On Thursday Lindenwood lost at Stony Brook while Eastern Illinois fell to FBS foe Minnesota.
 

SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Stony Brook 36, Lindenwood 32	Box Score
@Minnesota 59, Eastern Illinois 7	Box Score

STONY BROOK 36, LINDENWOOD 32
STONY BROOK, N.Y. - The Lindenwood football team (1-1, 1-0 OVC) fell on the road at Stony Brook (1-1, 0-0 CAA) by a score of 36-32 on Thursday night in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Lindenwood got the ball first and put together a nine-play 73 yard drive that stalled in the red zone and the Lions had to settle for a field goal, going up 3-0 courtesy of Will Graham. Following a quick three and out, Christopher Bennett Jr. set the offense up with good field position with a big return. Just two plays later, Pops Battle rushed up the middle from 24 yards out, putting the Lions up 10-0 halfway through the quarter.

Stony Brook responded with a score of their own, cutting the deficit to 10-7 with 5:27 to play in the opening frame. The Black and Gold would lead 10-7 after one.
The Lindenwood offense kept rolling and capped off a 10-play 82-yard drive with a Pops Battle 24-yard touchdown run to grow the lead to 17-7 early in the second. Defensively, the Lions picked up a pair of sacks, including one from Mason Burke. Midway through the second, Graham connected from a career-long 50 to push the Lindenwood lead to 20-7. The Black and Gold added a safety before the end of the half and led 22-7 at the break.

Both teams traded stops to begin the third quarter. On the next Stony Brook drive, the Seawolves found the end zone to close the gap to 22-14. Lindenwood answered back with Will Graham's third field goal of the night to regain a double-digit lead at 25-14 with 5:08 to go in the third. Stony Brook got a field goal of their own just before the end of the frame and trailed 25-17 after three.

Stony Brook scored early in the fourth but failed on the two-point conversion and Lindenwood maintained a 25-23 lead. The offense responded with a quick score on five plays that covered 75 yards and was capped off by a Jared Rhodes rush that put the Lions up 32-23. The Seawolves answered in just 26 seconds and made the score 32-30 with 12:11 to play.

Following a Lindenwood three-and out, Stony Brook took its first lead of the game. The Seawolves converted a fourth down and punched it in a few plays later to grab a 36-32 advantage. Halfway through the quarter, Lindenwood began to put a drive together looking for a go-ahead score. However, Stony Brook made a big stop on fourth down just outside the red zone and remained in front. The Seawolves were able to see the game out and hold on for the win.


MINNESOTA 59, EASTERN ILLINOIS 7
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Minnesota changed the momentum of the game late in the first quarter on Thursday evening with the first of two touchdown punt returns by Javon Tracy as the Gophers beat Eastern Illinois, 59-7 at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The Panthers fell to 1-1 on the season after last week's season opening win at Murray State.  Minnesota is 1-0 after its season opening win.

Darius Taylor scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns to put the Gophers on the board with 4:29 in the first quarter on their second drive of the game.   After holding EIU to a three-and-out, Tracy took a punt return 87-yards to give Minnesota a 14-0 lead with 2:14 to play in the opening quarter.  Tracy's other punt return covered 69 yards in the third quarter after Minnesota forced an early EIU punt out of the half.

Trailing 21-0 after Taylor's second rushing touchdown, EIU put together its most sustained drive of the day.  Charles Kellom gave EIU its first, first-down of the game stretching the ball out over the yard marker on a third down run. 

Tyren Buggs caught two big screen passes in the flat and Cole LaCrue had a big scramble out of the pocket to highlight the drive.  Buggs capped it with an 8-yard TD reception from LaCrue with 9:00 left to play in the second quarter.

Minnesota scored two more times after the EIU touchdown to lead 35-7 at the break.  After Tracy's early third quarter touchdown punt return, the Gophers added 17 more points to close out the game.

Buggs caught two passes for 38 yards as LaCrue passed for 51 yards going 7-of-12.  EIU did not turn the ball over for the second straight week.

EIU's defense collected a turnover with Mafileo Tupou knocking loose a ball that Nick Vecchiarelli recovered for the Panthers defense.

Lonnie Burt led the defense with six tackles including 2.5 tackles for loss. Erik Hehl had four tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss for EIU.