Eastern quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was honored with his third consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week Award after his six touchdowns, 450-yard performance in the Panthers’ 43-39 loss against Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Garoppolo has led Eastern to a 3-1 record, entering conference play. He has now thrown for at least 400 yards and four touchdowns in three straight games.

The senior quarterback tied former Panther Tony Romo for the school and OVC record for most career touchdowns at 85. 

Although Garoppolo nearly has a 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio (20 touchdowns, 3 interceptions) and threw six touchdowns against the Huskies he said he still has to be better after throwing two interceptions.

“There’s a two on (the stat sheet): two interceptions,” Garoppolo said. “That’s never a good night. I’ve got a lot of things I can fix up for next weekend and I’m going to do that.”

Northern quarterback Jordan Lynch, meanwhile, combined for 426 yards running and passing, but also threw his first two interceptions of the season.

Eastern’s Jourdan Wickliffe had the first interception, coming three minutes into the second quarter at the Panthers’ six-yard line. Wickliffe added a team-high 16 tackles (seven solo, nine assisted) to his second interception of the season.

Senior defensive back Pete Houlihan recorded the second Eastern interception in the third quarter, which was followed by Garoppolo’s second interception on the ensuing Panther drive.

Houlihan was later ejected from the game after a hit to Northern receiver A.J. Sebastiano with less than eight minutes remaining in the third quarter. 

The Eastern defensive back was flagged for targeting, which is called when one player targets and hits a defenseless player above the shoulders. The rule was tightened before the start of the season, which added the automatic ejection of the player who committed the foul.

Sebastiano left the game and did not return, but Northern coach Rod Carey said he did not want to speculate on the receiver’s status before talking with the training staff.

Eastern receiver Erik Lora had a season-high in both receptions and yards against the Huskies with 14 catches and 198 yards and he also tied his season-high with three touchdowns. 

Lora has caught at least one touchdown in the last six regular-season games, dating back to last season.

Senior safety Jimmie Ward, matched up against Lora throughout the game and said Lora is a good receiver, but not the best.

“He’s decent, I’m not going to take any credit away from him, but I’ve seen better wide receivers,” Ward said.

Lora has had at least 10 receptions in all four games this season, failing to reach 100 yards only in the season opener — a 40-19 Panther win against San Diego State. Lora had 87 yards and a touchdown against the Aztecs.

The Panthers were held to a season-low 127 yards rushing on 30 attempts, while Northern’s offense ran for a season-high 367 yards on 52 carries.

Lynch led the Huskies in rushing yards with 189, but it was a pair of Northern running backs who scored through the ground.

Cameron Stingily and Keith Harris Jr. each scored two touchdowns. Harris’ second being the game-winner.

Stingily had 134 yards and repeatedly broke tackles, running through Panther defensive players at times.

Eastern coach Dino Babers said Stingily was definitely tough to bring down.

“That guy’s a bull,” Babers said. “That was not fun. There’s a lot of times when you’re an old man, you wish you could go out there and play the game one more time. Not with him running the ball. I was fine just standing on the sideline coaching.”

After the loss Eastern dropped two slots to No. 12 in the FCS Coaches Top-25 poll but remained ranked No. 8 in the Sports Network poll.

The Panthers have been ranked in the top-25 in both polls since the start of the season.

Around the OVC

Tennessee State’s Samquan Evans won the Defensive Player of the Week award after the Tigers’ defeated Tennessee Tech 41-21 on Saturday.

The defensive tackle recorded a career-high eight tackles, and had 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble in the win.

Evans’ teammate Jamin Godfrey was the OVC’s Specialist of the Week.

Godfrey made 2-of-3 field-goal attempts and made four extra points. His lone miss was from 52 yards that came at the end of the second quarter. Godfrey also kicked an onside kick, which the Tigers recovered. Godfrey averages 2.3 field goals made per game, which is ranked third in the nation.

The Panthers will see Eastern Kentucky’s J.J. Jude, who is coming off a four-touchdown performance in the Colonel’s 56-24 win against Morehead State on Saturday. The red-shirt freshman was honored with the OVC’s Newcomer of the Week award. 

Jude’s four rushing touchdowns tied a school single-game record and his 195 rushing yards is the most by one player in the OVC this year. The rushing total is also the 13th in the FCS. Jude had 33 carries after having 19 total attempts in Eastern Kentucky’s first three games.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.