The Eastern football team continued its quest for an Ohio Valley Conference title with a 16-10 win at Murray State Saturday in Murray, Ky.

The Panthers and Racers were tied at 10 late in the fourth quarter, but the Eastern offense was able to produce two scoring drives to finish the game.

Murray State (2-6, 1-4 OVC) got on the board first with a touchdown on their first possession. The Racers started the drive at Eastern’s 14-yard line after a big return from sophomore Ja-Vonta Trotter. Senior Charlie Jordan scored on a three-yard run later to put the Racers up 7-0 with 12 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter.

Then Eastern’s defense took over. Junior corner Rashad Haynes scored on a 34-yard interception return with 8:19 left in the first half to tie the game. Haynes stepped in front of the receiver to pick the ball, and the pick was the 10th of his career.

The Panthers (7-2, 5-1) were able to take the lead before halftime with a 37-yard field goal from senior kicker Austin Signor with 28 seconds left in the first half after a nine play, 31-yard drive.

Neither team scored in the third quarter, but the Racers were able to tie the game with 13:03 left in the fourth quarter after a five play, 15-yard drive. The Racers got the ball after an Eastern fumble late in the fourth quarter by junior running back Mon Williams and converted a field goal to tie the game at 10.

The Panthers were able to get two field goals to ice the game. The first came after a nine play, 60-yard drive that saw two huge catches by sophomore receiver Lorence Ricks. He had back-to-back receptions of 24 and 23 yards, which set up the 36-yard field goal with 8:58 left in the game.

Murray State fumbled the ball on its next possession to set up another field goal with 6:02 left in the game.

After the defense forced a three and out, the Panther’s offense was able to run out the final 4:29, to keep them in first place in the conference. Tennessee State lost to Tennessee Tech on Saturday in Cookeville, Tenn. Now all teams that could contend for the OVC Championship have two losses except the Panthers. The winner of the OVC gets the automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Eastern offensive coordinator Roy Wittke said the offense struggled to find a rhythm early in the game.

“The bottom line is we did what we had to do in the fourth quarter and came away with a couple of field goals,” Wittke said. “We finished the game out and came away with the victory.”

He said the most impressive thing about this team is they can win with different facets when they need to, whether it is offense, dfense or special teams.

“It is the mark of a good football team that you can win even when you do not play your best,” Wittke said. “I think it’s a credit to our kids that they don’t care who gets credit, as long as we win football games.”

Eastern senior quarterback Jake Christensen finished 9-of-22 with 121 yards, but was sacked five times on the day.

Williams was the leading rusher for the Panthers with 55 yards on eight carries with a long of 12.

Factoring out the sack numbers, the Panthers rushed for 137 yards.

Eastern will return to action in two weeks when they take on Tennessee Martin at 1:30 p.m. at O’Brien Stadium.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu