For the second-straight week, the Eastern football team’s offense rolled up more than enough points for the Panthers to come out victorious in Saturday’s 31-0 win over Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind.

But for the second straight week, the 31 points were not completely necessary as the defense held firm, allowing just 95 yards of total offense in its first shutout since 2006.

One of the improvements the defense has seen early on has been in its defensive line play. Last year, the Panthers managed just 17 sacks for the entire season. Through two games this year, the Panthers have seven.

Defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said he did not think the team did a bad job of getting to the quarterback last year even though the sack numbers were down. But, he attributed the increase in sack numbers to better coverage in the secondary.

“Last year with (former defensive linemen Pierre Walters and Donovan Johnson), they did a good job of getting to the quarterback and applying pressure, but for whatever reason, they just weren’t getting as many sacks,” Bellantoni said. “But both of the first games I think we played really well up front, and that’s where it starts. If you control the line of scrimmage, you’re going to win games.”

Senior defensive tackle Andre Lima said the team talked all week about wanting to get a shutout.

“We always want to have the mentality everywhere we go to get a shutout,” Lima said. “We’re really happy with doing that. It was a very good day for us.”

The Panthers had 12 total tackles for a loss in the win to go along with the three sacks. They also forced a fumble, had one interception and the secondary broke up two passes.

Even with all the success, Bellantoni said there are still improvements to be made.

“We started off a little slow,” he said. “One thing we wanted to work on this week was our angles to the football, and we didn’t improve on that at all in the first quarter. We took some bad angles, missed some tackles.”

But even with the room for improvement, head coach Bob Spoo said he was pleased with how his unit performed as a whole.

“I thought our defense really came to play again,” Spoo said. “Any time you can shut out an opponent, you’re doing a hell of a job. Our guys played well.”

The Panthers open Ohio Valley Conference play this week when they travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., at 6 p.m. Saturday to take on Southeast Missouri.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

Senior defensive lineman Trevor Frericks leaps in front of Indiana State red-shirt freshman quarterback Travis Johnson during Saturday’s 31-0 victory at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute, Ind.(Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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