Defense Dominant In Win Over EIU

Saturday, October 2

Murray, Ky.

4 p.m.

Murray State

2-2 , 0-0

Eastern Illinois

1-5 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Eastern Ill.

Murray St.

10/2/2021 10:58:00 PM | Football

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)Photo Gallery

Panthers held to a touchdown, only 75 yards rushing

In A Nutshell
The Murray State football team moved to 2-2 on the season with a dominant defensive performance over Eastern Illinois Saturday, picking up a 22-6 win at Roy Stewart Stadium in Murray, Kentucky.

Fast Facts

Murray State's defense limited the Panther offense to just six points on the day and just 75 yards rushing. It marks the second consecutive game against FCS opponents that the Racers have held an opponent to less than seven points scoring and less than 100 yards rushing.
After missing his first three field goal attempts this season, Aaron Baum has returned to form and has made each of his last four attempts including all three Saturday. Baum hit a pair of 46-yarders, one from 41 yards and a PAT in the game to account for 10 of Murray State's 22 points
Damonta Witherspoon ran for a career-high 141 yards in the game with a touchdown. The redshirt freshman carried the ball 27 times for an average of 5.2 yards per carry with a long of 24.
The MSU defense held the Panthers to just 16 of 45 passing in the game with 11 pass breakups. The total marks the fourth-best single-game mark in program history and only the seventh time that they have recorded 10 or more in a single game. The last time MSU recorded 10 or more pass breakups in a single game was last season, also against Eastern Illinois. Marcis Floyd led the way for Murray State with three, while Jarad McCray, Quinaz Turner and Don Parker each had two.
The Racers notched season-highs in sacks and tackle-for-loss in the contest with 8.0 and 3.0 respectively, Lawaun Powell led the way with 3.0 tackles-for-loss and a solo sack, while CJ Barnes and Quinaz Turner also had a solo sack.

Recap
Murray State controlled the game from the get go and jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first half, thanks to a pair of field goals by Baum and a 14-yard keeper by quarterback DJ Williams. Williams got the Racers in the red zone on the previous play with a 10-yard rush on 1^st-and-10.

In the third, Witherspoon scored his touchdown on a five-yard rush to push the lead to 19-0. The Panthers finally found their way to the scoreboard in the fourth on the only big play given up by the Racer defense on the day, a 54-yard pass from Chris Katrenick to Arron Foulkes, to make it 19-6 with 13:34 to play. However, that would be the only time EIU saw the end zone Saturday, as Aaron Baum iced the game late in the quarter with a 46-yard field goal to seal the 22-6 win.

LaMartez Brooks led the Racer receiver with five catches for 60 yards, while Malik Honeycutt had three for 56. Defensively, Cortez Roberts and Levi Metheny led MSU with seven and six tackles, respectively, while Quinaz Turner had a huge stat line of two tackles, 1.0 sacks, 1.0 tackles-for-loss, one forced fumble, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry.

Next Game
Next week, the Racers travel to UT Martin to open their 74^th season of OVC football against the 24^th-ranked Skyhawks at Hardy M. Graham Stadium. Kickoff is for 2 PM.