Adrian Arrington had a chance.

Eastern Illinois’ junior free safety spied Eastern Kentucky quarterback Allan Holland evading the Panthers’ rush and rolling out to the right near the Panthers 20-yard line.

He broke off his coverage once he saw Holland still hadn’t been sacked.

Holland lofted a pass to wide receiver Quinton Williams in the back of the end zone. Two other EIU defensive backs were near Williams, and Arrington rushed over to Williams once Holland released the pass.

“I mistimed (my jump),” Arrington said. “I tried to break on it, but I didn’t jump high enough.”

Holland’s pass went over Arrington’s outstretched hands and into Williams’, giving the Colonels a 15-14 lead with 40 seconds left in the first half.

Holland’s ability to avoid Eastern’s defensive pressure and come up with a play resulted in another touchdown pass for him during the Colonels’ 28-21 win Saturday afternoon at O’Brien Stadium.

On the first touchdown pass, Holland tried to run up the middle after his two primary receivers were covered.

But Eastern Illinois’ defensive line clogged up the middle, forcing Holland out of the pocket.

The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Wake Forest transfer released the ball just as junior linebacker Jack Kosinski hit him.

“Going up in the pocket, I saw a hole wide open, so I was going to try and hit it because last week I scored a touchdown by just hitting it up in there when they dropped everybody deep off us,” Holland said. “I ended having to cut back outside. (Offensive lineman) Derek Hardman made a great block. He came back and got somebody from their blind side. That gave me a little more time, and Quinton just got open in the back of the end zone.”

Holland finished the day 30-of-44 for 321 yards, all career highs for the junior. EKU (4-2, 3-0 Ohio Valley Conference) came into the game second in the conference in rushing yards (204.4 per game). But it was the throwing ability of Holland who made the difference against the Panthers (3-3, 2-1).

“We’ve been waiting all season long to open up the passing game,” EKU head coach Danny Hope said. “We’ve had so much success with the run; it’s been hard to get away from it. We created some big plays today. Allan Holland has a lot of cool back in the pocket.”

Hope said the game plan was to try to run the ball initially, but the play of Eastern’s defense changed that. EKU finished with 74 yards rushing, and had only 22 in the first half.

“They’ve got four down lineman that are really good players, and they’ve got their linebackers’ back,” he said. “They slant and angle their front and play a lot of games in front of you, and it felt like they were controlling the line of scrimmage in some ways that minimized our effectiveness as a run team.”

Holland’s second touchdown pass came with 10:59 left in the fourth quarter, with EKU leading 21-14. Again, he used his scrambling ability to make the play.

On 3rd-and-4 from the Panthers’ 47, Holland escaped the Panthers’ pressure and ran left out of the pocket. When he looked up, he saw a wide open Kyle Barber and floated a pass to him near the 25. Barber jogged the rest of the way to increase the Colonels’ lead to 28-14.

Barber, inside receiver on the play, said he was running a seam route straight down the field on the play, but then turned it into a post route and broke left.

“I thought there was for sure going to be somebody over top of me, but it just turned out there was nobody there, and I just jogged into the end zone,” he said. “Probably the easiest touchdown I’ve ever had.”

Eastern Illinois head coach Bob Spoo said coverage was blown, allowing Barber to be that wide open. Panther middle linebacker Donald Thomas said the defense bit on the play, thinking Holland would run the ball, which allowed for the zone coverage to be broken.

“He made the play and we didn’t,” Spoo said. “We tackle him, we’re out of it and there’s no problem. But we didn’t, and he made two fine plays.”

Ke’Andre Sams, a junior saftey, and senior tackle Tim Kelly chase down Eastern Kentucky Univeristy’s Bobby Washington, a senior running back, during Saturday afternoon’s 28 to 21 loss in O’Brien Stadium. Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News

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