Hawkeyes Pull Away to Beat Illini; EIU Edges Tennessee Tech

IOWA CITY -- A strong start finished with the Hawkeyes pulling away from the Fighting Illini late, 45-16 in Iowa City on Saturday.

The Illini host Rutgers next Saturday at 11 am.

Trio of Backs

Illinois relied on its running game on Saturday, as the team finished with 200 total rushing yards on 30 attempts. In the second quarter, freshman Mike Epstein broke free for a 58-yard scamper, setting up a Ra'Von Bonner 2-yard touchdown.

Epstein paced the running backs, totaling 83 yards on just seven carries (11.9 yards per carry).

Sophomore Reggie Corbin added 61 yards on seven carries, while Bonner finished with 47 yards on twelve touches.

The 200 rushing yards for the Orange and Blue was a season high and most since last year's win at Rutgers.
First Start for George

In his first start of the season, and fifth of his career, sophomore quarterback Jeff George, Jr. finished the day 22-45 passing for 246 yards.

Illini Chunk Plays

The Illinois offense didn't have a hard time moving the ball on Saturday as the offense posted six plays of 20 yards or more. Freshman tight end Louis Dorsey was responsible for two of them, hauling in a 40-yard reception in the first quarter on a beautiful play-action fake by George to set up a Chase McLaughlin field goal and later pulling down a 31-yard catch in the third quarter.

Chase the Ace

Junior kicker Chase McLaughlin continued his solid kicking on Saturday, as the Cypress, Texas, native tied his career-high with three field goals (29, 24, 40). The 40-yard field goal matched his season long.

McLaughlin is now 8-of-9 on the season, with his lone miss coming on a 44-yard attempt against Ball State in the season opener.

Takeaways

The Illinois defense collected a pair of takeaways in the loss at Iowa. Early in the first quarter, Stanley Green jarred the ball loose from Iowa running back Ivory Kelly-Martin and Patrick Nelson scooped it up.

In the second quarter, Bennett Williams collected his first career interception on an errant pass by Hawkeye quarterback Nate Stanley.

Both turnovers led to field goals for Illinois.

The Wave

The Illini team participated in a great new Iowa football gameday staple.

At the end of the first quarter, black and gold clad Hawkeye fans wave to the patients at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. The new facility overlooks Kinnick Stadium and gives the children and their families a great view of the football game.

Along with the 69,000-plus fans in attendance, Lovie Smith and the Fighting Illini sent their salutations to the children.

EIU 24, Tennessee Tech 23

They say cats have nine lives, if so, the Eastern Illinois Panthers might have used their fourth of the season as they beat Tennessee Tech 24-23 on Saturday night to remain unbeaten in the Ohio Valley Conference.
 
EIU improved to 4-2 overall, 3-0 in the OVC.  The Panthers will travel to Murray State next Saturday afternoon.  TTU fell to 0-6 on the season, 0-3 in the OVC.
 
For the fourth time this season the game came down to a final couple of plays as EIU led 24-23 with just under two minutes remaining.  On a second and ten play redshirt freshman Mark Williams picked off his third pass of the season snatching the ball right out of the TTU wide receivers hands with 1:27 to play.
 
EIU was unable to run the clock out and had to punt with 24 seconds remaining.  TTU quickly moved the ball into field goal range setting up a Nick Madonia attempt from 48 yards out.  His attempt sailed just right and the Panthers took a knee to seal the win.  Madonia had provided a good deal of the Golden Eagles offense on the day hitting field goals from 51, 32 and 33 yards out.
 
TTU built a 14-3 lead at the half as the Golden Eagles scored two first quarter touchdowns on a 6-yard run by Yeedee Thaenrat and a 2-yard plunge by Adam Browner.  EIU twice had big plays that put the ball inside the ten yard line in the first half with a 76-yard run by Darshon McCullough and a 47-yard reception by Dennis Turner.  EIU was only able to come away with three points on a field goal by Matt Severino as the Panthers trailed 14-3 at the break.
 
Back-up quarterback Bud Martin was placed in the line-up to open the second half and quickly responded driving EIU down the field with the drive culminating in a 43-yard touchdown pass to Alexander Hollins.  It was one of three times in the game that Martin and Hollins connected as Hollins became the first EIU wide receiver since Adam Drake in 2014 to catch three touchdown passes in a game.   Hollins finished with five catches for 125 yards as both he and Turner finished with over 100-yards receiving.  Turner caught four passes for 103 yards.
 
While EIU was putting touchdowns on the board in the second half, the Panthers defense clamped down and only allowed three field goals.  On one drive during the fourth quarter the defense put together three straight sacks by Taylon Shepard, Tray Mitchell and Mack Weaver.  It was part of a five sack day for the EIU defensive unit.   Nick Horne led the defense with nine tackles.  Williams had six tackles with the interception and one pass break-up.
 
Martin finished the night 10-of-14 for 204 yards with the three scores.
 
TTU was led offensively by Andrew Goldsmith with 121 yards on the ground.  Dontez Byrd hauled in ten passes for 126 yards.  Tim Collins led the defense with seven tackles.
 
EIU has now won its three OVC games by a combined seven points.  The Panthers four victories this year are by a combined ten points.