The Eastern football team’s come-from-behind win Saturday afternoon will go down as one of the biggest wins in the program’s history.

The No. 8 ranked Panthers (6-1, 4-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference) defeated No. 13 Tennessee State (6-1, 2-1 in OVC) in an offensive showdown that all but sewed up the conference championship for Eastern.

“I’m excited and elated to go out there and win a big game like this,” said junior quarterback Tony Romo, Division I-AA’s No. 1 efficiency passer. “This is our program’s greatest win, but we’ll have greater ones to come.”

It was senior place kicker Bill Besenhofer’s 25-yard field goal with just two seconds left in the game that secured Eastern’s monumental win.

“It was sweet. I’m still shaking,” Besenhofer said. “That was the biggest win and biggest kick I’ve ever had.”

It was an offensive display to say the least as both teams combined for 55 first downs, 1,065 yards of total offense and 101 points. It took a couple of possessions, but once the wild scoring onslaught began late in the first quarter, it never stopped. Tennessee State fumbled the game’s opening kickoff, but the Panthers were unable to capitalize as Besenhofer’s 42-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right. After the Tigers punted the ball away, on the very next play sophomore tailback Andre Raymond rushed for a 54-yard touchdown that was waved off because of a holding call. The two teams racked up 12 flags each for a combined 207 yards in penalties.

Ten plays later, the Panthers would manage to score first on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Romo to junior tailback J.R. Taylor. Tennessee State would answer right back driving 82 yards on just eight plays, capped off by a 10-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Shannon Harris to tight end Steve Farmer. Harris would finish the game 29-of-43 passing for 382 yards and five touchdowns.

The score remained 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, but the Tigers would strike four times in the second quarter while the Panthers would put the ball into the end zone twice.

A pair of 33 and 57-yard touchdown passes put TSU up 21-7, but Raymond answered back for Eastern with a 30-yard touchdown run. The Tigers jumped right back on the board, driving 59 yards, before Harris scored on a two-yard scramble to put TSU up 28-14.

The Panthers would answer back on the very next play from scrimmage as Romo connected with senior wide receiver Frank Cutolo for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Cutolo finished the game with 239 yards on eight receptions, setting a new single-game school record.

TSU countered with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Harris that put the Tigers up 35-21 at the break.

“At halftime, I simply told them it was not over,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “I looked at all of them and said if there was anyone who didn’t think we could win in the second half, then don’t leave the locker room. We had a great second-half effort and the defense really rose up.”

After giving up four touchdowns in the second quarter, the Eastern ‘D’ shut out the Tigers in the third quarter.

Romo and Cutolo struck again in Eastern’s first posession of the second half, this time on a 28-yard slant pattern that pulled the Panthers back within one touchdown. Romo finished the game 21-of-36 passing for 381 yards and two TDs.

A posession later with the ball at Eastern’s 16-yard line, it looked as if the Tigers were poised to score again, but it was the Panthers’ defense that came up with a score of its own.

Harris’ pass attempt to the end zone was tipped and fell right into the hands of Panther defensive back Roosevelt Williams. Williams picked the pass off at the two-yard line and returned it 98 yards for an Eastern touchdown. The junior free safety’s untouched sprint down the field was the longest interception return in school history.

“At halftime we talked about how we needed the defense to make a big play,” Romo said. “We believed we’d have a good chance if the defense could make a big play, and Roosevelt came up with the biggest play of the year.”

That big play was followed by a 13-yard touchdown run by Raymond causing 11,628 fans, the sixth-largest crowd ever to watch a game at O’Brien Stadium, to erupt in excitement.

But TSU would rebound with a 30-yard touchdown pass that was followed by a failed point after attempt, leaving the Tigers trailing 42-41. On the next posession, Raymond crossed the goal line again, this time on a 19-yard touchdown run that put Eastern up 49-41.

With time running down in the fourth quarter, the Tigers weren’t done yet, as Harris scored on a 10-yard run . A successful two-point conversion evened the score at 49. That set the stage for a 12-play, 71 yard drive highlighted by another Romo-Cutolo connection in which the senior receiver pulled off a remarkable leaping grab along the sideline in double coverage. A 23-yard run by Raymond, who finished the game with 116 rushing yards on 11 carries, set up Besenhofer’s game-winning field goal.

“This is just a great win for us,” Spoo said. “I can’t recall being in a game that close in my 15 years here. What a great victory.”

The Panthers travel to Tennessee-Martin Thursday for a night game. A win against the Skyhawks, who haven’t won a conference game in five years, would clinch the Panthers’ first-ever conference title in the Ohio Valley and an automatic Division I-AA playoff bid.

“This was a great win,” Spoo said. “But our greatest win will be next week at Tennessee-Martin when we have that championship.”