Purdue inside/outside center Schmarrah McCarthy took it upon herself to break Eastern’s five-game scoreless streak in the Panthers’ 65-10 win at Purdue.

McCarthy scored two tries, one of which came early in the game, which put Eastern into an unusual position.

Not only had Eastern not been scored on all year, Eastern was also held to a new first-half scoring low.

The Panthers led 34-5 at halftime.

“They’re a good team,” McCarthy said. “And that was probably the top two hardest tries in my life.”

Senior Stephanie Rasmusen said that if McCarthy “found daylight,” she’s gone. Find daylight she did, as McCarthy scored her second try with 5 minutes, 50 seconds left in the second-half.

“She is a half-step faster than us,” Rasmusen said.

Sophomore wing Samantha Manto said the team talked about the possibility of Purdue being the first team to score on Eastern this season.

“If they do score on us, we cannot get down,” Manto said.

Manto said McCarthy scoring twice was no fluke.

“She (McCarthy) deserved it because she was good. She had a great run,” Manto said.

Despite McCarthy’s two scores, the game had already been locked up when outside center Molly Clutter scored with 22 minutes 50 seconds left in the first-half, which put Eastern up 46-5.

Manto added one of her three tries on the day with 29:30 remaining in the game from a hard-earned scrum running through the left side. Eastern then started to run away with it when sophomore lock Victoria Rosales pitched in a score of her own at 14:40, with a tough run right up the middle.

McCarthy had two other chances to score, but was turned away by individual tackles from Manto, Stephanie Militello and Ashley Jenkins.

Two more scores from Clutter and Crystal Jones put the finishing touches against a Purdue team that hung tough.

Panther head coach Frank Graziano said it was a disappointment when Purdue got on the scoreboard.

“We try not to focus on trying to get shutouts because they’re so darn hard,” Graziano said. “In all fairness to Purdue, they earned those 10 points.”

Purdue head coach Trevor Cracknell said the pressure that Eastern put on his Boilermakers didn’t allow them to move the ball more.

“This game is all about moving the ball forward,” Cracknell said “All due respect to them (Eastern), they’re a really good team.”