Lindenwood Holds Off Eastern Illinois After a Blocked PAT
A blocked extra point is the number to remember here. Eastern Illinois scored to tie it at 13-13 late in the third quarter, but Drew Schiller's kick was blocked, and that is the only reason it was a tie and not a one-point lead. Lindenwood got the last laugh, taking the game 20-13 with a touchdown and then nothing else needed.
Lindenwood kicked a 36-yard field goal first. Cole LaCrue then hit Jeremy Reeves for a 49-yard touchdown in the second quarter to put Eastern Illinois up 7-3, the only lead the Panthers had all day. Steve Hall's 10-yard run with 26 seconds left in the half flipped it to 10-7, and a 22-yard field goal from Will Graham made it 13-7 midway through the third. LaCrue found Alex Ginnever from 24 yards to tie it, and that was the last Panthers score.
Pops Battle ended it with a 1-yard run with 11:00 left in the fourth, and the scoreboard never moved again. The yards explain why. Lindenwood piled up 369 total yards to 256, with 139 on the ground against 53 for Eastern Illinois, which ran the ball only 20 times. Battle went 26 of 34 for 230 yards with an interception, and his team threw one pick overall. Eastern Illinois threw one too and also lost a fumble, so it gave the ball away twice to Lindenwood's once.
Lindenwood moves to 2-2. Eastern Illinois falls to 2-4, and it can look at two plays (the blocked kick and the lost fumble) as a fair price of a seven-point loss. For fantasy, LaCrue's 22.7 points and Reeves' 17.9 were the top two scores of the game, and both came in a loss. That happens.