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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois scored 27 first quarter points as the No. 3 Panthers eased past Southeast Missouri, 55-33, on Saturday afternoon in front of a homecoming record crowd of 11,549. EIU improved to 6-1, 3-0 in the OVC. SEMO dropped to 1-6, 1-3 in the OVC.

Jimmy Garoppolo opened the game red hot completing his first ten passes for 254 yards and a pair of touchdowns, all in the first 15:18 of the game. Garoppolo connected with Erik Lora for a 60-yard touchdown on the Panthers third play of their opening drive. Garoppolo found Adam Drake for an 82-yard touchdown down the seam on the first play of EIU's second drive. It was the seventh time this season that Garoppolo has passed for 200 or more yards in the first half of a game with three games with 200-plus yards in the first quarter this season.

Garoppolo broke the EIU school record for passing yards in the first quarter on a pass to Adam Drake. Garoppolo passed New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton on the Panthers career list. Garoppolo passed for 376 yards and three touchdowns as he now stands at 10,841 career passing yards, currently 19th on the FCS career passing yards list. Garoppolo moved up to 14th on the FCS career touchdown passes list adding three more to give him 96 for his career. Payton's school record was 10,655. Garoppolo also passed Murray State's Casey Brockman for first place on the OVC career total offense list. Garoppolo ended the day with 10,741 career yards.

Lora hauled in eight passes for 131 yards. Drake had three catches for 138 yards. EIU finished with 670 yards of total offense, the fifth highest total in school history. EIU's offensive line did not allow a sack and SEMO had only three tackles for loss in the contest.

"We ran the ball well today and Jimmy performed at a high level," said head coach Dino Babers.

"Our offensive line did a great job today," said Shepard Little. "They made some big holes for the running backs to go through and did a great job protecting for Jimmy."

Southeast Missouri cut the Panthers lead to 14-6 at the 6:53 mark of the first quarter as Spencer Davis caught a 15-yard pass from Scott Lathrop. The extra point was missed.

EIU tacked on two rushing touchdowns to close out the first quarter. Little had a 19-yard touchdown run at 5:39 while Taylor Duncan ran in from 10-yards with 1:43 remaining. Little opened the second half with a five-yard touchdown run as he finished the day with three touchdowns and 129 yards rushing. Duncan had 107 yards rushing. Jimmy Lera added a fourth quarter rushing score as EIU had 283 yards on the ground.

"Today was a day I thought we were going to be able to run the ball," Little said after the game. "When it started raining last night I thought that would be part of the game plan. I'm a back; I always want to run the ball."

SEMO scored its second touchdown on special teams as the Redhawks had three touchdowns as a result of special teams. Justin Elias scooped up a blocked punt and scored from 29-yards out with 9:09 to play in the second quarter. Trailing 55-20, Davis returned a kickoff 93-yards for a touchdown with 1:26 left in the game. EIU would fumble the ensuing kickoff with SEMO recovering inside the 20-yard line. Paul McRoberts caught a 12-yard pass from Lathrop with 1:05 left to account for the Redhawks final score.

"I thought with the exception of the way the game ended that we played a good game," said Babers. "We were playing a dangerous opponent and gave up some points on special teams that I was not happy with. With a big game next week at Tennessee State this could have very easily been a trap game for our team. Our guys did a great job of staying focused and taking care of the business today."

EIU limited SEMO to just 117 yards passing and 181 yards on the ground. DeMichael Jackson had 126 yards on the ground for the Redhawks.

The Panthers defense was led by Dino Fanti with eight tackles including a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. Five other players had six tackles. Pat Wertz added one sack. Roper Garrett was the Redhawks leading tackler with 12 tackles.

EIU returns to action next Saturday at Tennessee State. The Panthers and Tigers are the lone remaining unbeaten teams in the OVC Championship race. Entering this weekend EIU featured the nation's No. 1 offense while TSU featured the nation's No. 1 defense.