Ohio Valley Conference

EASTERN ILLINOIS - Bill Besenhofer kicked a 25-yard field goal on the last play of the game, lifting No. 8 ranked Eastern Illinois to a 52-49 victory over No. 13 Tennessee State, giving the Panthers solid control of first place in the OVC. EIU only needs to win one of its two remaining conference games in order to clinch its first-ever Ohio Valley Conference title... Junior quarterback Tony Romo threw for 381 yards and three touchdown passes in the game, and he led the Panthers on the game-winning march... Senior wide receiver Frank Cutolo set an EIU record for most receiving yardage in a game with 239 yards on eight catches. He caught TD passes of 74 and 28 yards... Andre Raymond rushed for 113 yards and scored three touchdowns on runs of 13, 19 and 30 yards... The Panthers (6-1 overall and 4-0 in the OVC) trailed at the half, 35-21, but came back to tie the game at 35 on a Roosevelt Williams 98-yard pass interception return for a touchdown... EIU had 512 yards total offense while TSU had 553... Eastern Illinois scored 52 points on the nation’s leading scoring defense. Entering the game, TSU was allowing an average of only 6.2 points per game... The Panthers play at UT Martin on Thursday night.

EASTERN KENTUCKY - Eastern Kentucky was off last week... Using a shutdown defense in the second half which caused five turnovers for the game, the Colonels won their fourth straight game by beating visiting Tennessee Tech, 34-10, two weeks ago... EKU moved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference to stay within striking distance of winning the OVC... Junior safety Yeremiah Bell recovered a blocked punt for a TD for the second consecutive week, this time on a block of his own...A dominating defensive charge was the deciding factor in the second half by the Colonels as Tennessee Tech was held to just 51 second-half yards and only 257 yards total offense for the game. Eastern’s defense came up with four interceptions and one fumble recovery, in addition to its blocked punt for a TD... C.J. Hudson once again contributed in a big way to the Eastern attack. He scored EKU’s first touchdown, taking a screen pass from starting quarterback Travis Turner and scooting 65 yards for a TD that put Eastern up 7-3. Hudson notched his sixth 100-plus rushing game of the year as he rambled for 134 yards in 30 carries against the Golden Eagles. This performance ups his season total to 978 yards rushing and 11 TD’s... Quarterback Travis Turner was 6-of-10 for 124 yards and a touchdown, while backup Toki McCray was 2-for-2 for 66 yards... Running back Chuck Marks added 40 yards rushing on nine carries and a TD... Eastern returns to action at Southeast Missouri this week.

MURRAY STATE - Murray State fell to I-A Minnesota, 66-10, last week, allowing the Gophers’ highest point total since 1937. It was Murray’s second loss to a major conference team this year (they lost the opener to Ole Miss)... Murray State drops to 3-4 overall, while still sitting at 1-2 in the OVC... MSU had added the game against Minnesota when its Sept. 15 game against North Alabama was canceled after the terrorist attacks... The Gophers outgained the Racers 300-154 on the ground... Quarterback Stewart Childress completed 19 of 38 passes for 205 yards and kept the Racers in the game early in the first quarter. After Garner Byars picked up a first down on a 2-yard run, Childress hit Byars on a 12-yard pass to the Gophers 1. On the next play, Childress leaped over the line to pull the Racers to 14-10 with 1:25 left in the first quarter. But Minnesota slammed the door quickly.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI - Tennessee Tech scored 20 unanswered points in the first half on three touchdown passes to claim a 41-21 win over the Indians. Southeast Missouri, which is 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the conference, had taken an early 7-0 lead on a fake field goal in the first quarter... Freshman quarterback Jeromy McDowell completed 23-of-41 passes for 241 yards and one TD in the game... Junior receiver Willie Ponder, who leads the OVC in all receiving categories, grabbed nine passes for 78 yards and a TD. Ponder needs just 87 receiving yards to become just the second player in Southeast history to have over 1,000 yards receiving in a season…. ... Running back Curtis Cooper had 56 yards on 17 carries in the game. Cooper needs just six yards rushing to become Southeast’s first 1,000 yard rusher since 1995. He will be just the third Southeast player to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.

TENNESSEE-MARTIN - Tennessee-Martin committed costly turnovers to help pave the way for Samford as the Skyhawks dropped a 31-8 decision to the host Bulldogs last Saturday. The loss dropped UTM to 1-7 on the season. The Skyhawks are 0-3 in the OVC... The Skyhawks allowed Samford’s scoring drives of 31, seven, and three yards and also had a fumble returned for a touchdown, which accounted for the Bulldogs’ 24-0 lead after three quarters... UT Martin managed its only points of the day after marching 65 yards for a TD. Jeremy Anderson had a 41-yard run to the Samford 5-yard line, and then scored on the next play. Robert Hines scored the two point conversion... UT Martin had 200 yards rushing with Anderson leading the way with 86 yards on six attempts... UT Martin quarterbacks Robert Hines and Shane Williams combined to complete only 2-of-11 passes for 34 yards, both to William Stevenson... The defense was led by senior Vincent Thomas, who had 10 tackles. Thomas also forced and recovered a fumble... The Skyhawks will have a short week of practice as they prepare for Ohio Valley Conference league leader Eastern Illinois. EIU beat Tennessee State 52-49 Saturday.

TENNESSEE STATE - Tennessee State let a 35-21 halftime lead slip away and fell, 52-49, on a last-second field goal at Eastern Illinois. The loss was TSU’s first of the season, but it may have cost them the OVC championship, as they dropped one game behind the Panthers and lost a potential tie-breaker as well... The Tigers, who entered the game as the nation’s top scoring defensive team, allowing a mere 6.2 points per game, gave up 52 points to the Panthers. Tennessee State had only allowed 37 points in all of their first six games put together... After falling behind 7-0, TSU ran off a string of three consecutive touchdowns to boost them to their halftime advantage... Quarterback Shannon Harris threw for 382 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for a pair of scores... TSU hosts Murray State this week, as the Tigers try to close in on a berth in the I-AA playoffs.

TENNESSEE TECH - Tennessee Tech posted a 41-21 Ohio Valley Conference victory over Southeast Missouri Saturday afternoon, improving the Golden Eagles to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the league, while remaining unbeaten at Tucker Stadium this season in four games... Senior quarterback Grant Swallows threw a school-record five touchdown passes, including two to sophomore Derek Lee. Swallows was 15-for-18 for 282 yards, his fourth consecutive 200-yard passing game. His effort helped Tech roll to 442 yards of total offense... D.J. Bleisath had four of Tech’s 13 tackles-for-loss, and also had a key fumble recovery that led to a quick Tech touchdown in the third quarter... Swallows hit paydirt with Lee, fullback Ronnie Sidler, Antonio Carter and Craig Melton... Travis Rogers ran four yards for the final TD of the game... Senior tailback Nick Solomon had his best game of the year with 81 yards in only 12 carries, an average of 6.8 yards per carry... Tech plays at future OVC member Jacksonville State this week.


OVC CONTINUES TO SHINE IN NON-CONFERENCE PLAY: The OVC’s non-conference success from last season has carried over into the 2001 campaign. Just seven weeks into the season, OVC teams sport a .600 record (15-10) versus non-conference opponents, including an 11-3 mark against I-AA foes. Six of those nine losses were to D-IA teams.

THE TITLE CHASE: With EIU's 52-49 win over TSU last weekend, the Panthers are clearly in the driver's seat in the OVC title race . EIU sits at the top of the conference by virtue of their 4-0 record. TSU and Eastern Kentucky each have one OVC loss, but the Panthers hold tie-breakers over both schools. Thus, EIU would have to lose both of their remaining OVC games in order to fall from the conference lead. The Panthers play at UT Matin this week, then host Murray State on Nov. 17.

CLIMBING THE POLLS: Eastern Illinois, ranked eighth in the ESPN/USA Today poll and ninth in the Sports Network poll going into last week’s game, may move up after getting a big 52-49 win over Tennessee State, which was ranked 13th in the Sports Network rankings and 14th in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Eastern Kentucky was 25th in the ESPN/USA Today list and received votes, but were unranked, in last week’s Sports Network rankings. Eastern was off last week, but could conceivably be in both polls this week. The OVC has had at least one team ranked in the top 25 for 272 straight weeks. During that stretch, the league has had two teams ranked 221 times, three teams ranked 63 times and four teams ranked six times. Last week was the first time this season that three conference teams showed up in one of the polls.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Eastern Kentucky freshman tailback C.J. Hudson is making a case for All-American honors in his first season with the Colonels. He has run for more than 100 yards in six of seven games this season. Hudson is averaging more than 139 yards a game, racking up 978 yards in his first seven contests. He ranks first in the OVC and fifth in the nation in rushing. With three games to go, Hudson is on pace to run for 1,395 yards this season, despite the fact that EKU will only play 10 regular season games this year. That would be the highest rushing total by an OVC player since Murray State's Derrick Cullors had 1,765 yards in 1995. Only 10 players have gained more than 1,395 yards on the ground in a season in conference history.

HOME SWEET HOME: Tennessee Tech, which defeated Southeast Missouri at home last weekend, is 9-1 in its last 10 games in Cookeville. The Golden Eagles are currently 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference, but are a perfect 4-0 at Tucker Stadium this season.

THREE FOR 1,000?: After having only one player run for more than 1,000 yards in the past three seasons, at least three players are poised to reach that mark this year. Southeast Missouri's Curtis Cooper is on the verge of 1,000 yards. He now has 994 yards in eight games this year. EKU's C.J. Hudson needs just 22 yards to reach the milestone, while EIU's J.R. Taylor, who has 809 yards with three games still to go, is also on pace. The last time that many OVC players have each rushed for 1,000 yards or more was in 1995 when four different backs (MSU's Derrick Cullors, TTU's Michael Penix, Morehead's Anthony Ravizee and SEMO's Dione Tyler) reached the mark.

AWARD CANDIDATES: The Sports Network has listed Eastern Illinois quarterback Tony Romo and Eastern Kentucky running back C.J. Hudson as candidates on its revised list of nominees for The Walter Payton Award, given annually to the top player in I-AA football. It also listed Tennessee Tech defensive end D.J. Bleisath as a candidate for The Buck Buchanan Award, given to the top defensive player in I-AA.