With just over five minutes to play in the game, the Eastern defense, ranked No. 6 in the Ohio Valley Conference, stopped the Tennessee-Martin offense, the best in the OVC, on a critical third-down play to force a punt.

The Panthers would take over at their own 18-yard line, trailing the Skyhawks 24-23.

A third-down conversion pass from sophomore quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to red-shirt junior tight end Von Wise kept the hopes of a fourth quarter comeback alive.

Garoppolo sent a pass in the direction of red-shirt junior wide receiver Chavar Watkins, which resulted in the first of two key plays on the drive.

Watkins had just one catch, an acrobatic grab for a 29-yard gain.

The second pass thrown his way was broken up, but the crowd at O’Brien Field wanted a pass interference call.

The Panthers were then faced with a fourth and two with time winding down in the game.

With the Eastern rushing attack unsuccessful, posting -5 rushing yards for the game, the Panthers took to the air.

Garoppolo fired a 49-yard pass down field to junior wide receiver Chris Wright, who caught the ball, and finally was forced out of bounds at the Skyhawks’ 10-yard line.

However, a holding penalty on Eastern would discount the play and move the Panthers back even further.

On the ensuing fourth down with 12 yards to go, Garoppolo was sacked by Jarvis McCann, forcing him to fumble.

The Skyhawks would recover and go on to win the game.

After the game, head coach Bob Spoo said that though he was disappointed by the team’s seventh straight loss, he was uplifted by the team’s progress.

“I just addressed the team and told them how sad I was, but also how proud I was of the effort,” Spoo said.

Regarding the two key plays at the end of the game, Spoo said he thought he saw pass interference against Watkins, but did not see the holding call.

Garoppolo also expressed his frustration and disappointment with the officials.

“The last two weeks, it seems like the refs haven’t been on our side,” Garoppolo said.

Spoo expressed confusion as well.

“I don’t know how much harder we could have played,” Spoo said.

The Panthers held the Skyhawks to 278 yards of total offense, a team that stands at the top of nearly every category in the OVC.

The Skyhawks’ running backs totaled 154 yards on the ground.

Junior defensive lineman Artavious Dowdell said the team focused all week in practice on stopping the run.

“Every loss is hard, but this one is especially hard because we stopped a pretty good offense,” Dowdell said.

The loss drops the Panthers to an overall record of 1-7, and 0-6 in the OVC.

The team will take to the road next week against Austin Peay. The game is set to start at 4 p.m. in Clarksville, Tenn.

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