CARBONDALE – Southern Illinois head football coach Jerry Kill’s team got pummeled so badly here Saturday that one of the few benefits he got out of the game was recruiting research.

“They have two great corners on defense, and No. 27 (Kourtney Young) is tall and is a damn good player,” Kill said. “So when one of our guys got hurt, I went out there to talk to him, and our guys were yelling at me, thinking I was trash talking.

“I never trash talk. I was out there asking him his name and where he was from so I could recruit his damn school,” he said. “Eastern has one hell of a football team.”

That football team routed Kill’s Salukis 49-21 in a non-conference matchup, leaving the coach with nothing better to think about than a recruiting trip to Young’s Leo High School in Chicago.

“I am going to give all the credit to Eastern. They kicked our butt in every phase,” Kill said. “Man-for-man, they are a heck of a lot better football team than we were. They won the game up front and they did a great job on the run. That is a lonely feeling as a coach when they are just taking it to you.”

The No. 9 ranked Panthers (5-1, 3-0) took it to the Salukis (1-4) early and often, as it took them just seven plays and four minutes, 38 seconds to take an early 14-0 lead.

Junior tailback J.R. Taylor picked up where he left off on Eastern’s second play from scrimmage, running 57 yards untouched for the Panthers’ first score. After holding Southern to three plays and a punt on defense, Eastern struck again, this time on a 23-yard TD pass to Taylor.

“I have to give credit to our offensive game plan,” Panther head coach Bob Spoo said. “Our offensive coaches did an outstanding job of putting together a game plan and looking at the film and finding things we could take advantage of.”

Taylor would take advantage of the SIU defense for a third time in the quarter on a one-yard touchdown run, following a blocked punt that gave Eastern the ball on Southern’s 31-yard line.

But he wasn’t done there. The junior would put the ball in the end zone two more times. Once in the second quarter on a five-yard run and again six seconds into the fourth quarter on a nine-yard run. Taylor finished the game with 170 yards rushing on 22 carries and his five scores, were one short of the single-game school record.

“It was a good day,” Taylor said. “The offensive line, fullback, tight end and receivers did a great job blocking, plus their defense kind of flew around, so all I had to do was wait for them to go by and then run.”

But Taylor wasn’t the only offensive threat of the day as Eastern’s other two touchdowns came on impressive pass plays from quarterback Tony Romo. The junior hooked up with sophomore Andre Raymond on a 48-yard pass play with 3:54 left in the first half.

“I really started throwing the football well the last two weeks. So I was anxious to get out there and throw last week, but because of the weather conditions I obviously wasn’t able to,” Romo said. “So this week I was really anxious to get out there and throw the football, and we got to do that right away. I was like a little kid in a candy store out there.”

Romo’s second TD pass was the most impressive, coming mid-way through the third quarter. After receiver Shaun Grace was covered on the play, Romo rolled out to the other side of the field and threw an off-balanced strike in the corner of the end zone to wideout Frank Cutolo, who barely got both feet down in for the score before falling out of bounds. Romo finished the game 15-of-18 for 235 yards.

“Our quarterback was on the money,” Spoo said. “On that touchdown pass to Frank Cutolo, Tony was looking in a completely different direction then came all the way across the field and got the ball to Franky. It takes a lot of poise to get a play like that done and that’s what Tony has.”

Raymond finished the game with 50 yards rushing on 134 carries while catching six passes for 128 yards. Defensively, the Panthers were led by Nick Ricks and Fred Miller. Ricks finished the game with 10 solo tackles while Miller had six, forced a fumble and an interception.

“Our guys played tough and they played well,” Spoo said. “It was a really great effort and I’m pleased with the guys and the win.

Eastern now looks ahead to what will be its biggest game of the year – a family weekend matchup against No. 15 ranked Tennessee State (5-0, 2-0) that will likely determine who will end the season as Ohio Valley Conference champions.

“We were ready for this one, but it’s important they get right back to work in our Sunday practice,” Spoo said following the win. “I’m proud of the effort, and we showed why we’re one of the top teams in the nation, but now we have to start preparing for TSU.

“They’re going to bring the whole school. They’re going to bring the band, and they think it’s going to be their home game. Well, it’s not. It’s at our place and we’ve got to be ready to win.”