Ace Hunt

GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Indiana State fell by the score of 31-0 to Eastern Illinois in its final non-conference tilt of the 2009 campaign in front of 2,977 fans at Memorial Stadium.

Offensively, Indiana State was led in the passing by redshirt freshman Travis Johnson, who made his first career start. Johnson was 8-of-15 for 63 yards with an interception in the contest. Chris Stutzreim, who had started the first two contests, came on in relief and was 3-of-7 for eight yards.

On the ground, Antoine Brown paced the Sycamores for the first time this season with 10 rushes for 29 yards while Darrius Gates had six rushes for nine yards.

Brown also was solid out of the backfield for the Sycamores, hauling in four passes for 29 yards while Gates had a trio of catches for 12 yards.

Defensively, freshman Jacolby Washington made 10 tackles while Santino Davis had seven tackles, including a pair for losses.

Donye McCleksey and Austen Wozniak each had quarterback sacks while Rod Hardy and Nate Brown added tackles for loss.

Dillion Painter added a fumble recovery in the game.

Eastern Illinois recorded their first score of the game at the 9:30 mark in the first quarter when Chavar Watkins raced into the end zone from 20 yards out for a quick 7-0 lead. The Panther advantage ballooned to 14-0 just 18 seconds later on a 26-yard interception touchdown return of a Johnson pass with 9:12 left in the opening stanza.

Eastern Illinois added another score on a 54-yard touchdown run by Williams with 4:41 left to go in the opening half to make it 21-0.

The Panthers got an extra three points heading into halftime on a 31-yard field goal by Austin Signor as time expired. EIU got the ball back after a Johnson fumble with 26 seconds left on the clock and the Sycamores' Daniel Millington sacked EIU quarterback Jake Christensen two plays later with the ball coming loose. Christensen was ruled down before the fumble so the Panthers retained possession and Signor kicked the field goal to send the teams into the locker room with the score 24-0.

Williams added a 30-yard touchdown run with 7:58 left in the third quarter to give EIU a 31-0 lead.

The Sycamore offense was limited to just 95 yards of total offense in the game, marking the first contest that Indiana State did not record at least 100 yards since a 45-10 loss on Nov. 1, 2003 at Missouri State.
Indiana State was shutout for the first time against Eastern Illinois since a 13-0 Panther victory in 1962.

Indiana State returns to action on Saturday, September 19 when they travel to South Dakota State for the Missouri Valley Football Conference opener for both teams. Kickoff is set for 7 pm (ET).

POSTGAME QUOTES:

Eastern Illinois Head Coach Bob Spoo

Opening Statement:

“It certainly feels good to win again. That's the fun of the game – winning. We were a little messy there offensively – a lot of penalties, didn't make me very happy. We stalled some drives and hurt ourselves in that regard. I thought our defense really came again. They shut out an opponent that did a hell of a job. Our guys played well. The kicking game was solid again, except for the last fumbled punt. But we got a win, and now we have to face a team that's come of age. What I'm trying to say is these last two games – Illinois State and Indiana State – are teams that are in the process of developing their programs again. We're playing against teams that don't quite have the experience that the teams we're going to be playing in the next couple of weeks will have. Both SEMO and Austin Peay, those are teams that were young a few years ago but are now of age. These next couple of games are going to be tougher than these first two. This was another good win for us and I'm happy with the outcome.”

On running back Mon Williams:

“He had a good week against Illinois State too. He's our No. 1 back. He's good, he's fast, he's quick, he's got good moves. He's a tough guy, and that's good. I'm sure he'd be the first to tell you he can't do it without the people up front getting the job done too.”

 On taking an early lead against Indiana State:

“I know the interception made it 14-0 right off the bat, and that was kind of a turning point. They did mount a drive and then we held them and responded and scored to make it 21-0. Any time you can do that, I think it's important to get ahead and then try to continue to make plays though. You just can't sit back in this day and age. So many things can go wrong.”

Indiana State Head coach Trent Miles

Opening Statement:

“We magnified a loss by silly, stupid mistakes. You can't hand them an interception for a touchdown, fumble the ball when you're trying to get out of the half for a field goal, and then fumble again. That's 17 points that you add to it.

“I thought our defense played admirably. They ran the ball, they played hard, and we didn't help them with our offense at all. When you play a good football team that's a top-20 team, and you give them 17 points, it makes everything worse. They're better. They're a better football team than we are at this moment. We have a way to go.”

On the offensive line:

“They're struggling, but they're going to get better. I thought they struggled the last two games. Did you look at the team on the other side of the ball both games? I'm not going to make any excuses. It is what it is. They're bigger than we are, they're stronger than we are, they're older than we are. It's going to take time, especially at the line position, to get bigger and stronger and better. We will compete. We just haven't been able to put it together against a quality opponent like that. We have to keep working and get better.”

On having a clean slate in MVFC play:

“We're 0-0 in conference play. We've got to cling to something. It's getting better every week. These kids are resilient. I don't think you ever saw any quit in them. They're tough-minded kids. That's not the factor here.”

Sophomore defensive back Alex Sewall

On the Sycamore defense's performance:

“I think the defense played pretty well as a whole today, but we had a lot of little mental mistakes – I violations and missed tackles – that we need to clean up. That's the thing that's going to push us over the edge when we start winning ballgames.”

On EIU taking a 14-0 lead early in the game:

“We didn't get down too much because we've been down 14-0 before. That's only two touchdowns. We're still in that ballgame. Our morale wasn't down at all at that point. We were going to focus to keep fighting and try to get back in that ballgame.”

On quarterback Jake Christensen:

“We were in coverage for a pretty long time. I guess because no one was open he just decided to break loose and was able to pick up like 10, 12 yards each time, and then just slide down. It was more a coverage thing. We were back in coverage.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Travis Johnson

On learning he had the starting nod this week:

“This week they told me I was going to get some more reps at No. 1. I knew from then I might have a chance. At Louisville, I came in and got a couple of plays at the end of the game. I started preparing at the beginning of the season. I wanted to be that guy, so that's when I started preparing. Last week when I started getting more reps, I had to get my playbook and make sure I knew the offense.

On ISU's offense:

“There are definitely things I need to work on. The offense didn't put up the yards that we need to put up to win the game. We need to work on knowing what we're doing and being able to read defenses. They had their corners coming down pretty hard, and their safeties were coming down. We just need to read everything out. I have to do a better job, and as a total offense, we have to know what we're doing.”