The Lindenwood Lions football team, fresh off a blowout win vs St Thomas, kept it going with a 28-25 come from behind win over the Eastern Illinois Panthers. It was a tale of 2 halves for Lindenwood who found themselves quickly down 14-0 before the first quarter was even over and it looked like it might be a long afternoon for the Lions. Then in the second half something clicked and Jeff Caldwell stepped up and put the team on his back. Caldwell would finish the game with four catches for 115 yards and four touchdowns. After only tallying 139 total yards in the first half, eight first downs and only one for six on third down. The Lions exploded 315 second half yards, 12 first downs and three for six on third down. After the Panthers were able to find the endzone on their first two possessions, the Lindenwood defense stepped up only allowing three points until late in the 4th quarter. Cortezz Jones also had a big game for the Lions as he totaled 102 rushing yards on 20 carries. Steve Hall, who has been a bright spot on the offense, contributed 36 yards on six carries. After totaling 4touchdowns in the win last week against St Thomas, quarterback Nate Glantz would have four more again this week and finish with 283 yards, four touchdowns and a pick.
Lindenwood opened the game allowing Eastern Illinois to go 76 yards on 14 plays for a touchdown after Panther quarterback Pierce Holley found Cooper Willman for a 15 yard touchdown. The Lions would respond on their opening drive by immediately going three and out and punting the ball right back to the Panthers who proceeded to again go 57 yards on four plays helped out by a huge 55 yard catch and run by Panther wide receiver Jay Pearson. Pierce Holley would cap the drive off by running for a one-yard touchdown to extend the Panthers lead to 14-0. Lindenwood would try to respond going on an eight-play, 46 yard drive. However, kicker Logan Seibert would miss a 49 yard field goal and give the ball back to the Panthers in great field position. The Panthers would then put together another nice drive that would end with Drew Schiller hitting a 32 yard field goal to extend the Panther lead to 17-0 and looked like that might be it for the Lions. Lindenwood would put together a nice drive at the end of the half and drive all the way down to the Panther 1 yard line, but on 4th and goal Jones would be stopped and the Lions would still have nothing to show on the scoreboard going into the half.
To start the second half, Glantz would throw his fifth interception of the season. However, following this, the Lindenwood defense would step up and shut down the Panther offense forcing them to punt on four of their next five possessions while also stopping them on downs after the Panthers got down to the Lindenwood 11 yard line. The Lions offense would take advantage of this, and finally get on the board on the back a few Jones runs before Glantz found Jeff Caldwell for an 11 yard touchdown to put the Lions on the board. The Panthers would go three and out, and give it right back to the Lions who would take advantage of the tiring Panther defense as they only needed two plays to go 58 yards to cut the Panther lead to 17-14. Glantz would find Drew Krobath for 36 yards before hitting Jeff Caldwell for a 22 yard touchdown, his second of the game. The Panthers would threaten to get back their lead but a huge tackle from Jacob Waller on 4th and 1 from the Lindenwood 11 stuffed Panthers running back MJ Flowers and turned the ball over on downs giving the ball back to Lindenwood. Both teams would trade punts at the end of the third quarter, before the Lions put together yet another great drive going 74 yards in eight plays riding the legs of Jones and Glantz before Glantz yet again found Caldwell for an eight yard touchdown and giving the Lions their first lead of the game at 21-17. The Lions defense continued to step up forcing another three and out before Glantz continued to feed the hot hand throwing a beautiful ball between 2 Panther defenders to Caldwell who took it 74 yards to the house for his fourth touchdown of the game and extended the Lions lead to 28-17.
It was then that the Lions defensive momentum started to run out, as the Panthers marched 65 yards in eight plays capped off by a Pierce Holley pass to Eli Mirza on 4th and 3 from the Lindenwood 25 yard line for a 25 yard touchdown. The Panthers then were able to convert the two point conversion on another completion to Mirza cutting the Lion lead to 28-25. The Lions got the ball back with 3:36 left and all they needed were a couple first downs but went three and out after Jones was tripped up one yard shy of the line to gain and forced the Lions to punt the ball back to the Panthers with 1:53 left and two timeouts and great field position after the Patrick Turner punt only traveled 24 yards. The Panthers immediately capitalized as Pierce Holley found Terrance Gipson for pass plays of 13 and 12 yards. The Panthers would get down to the Lindenwood 16 yard line and faced a 3rd and 10 where they elected to run the ball and play for overtime. With 10 seconds left in the game, the Panthers trotted out their freshman kicker, Drew Schiller who had both made and missed a kick already in the game and as rain started to fall and the wind swirled the game tying kick sailed wide right and sealed the Lindenwood 28-25 victory.
The Lions escaped with their first Ohio Valley-Big South conference win of the year, and will be back at home for the next two consecutive weeks as they play host to Tennessee State university on Oct. 5 and Charleston Southern university on Oct. 12.
