Eastern Illinois wide receiver C.J. Nelson (2) fights a Southeast Missouri defender for the football Saturday in Charleston. The Panthers fell, 38-27. (Photo by EIUPanthers.com)
By Barry Bottino
Nearly 300 yards of offense in the second half helped Eastern Illinois walk away from O’Brien Field Saturday with some positive vibes.
But it was Southeast Missouri’s first-half dominance that sent the Panthers to their fourth consecutive loss, a 38-27 Homecoming defeat against the No. 13 Redhawks (5-1) in a Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Football Association game in Charleston.
“We started a little slowly. You dig yourself into a 17-0 deficit in the first quarter and you’re down 24-7 at the half … we just didn’t make plays,” EIU head coach Chris Wilkerson said. “We weren’t really clicking early.”
What was clicking was the passing game for Southeast Missouri, led by senior quarterback Paxton DeLaurent. The Redhawks (2-0 Big South-OVC) scored on four of its first four drives to take a 24-0 second half lead. Eastern (1-5, 0-2), meanwhile, gained 13 yards on its first six drives of the opening half.
DeLaurent finished 30-for-43 for 364 yards and three touchdowns. He connected with seven different receivers but leaned heavily on his top targets, Tristan Smith (eight catches, 124 yards) and Dorian Anderson (seven catches, 109 yards).
EIU rallied in the second half, closing the gap to 24-14 early in the third quarter. But the Panthers couldn’t reach the end zone again until 7 minutes, 59 seconds remained in the game.
Sophomore running back M.J. Flowers caught 11 passes for 72 yards and rushed for 48 yards and two touchdowns. The 11 receptions set a school record for a running back, surpassing Devin Church’s 10 catches against Northern Iowa in the 2015 playoffs.
Eastern QB Pierce Holley was 27-for 42 passing for 366 yards and two touchdowns but he was sacked five times.
Game changers
0:42, 1st quarter: SEMO QB Paxton DeLaurent threw the second of his three TD passes, this one to Dorian Anderson for 29 yards, to boost the Redhawks’ lead to 17-0.
0:27, 2nd quarter: After falling behind 24-0, Eastern broke through when Holley connected with Cooper Willman for the Panthers’ first touchdown.
2:10, 4th quarter: M.J. Flowers scored on a two-yard run for his second TD of the game.
What it means
The EIU losing streak is now at four in a row as the Panthers fell to 0-2 in the Big South-OVC.
Primetime Panthers
Prairie State Pigskin chooses the top three Eastern Illinois players in the game:
Flowers, RB: The sophomore piled up 120 yards of offense – a team-high 72 through the air on a school-record 11 catches and 48 on the ground. He scored two rushing TDs.
Holley, QB: With EIU playing from behind all night, the Panthers’ QB piled up 366 passing yards.
NiJhay Burt, CB: The junior grabbed his team-leading fourth interception of the season while compiling seven tackles.
What’s next?
Eastern travels to Nashville for its first Big South-OVC road game of the season, a 5 p.m. kickoff Oct. 12 against Tennessee State.
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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