With the clinching of their first share of an Ohio Valley Championship in the rear view mirror, the No. 4 ranked Eastern football team will travel to Florida Atlantic this weekend.

The Panthers (7-1, 5-0) are the only team in the nation to have secured a bid in the 16-team Division I-AA playoffs that begin Dec. 1. Eastern’s goal now is to win their final two games of the season in hopes of holding on to their No. 4 national ranking and the opportunity to host the first two rounds of the playoffs.

“That’s awfully important right now,” Panther head coach Bob Spoo said of hosting one, and possibly two, playoff games. “That’s the incentive, obviously and some of our players from Florida will have the added incentive of playing in front of family and friends.”

When Eastern takes the field at Pro Player Stadium 3 p.m. Saturday in Miami, several Panthers will be making their first collegiate appearance in their home state. Eastern has 15 players on its roster from the Sunshine State.

“The recruiting we’ve done down there has really just been invaluable,” Spoo said. “Their talent is what has helped turn this program around.”

The Panthers No. 1 receiver Frank Cutolo hails from Boca Raton while running back/receiver Andre Raymond, freshman receiver Lorne Benjamin and sophomore linebacker David Bentley all are products of Miami Lakes High School in Hialeah, Fla. Freshman free safetys Nick Allison and Chad Cleveland, freshman cornerback Joseph Harris, cornerbacks Vince Lewis and Antwan Oliver, linebacker Fred Miller and wide receivers Devon O’Neal and Alfred Osborne are all products from Fort Lauderdale’s Dillard High School.

But there’s more. Junior tackle Jarad Kimbro is from Port Orange, Fla. while freshman linebacker Ricky Johnson is from Miami. And last but not least, Inside linebacker Nick Ricks was recruited out of Deerfield Beach, Fla.

“Those guys will all be fired up, absolutely,” Spoo said. “There’s no doubt they’ll be ready to play.”

They’ll be playing against a 3-4 Owls team that has dropped its last three contests. This season marks the first Florida Atlantic has had football. They are competing at the I-AA level, but plan to make the upgrade to Division I-A.

“They’re a young team as you could imagine, but they’ve made great improvements as the season has progressed,” Spoo said. “I like their quarterbacks. They play two of them a lot and they have a pretty good receiver who can make some plays.”

The Owls are coached by Howard Schellenberger who coached the Miami Hurricanes to a 1983 national championship.

“I’m kind of familiar of with coach Schellenberger’s offense,” Spoo said. “When I was with Purdue we went down to play Miami, Florida and got beat 35-0. But he has a great coaching mind and gobs of experience and expertise.”