The Eastern football team began its season with a 42-20 loss at Minnesota, but head coach Kim Dameron had a couple of positives to point to following the defeat.

Despite the Panthers’ defense allowing five touchdowns, Minnesota only scored two against Eastern’s defensive unit entering the fourth quarter.

The Golden Gophers had four possessions in the first quarter, the first three with an average field position at their own 33-yard line. The Eastern defense shutdown Minnesota’s first three drives, forcing and recovering a fumble midway through the opening quarter.

Gopher running back Berkley Edwards, who scored two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter, said Minnesota’s offense got off to sluggish start because of nervousness.

“I had some nerves, and I think the offense was a little nervous at first,” Edwards said. “It was difficult because we were studying old tape for this game, and we weren’t sure what Eastern Illinois would come out with.”

As the first quarter was coming to a close, Eastern quarterback Jalen Whitlow and center Nick Borre did not get on the same page, leading to a fumbled snap that was recovered by Minnesota. In less than two minutes the Gophers’ converted with a Mitch Leidner two-yard touchdown run after taking over at the Panthers’ five-yard line.

Leidner and the rest of the Minnesota offense struggled to move the ball in the first half despite having a 14-point lead starting the third quarter. After the first quarter Leidner was only 1-of-4 for two yards and the entire offense picked up a lone first down.

“Eastern Illinois played a great defensive game,” Leidner said. “Every time we came out on the field they had a different defensive structure. That is tough as an offense to see them pick all the different options. We tried a lot of different things to switch up our game.”

Eastern’s defense was preparing to get on the field for its first defensive stand in the third quarter, but instead it had to wait after Eric Murray blocked Cody Edwards’ punt. On the same play Logan Hutton snagged the ball from the air and scored Minnesota’s third touchdown.

Despite trailing 21-0 after three quarters, the Gophers had fewer first downs than the Panthers, (16-10) fewer passing yards (162-112) and fewer total yards (248-207).

Dameron said he was pleased with the Panthers’ defense and more so toward their performance during the start of the game.

“I thought we did some good things defensively, early especially, but we just shot ourselves in the foot way too much on offense and in the kicking game to be able to play with a good football team like Minnesota,” Dameron said. “We’ve got a lot to clean up, but we’ve got some positives to work on.”

The fourth quarter was a different story, though. Red-shirt senior Adam Gristick said the size of Minnesota started to take its toll on the Eastern defense. The Gophers proceeded to score three touchdowns and rush for 87 yards in the final quarter.

“I thought in the first half, we really played well on defense,” Gristick said. “One touchdown (drive) in the first half started on the five-yard line and we almost stopped them there, so really in the first half we just had that seven points on us. We played especially well in the first half, but that didn’t translate into the second half.”

Gristick finished with five tackles, including a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.

Dameron said he was proud of the Panthers for battling all 60 minutes. Eastern scored its three touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the game.

Red-shirt senior Andrew Manley rushed for one score and threw two touchdown passes in the final half minute of play.

Running back Jimmy Lera made it a 42-14 game after his 11-yard touchdown and wide receiver Adam Drake hauled in a 32-yard pass as the clock expired.

Now, Eastern prepares for its home opener against in-state rival Southern Illinois-Carbondale.

Dameron hopes Eastern learns some lessons after its season-opening loss.

“I told the kids after the game, now that we have a little adversity, it’ll give us an opportunity to see who’s going to show some leadership and make sure they’re working on the things they need to get better at in all three phases of the game,” Dameron said.

Kickoff against the Salukis is set for 6 p.m. Saturday at O’Brien Field.

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