With only minutes to play in Saturday’s game against Murray State, it looked as if this would be the game where the Eastern football team would finally snap its six game losing streak and spoil the homecoming game for the Racers.

The Panthers held the Racers and their Ohio Valley Conference leading quarterback, Casey Brockman, in check for most of the game.

They held Brockman to only one touchdown through the air and three yards on the ground.

With 3:06 to play in the game, the Racers scored on a pass from Brockman to Hannibal Beauford from 16 yards out to take a 30-27 lead, following a missed extra point.

Eastern would then miss a key opportunity to strike back, fumbling the ball on the first play of the next drive.

Sophomore quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was sacked by Kevin Robinson of the Racers, who then recovered the fumble.

On the ensuing Racer drive, running back Mike Harris rushed in 24 yards out for another score, only adding to the Murray State lead.

The game’s final score would stand at 36-27. The Panthers have yet to beat an OVC team this season.

Defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said his defense played well, but just came up short in the end.

The Eastern run defense vastly improved their numbers from recent games, only giving up 148 yards on the ground.

“I thought we played very well for three and a half quarters,” Bellantoni said.

Bellantoni said the team that simply wasn’t good enough to beat the Murray State team.

The Panthers slightly out-produced the Racers in nearly every aspect of the game except the final score.

The Panthers had 247 passing yards compared to the Racers’ 238, and 392 total offensive yards compared to the Racers’ 386.

With red-shirt senior wide receiver Lorence Ricks still inactive, Garoppolo was forced to spread the ball around in the passing game.

The Panthers had a total of eight different players notch receptions in the game. Leading the way was junior wide receiver Chris Wright. He had five receptions for 130 yards with two touchdowns.

Red-shirt junior running back Jake Walker led the Panthers in rushing with 88 total yards and two touchdowns.

Absent from the game was sophomore defensive back Tavares Crawford.

Crawford did not travel with the team and was held out of the game by the coaching staff.

Crawford had taken on kick return duties in wake of Ricks’ absence.

Wright was the Panthers’ kick returner, with Crawford inactive.

With the loss, the Panthers drop to 1-6 on the year, with an OVC record of 0-5.

The Panthers stand in last place in the OVC and is the only conference team without a win. Murray State improves to 2-2 in the OVC with the win and 4-3 overall.

Despite not being able to spoil the Racers’ homecoming, the team will hope to win this weekend in its own homecoming against Tennessee-Martin. The game is scheduled for 1:30 on Saturday at O’Brien Field.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.