Eastern’s football team improved to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play after beating Austin Peay 65-15 on Saturday.

It was the first time the Panthers have started 2-0 in conference play since winning the conference championship in 2009.

Weekly Awards

Coming off of the biggest margin of victory in an OVC game in program history, two Panthers were honored with weekly conference honors while one took home national honors for the second time this season.

Junior quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was named National Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards, and also earned OVC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his career performance against Austin Peay.

He threw for a career-high 453 yards and totaled five passing touchdowns for the third time this season.

The 453-yard performance ranks fourth all-time in Eastern history for passing yards in a game.

He also moved to third all-time for career touchdown passes, trailing only Panther greats Sean Payton and Tony Romo.

On defense, the Panthers also took home weekly conference honors as junior defensive back Pete Houlihan was named OVC Defensive Player of the Week.

Houlihan recorded a team-best 10 tackles and recorded his first half-sack of the season.

He also totaled a team-high 1.5 tackles-for-loss, forced a fumble and broke up a pass.

Houlihan ranks seventh nationally in fumbles forced per game, averaging .5 per game.

Top 25 Polls

Eastern continues to receive recognition in the Sports Network Top 25 poll, and is now receiving recognition in the FCS Coaches Poll for the first time this season.

In the Sports Network Top 25 Poll, the Panthers again rank as one of several teams in the “other teams receiving votes” category, ranking 37th overall.

In the FCS Coaches Poll, the Panthers rank 35th overall, finding themselves tenth in the “other teams receiving votes” category.

As for the top teams in the FCS, North Dakota State continues its reign as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and is one of 11 undefeated teams in the FCS.

Montana State, Youngstown State, Old Dominion and James Madison round out the top five.

In the FCS Coaches Poll, the OVC has two nationally ranked teams as Eastern Kentucky sits at No. 16 and Tennessee State entered the top 25 for the first time this season, ranking No. 24.

Eastern Kentucky is the lone OVC team in the Sports Network Top 25 Poll as they rank No. 17.

Jordan Pottorff can be reached at 581-2812 or jbpottorff@eiu.edu.