MANHATTAN Kan. – Head football coach Bob Spoo said he was impressed with his team’s ability to hang with Kansas State, the No. 26 team in Division I-A football.

Eastern was down 15-13 with two minutes left to play in the first quarter. But the Wildcats hadn’t taken a snap on offense yet.

Eastern quickly got caught up the Wildcats’ twister of an offense that all but blasted the Panthers back to Oz.

Kansas State scored 48 unanswered points on 50 plays en route to a 63-13 Kansas State win Saturday at Wagner Field.

“We’re ready for a new season now,” Spoo said. “We just want to get out of here as fast as we can and move forward to the next part of our season.”

The Kansas State trio of senior quarterback Marc Dunn, sophomore running back Darren Sproles and return specialist Terrence Newman made the Panther defense say more than “Oh my!”

Sproles had nine carries for 84 yards and one touchdown, Dunn completed three of four passes for two touchdowns and 67 yards and Newman had two returns for 120 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

“They have four really fast guys back there and you just kind of hope that it doesn’t go to (Newman), but there wasn’t really much we could do against him on that play after we broke down,” Spoo said. “We obviously didn’t protect well there.”

Eastern opened the game with three plays and a blocked punt deep in Panther territory. Danny Morris returned the blocked punt three yards for a touchdown. After a 30-yard Andre Raymond touchdown run, Newman returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

Eastern took less than five minutes to move the ball back down field 80 yards on a scoring drive capped by a 4-yard Tony Romo to Will Bumphus touchdown pass to make the score 15-13, the closest Eastern would come to the lead. Bumphus, a senior split end has 10 touchdowns in his last six games.

Then the Wildcats woke up.

“I was concerned about (Eastern’s) ability to move the ball down field,” Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder said. “But I think it was good for us to play against a team that can throw the ball around well like that. It will help us get ready.”

With four speedy scoring drives, the Wildcats took a 43-13 lead at the half. Kansas State made an adjustment on defense that prevented Eastern from moving down field with ease.

Romo completed 13 of 14 passes for 120 yards and one touchdown in the first quarter, but went 10-for-21 with three interceptions and 49 yards the rest of the game.

“We came out there and fought hard and moved the ball well,” Romo said. “I think I was just trying to make a play a lot of times and it hurt us. I’ll take the blame for that. I threw some passes that shouldn’t have been thrown and they turned into interceptions.”

The Panthers looked through the debris for big plays, but couldn’t find them. Eastern’s kickoff return to midfield on a reverse play from junior Andre Raymond to running back Justin Morris was called back for a block in the backfield.

Freshman punter Tom Schofield’s fake punt pass early in the second quarter was incomplete and would’ve been seven yards short of a first down. Kansas State took over on downs inside the Panther 20-yard line.

“We were just trying to make something happen,” Spoo said. “And we couldn’t.”

The loss of senior tailback J.R. Taylor weighs heavier than the margin of defeat. He left the game with an arm injury.

But don’t call the loss demoralizing.

“I don’t think of it that way,” senior linebacker Nick Ricks said. “We feel like we can come away pretty positive. We moved the ball well against one of the best teams in the nation.”