Illinois State Scores Early and Often, Beats Eastern Illinois 49-13
Illinois State scored first, scored second, and never trailed. It beat Eastern Illinois 49-13, and the Redbirds did it with 556 yards of offense.
Tyler Lofton ran in from 12 yards at 12:38 of the first quarter, and Gage Roy hit Alex Herrera from 2 yards to make it 14-0. Eastern Illinois got a 41-yard field goal from Drew Schiller, then Beckham Pellant threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Mar'Quan Gary. Dylan Lord caught a 4-yard score from Roy before halftime, and by the half it was 28-6.
The third quarter is where it got silly. Lord returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown with 13:25 left in the third, and Anthony Hall's 3-yard run made it 42-6. Lofton's 1-yard run in the fourth made it 49-6, and Cole LaCrue's 1-yard run with 7:59 left was the only touchdown Eastern Illinois could muster. EIU finished with 216 yards to Illinois State's 556, 330 of them through the air.
Illinois State lost one fumble and had no sacks. Eastern Illinois had no turnovers at all and still lost by 36, which says plenty about the rest of the stat sheet: 66 rushing yards on 26 carries, 150 passing yards and one sack of its own on defense. The Redbirds are 2-0, Eastern Illinois is 1-2. In fantasy terms, this was Lofton's day (22.1 points, against an average of 1.7 over his previous three), with Roy and Lord right behind. Lord gets a second look because he scored twice, though only the receiving touchdown counted toward his 19.7.