Eastern running back Taylor Duncan plunged into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night from the one-yard line with 8:15 left in the first quarter, handing the Panthers a 14-0 lead against Austin Peay.

It turned out to be all the Panthers would need to secure a win against the Ohio Valley Conference for Thursday night in Clarksville, Tenn.

The nation’s fourth highest ranked scoring offense, entering its second OVC game of the season, dropped 63 points against the Governors en route to a 56-point win.

The Panthers improved to 5-1 on the year while picking up their second OVC win in as many games. Austin Peay on the other hand lost its sixth straight game to start its season and second game in conference.

It was never really close in Governors Stadium, where Eastern quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo completed four consecutive passes to start the game. Once Duncan was handed the ball on the fifth play of the game, he sprinted 27 yards for the game’s first touchdown. After a Cameron Berra extra point the Panthers led by seven, having marched in for a score after only 1:20 was taken of the game clock.

Austin Peay coach Kirby Cannon said he was surprised by the Governors’ defensive effort to start the game.

“(It was) a mysterious first series,” Cannon said in a press release. “We didn’t put up enough energy. I don’t (know)if we were tight or whether we were thinking too much. They didn’t do anything we were not prepared for.”

Coming off a bye week, it seemed as if an Eastern player had not broken a record for a while, in a season when a record seems to be obtainable as each game passes. That changed as soon as red-shirt wide-receiver Erik Lora caught his third catch in the first quarter.

After Garoppolo connected with Lora from the Austin Peay 35-yard line, Lora raced by Governors and as he reached the nine-yard line he became Eastern’s all-time leader in receiving yards. Lora, of course went on from the nine-yard line to score the first of his three touchdowns of the game.

Lora now holds the record at 3,259 yards, passing Roy Banks, who previously held the record at 3,177 yards.

The 63-point output was aided by three Austin Peay turnovers. All of them came from self-induced fumbles from Governors quarterbacks.

Cannon said there was no way to get around those mistakes.

“We had three quarterback fumble-non-contact fumbles — and you just can’t coach through that,” Cannon said.

Pat Wertz, Dino Fanti and Laquesse Taylor each recovered a fumble for Eastern.

Garoppolo took full advantage of three Austin Peay fumbles, throwing touchdowns passes after each Governor turnover.

First came a 43-yard screen pass to running back Shepard Little that put the Panthers ahead 21-0 in the first quarter. In the second quarter Garoppolo scored on a six-yard pass, following a fumble from Jacob Sexton.

Lora then capped off the Panther scoring, flying in for a 66-yard touchdown on a screen pass with 12:35 remaining in the game. Lora finished with five receptions, 133 yards and three touchdowns, bringing his receiving touchdown total to 12 this season, equaling his total from all of last season.

Garoppolo threw five touchdowns as he also connected with Charleston native Adam Drake near the end of the third quarter that put Eastern ahead 56-7. Garoppolo also ran in for a score in the first half.

Garoppolo’s 21-of-30 passing for 306 yards, was balanced with the running game that was led by Duncan and Little, who combined for 196 yards on 27 carries.

Duncan ran for 128 yards on 17 carries, a 7.5 yard-per-carry-average, with two touchdowns. Little had 10 carries for 68 yards and one touchdown.

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