Eastern Illinois Runs past Gardner-Webb and Five Fumbles
Five lost fumbles. Gardner-Webb gave the ball away five times, threw an interception on top of it, and still had a 7-7 game with under three minutes to play. Eastern Illinois won it 21-7.
The scoreboard sat at 0-0 until 13:21 left in the third quarter, when Charles Kellom ran in from a yard out for the first score. Then, with 9:41 left in the fourth, Lan Farmer threw 37 yards to Kory Jones to tie it at 7-7, which was Gardner-Webb's only score of the day.
Eastern Illinois broke it with Cole LaCrue's 4-yard run with 2:31 left, and Kellom added a 4-yard score with 1:18 to go. That made it 21-7, and both of the late touchdowns came after the tie.
The Panthers did all of this without throwing the ball. They passed for 11 yards total (LaCrue was 2 of 4) and ran it 46 times for 160 yards, the whole offense. Gardner-Webb outgained them on paper, 227 yards to 171, and that did not matter with five fumbles lost. Both teams are 2-3 after the game.
Fantasy points were scarce, which is what happens when one team throws for 11 yards and the other keeps handing the ball back. Gardner-Webb had 108 passing yards and 119 rushing, and one touchdown. Kellom had 33 carries for 150 yards and two touchdowns, 27.0 points. Farmer, in what the numbers show as his first game of the season, was the best Gardner-Webb scorer at 15.6, and two of his plays were lost fumbles.