since 2003 at Purdue. It was the first time Penn State had an extra point blocked since Virginia in 2012. Illinois entered the weekend ranked No. 5 in the nation with three blocked kicks, two behind Temple's five for the national lead.

At Murray, Ky.

After a solid opening first quarter by Murray State quarterback KD Humphries, Eastern Illinois University's defense clamped down giving the Panthers a 34-20 win to improve to 5-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Humphires opened the first quarter 10 of 11 for 138 yards as Murray State led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter. Humphries finished the game 28 of 51 with 346 yards. A late fourth quarter completion of 61 yards to Paul Rice added to the final total. The late completion to Rice set up a touchdown by Jesse Blackburn with 2:48 to play, cutting EIU's lead to 27-20.

EIU recovered the onside kick attempt and on third-and-three, Shepard Little broke through the line for a 40-yard touchdown, his second of the day. Little finished with 109 yards on the ground as the Panthers extended the lead to two scores.

EIU's defense did a good job applying pressure with four first half sacks. Dino Fanti and Kamu Grugier-Hill each had two.