Eastern rallies from three touchdowns down to pull off 31-28 victory against McNeese

Published 6:34 pm Saturday, September 23, 2023

This one is gonna leave a mark.

Stone Galloway’s career-long 56-yard field goal with 20 seconds remaining sent McNeese State to defeat for the fourth straight time to start the season.

Making his first appearance of the year for Eastern Illinois, Galloway just cleared the crossbar to end a 24-point Panther rally Saturday at O’Brien Field in Charleston, Illinois.

Eastern rallied from three touchdowns down in the second quarter to pull off a 31-28 victory and send the Cowboys home searching for answers.

“It hurts pretty bad right now,” said McNeese head coach Gary Goff.

The four losses to start a season is the most in program history since 1954 when the Pokes began the year 0-5 on their way to a 2-8 campaign. It was the second straight last-second victory for the Panthers who improved to 3-1.

A 15-yard pass interference penalty on McNeese’s Levi Wyatt on third down kept the winning drive alive for the Panthers.

McNeese quarterback Nate Glantz’s desperation heave into the end zone on the game’s final play was batted down as time expired.

“We didn’t make plays down the stretch and they did,” said Goff. “We could not get off the field and we could not sustain enough drives.”

Eastern ran 83 plays and held the ball for 35:48 while McNeese ran just 58,

The loss is especially tough since the Cowboys looked so good racing out to a 28-7 lead midway through the second quarter. Colby Hamm’s 72-yard touchdown run followed gave the Pokes their big lead.

Glantz had a pair of touchdown passes to Jon McCall, his first two as a Cowboy QB, and D’Angelo Durham added a 12-yard scoring run as McNeese had 344 yards in the first half.

But Eastern scored on Eli Mirza’s 12-yard reverse run with 34 seconds left in the opening half to cut the lead to 28-14 at the break. After a scoreless third quarter, the Panthers took over the game.

MJ Flowers and Juwon Farri each scored on runs to tie the game with 3:15 left and set the stage for Galloway.

Flowers was the real Cowboy killer. He rushed for 272 yards on 37 carries while subbing for injured starter Kevin Daniels. McNeese could never slow down the Panther run game that went for 311 yards.

“We can’t survive giving up that many rushing yards,” said Goff.

McNeese did find its offense, finishing with a season-best 467 yards but a missed Garrison Smith 48-yard field goal try with 7:37 left, and the Pokes up 28-21 left the door open.

Glantz finished with his best game of the year, connecting on 13-of-24 passes for 196 yards. Hamm also had his best day as a Cowboy with 131 yards on just eight carries.

McCall finished with five catches for 93 yards and true freshman Makhi Paris had four grabs for 60.

“It’s tough but we have to learn from this game and grow,” said Goff. “There won’t be any quit in this staff and we won’t let these players quit.”

McNeese returns home next Saturday night to open Southland Conference play against Nicholls.