Lindenwood’s duo of senior quarterback Nate Glantz and junior wide receiver Jeff Caldwell was enough for the Lions to escape O’Brien Stadium with a 28-25 win over the Panthers Saturday afternoon.

The second half was rough for Eastern as Lindenwood scored 28 unanswered points; all from Glantz and Caldwell.

Lindenwood came back on the field with a strong start in the third quarter as the duo of Glantz and Caldwell recorded an 11-yard touchdown and a 22-yard touchdown in a span of two minutes and 28 seconds.

On back-to-back drives for the Lions in the third quarter, Glantz connected with Caldwell in the end-zone to make the score close with the Lions only three points behind the Panthers early in the second half.

“In the second half, we were unable to get anything sustained in the third quarter,” Eastern’s head coach Chris Wilkerson said. “We allowed them to get back into the football game and take the lead, and ultimately didn’t do enough to finish the game.”

Although the second half of the game did not go Eastern’s way, the Panthers showed strong dominance throughout the first half.

Eastern was the first team to put points on the board first against the Lions in a drive that consisted of 13 plays.

Graduate quarterback Pierce Holley found senior wide receiver Cooper Willman in the end-zone for the 11-yard pass to record the first six points of the game.

Immediately after Eastern’s first drive of the game, Lindenwood’s offense was on the field for only three plays as the defense put pressure on the Lions’ run game early on.

Redshirt junior safety Kaelin Drakeford led the Panthers in total tackles with 11, and redshirt senior linebacker Anthony Shockey recorded an additional 10 total tackles.

Redshirt junior linebacker Phoenix Porter recorded eight total tackles, and senior defensive lineman Nicholas Oliveira-Chace recorded an additional five tackles for the defense.

After the defense forced Lindenwood off the field, the most explosive play for Eastern’s offense came in their second drive of the game.

Holley completed a pass to redshirt sophomore running back Jay Pearson for a 55-yard play.

“When I was running, I saw the ball, and smiled and said, ‘[Pierce] threw it.’,” Pearson said. “The next thing I knew, I had to make a big play and help the team go down to score, which we did.”

After a review that confirmed Pearson stepped out of bounds at the one-yard line, Holley ran the ball in for another six points on the board.

“We moved the ball [in the first half],” Pearson said. “It was way better this week, and we were doing good in the first half. In the second half, we were still doing great up front. The linemen were still pushing, but we couldn’t get to where we needed to get to.”

Early in the second quarter, the anticipated rain started pouring, but that did not stop the Panthers’ defense on making plays on the other side of the ball.

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Tre’Jon Lewis tipped the ball into the air to force the Lions to punt on Eastern’s 38-yard line.

The Panthers held the Lions throughout the first half without any points.

On Lindenwood’s fourth drive of the game, the Lions made progress up the field, all the way to the two-yard line after an illegal block was called on Eastern’s NiJhay Burt.

The Lions tried three separate time to get into the endzone to put points on the board from the two-yard line, but the Panthers defense had other plans.

On Lindenwood’s fourth and final attempt to get six points on the board, senior running back Cortezz Jones ran the ball up the middle and got stopped at the one-yard line by the duo of Lewis and Drakeford. After moments of no initial call on the field, the Panther defense knew they forced the Lions to record a turnover on downs.

“In the first half of the game, I feel like we really understood their tendencies and shut them down in their run game,” Shockey said. “Unfortunately, they switched over to passing, and we weren’t really ready for it. We were on our toes instead of our heels in some situations.”

Lindenwood’s duo of Glantz and Caldwell shook up Eastern’s defense throughout the second half as Glantz recorded four passing touchdowns all to his main target of the game in Caldwell, including a 74-yard pass to give the Lions a 28-17 lead with 6:05 left in the fourth quarter.

Caldwell recorded four catches for 115 yards and four touchdowns.

The Panthers tried to get back into the game as Holley connected with senior wide receiver Eli Mirza for a 25-yard touchdown, and this duo recorded a successful two-point conversion to make the score 28-25.

After a 10-play drive, the Panthers managed to set up freshman kicker Drew Schiller with a 30-yard field goal to tie the game. Mother Nature had its part, and Schiller missed the field goal which resulted in a loss for the Panthers.

“We didn’t make it easy for ourselves going down 17 early, but I love how our guys never quit,” Lindenwood’s head coach Jed Stugart said. “[It’s] good to see guys stepping up in so many spots. Our defense set the tone for our comeback, and big plays on our offense got the momentum rolling.”

Glantz recorded 14 completions out of 19 attempts for 283 with four touchdowns and one interception.

“I felt really good about our performance,” Glantz said. “Even only being here three months, we are starting to build that chemistry. It was a great team win and [I] can’t thank the defense enough for having an amazing performance and the o[ffensive] line up front for allowing me to deliver the ball.”

On Eastern’s offense, Holley recorded 26 completions out of 43 attempts for 326 yards for two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.

“I know that we as a team can work better even though we took a tough loss,” Pearson said. “The second half, we just lost it, but we’re still going to pick everything back up going into next week.”

With this loss, Eastern is 0-1 in the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference and 1-4 overall, and the Panthers are currently in eighth place in the Big South-OVC standings.

The next game for the Panthers will be against the ranked Southeast Missouri Redhawks during homecoming weekend on Saturday October 5.

Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.