Box Score
NASHVILLE — Six different players scored touchdowns as Tennessee State rolled past Eastern Illinois 41-17 on Saturday night at Nissan Stadium.
The Tigers improved to 5-2 on the year and 3-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play, while the Panthers fell to 1-6 and 0-3.
Draylen Ellis led Tennessee State's passing attack with 224 yards through the air, tossing four touchdowns without throwing an interception.
Jaden McGill paced the Tigers rushing attack by accumulating 47 yards over the course of the game, averaging 5.2 yards per carry. Cj Evans also added 37 yards and one touchdown on the ground, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
Karate Brenson reeled in six catches for 121 yards and one score.
Boogie Trotter showed out for the Tennessee State defense, collecting seven tackles and one interception. Keandre Booker added four tackles, 2.0 TFL, two sacks, and one forced fumble.
The Tigers won the turnover battle in Saturday's game, forcing one turnover while avoiding any giveways, with Tennessee State turning that takeaway into seven points. Tennessee State converted on 46.2 percent of third-down attempts on the day. The Tigers also went 1-for-1 on fourth down.
Defensively, Tennessee State did an excellent job limiting the Eastern Illinois rushing attack, holding the Panthers to 75 yards on the ground. In part because of that stellar defense, Tennessee State runners out-gained their Eastern Illinois counterparts 128-75.
Tennessee State's offense made the most of its visits to the red zone, scoring on five of its five trips, with all of those scores being touchdowns.
How It Happened
TSU found itself down early 3-0, but responded to grab a 7-3 lead with 10:27 left in the second quarter.The Tigers then followed with another score to expand the lead to 14-3.
Tennessee State then added a touchdown with 2:23 left in the second quarter to make it a 20-3 lead.The Tigers continued to build their lead after Eastern Illinois narrowed the gap to 20-17, scoring again to go on top 27-17.
Tennessee State kept building its lead, scoring again with :32 remaining in the third quarter to go on top 34-17.The Tigers kept scoring, tacking on a touchdown to increase their advantage to 41-17. Neither team scored again in the game.
Game Notes
» Eastern Illinois outgained Tennessee State 435-365 in the contest.
» Tennessee State won the turnover battle 1-0 after picking off one pass.
» Tennessee State had their highest scoring quarter in the second period, when they put up 20 points.
» Tennessee State converted 6 of 13 third downs while Eastern Illinois was successful on 10 of 18.
» Tennessee State scored three second-quarter touchdowns.
» Tennessee State went 1-for-1 on fourth down, converting on 100 percent of attempts.
» The Tigers racked up eight tackles for loss and added two sacks.
» The Tigers ended the game on a strong note, scoring 21 unanswered points to close out the contest.
» Pierce Holley led the Panthers passing attack, completing 28 of his 46 attempts for 338 yards and one touchdown with one interception.
» Cooper Willman was Eastern Illinois' leading receiver with 141 yards.
