It was a record-breaking day for two seniors on Senior Recognition Day as the Panthers dominated both sides of the ball in a 47-6 victory over Florida Atlantic on Saturday at O’Brien Stadium.

Quarterback Tony Romo threw three touchdown passes to give him 31, breaking the previous mark of 28 held by Sean Payton in 1984.

Romo’s performance was put out of the spotlight by tailback J.R Taylor’s enormous day on the ground. Taylor ran all over the Owls for 308 yards breaking the single game record of 283 by Kevin Staple in 1983.

“To get 200 yards is a special day,” Taylor said. “To even think about 300 yards, for most would be insane.”

Taylor also punched the ball into the end zone four times to reach 50 on his career surpassing the old mark of 49 by Poke Cobb.

Taylor credited his offensive line for the large number of the yards he racked up. Senior guard Kevin Hill, a part of that line who opened up the holes for Taylor, was pleased with their dominant performance.

“You have fun when you’re doing your job and you’re doing it right,” Hill said. “We just tried to finish our blocks at the line and it paid off for us.”

Eastern wasted no time taking it to the depleted and inexperienced FAU team. Taylor put the Panthers (8-2) on the scoreboard on the third play of the game with a 50-yard scamper for his first of four touchdowns and the Panthers first six of 41 points in the first half.

Taylor scored his second touchdown of the game with just under two minutes left in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead.

Eastern would score on its next four possessions in the second quarter on its way to 346 first half yards. Romo’s record-breaking pass came at 14:19 in the second quarter on a six-yard pass to senior receiver Will Bumphus.

The Panthers increased the lead to 27-0 on Romo’s second touchdown pass of the day to freshman tight end Adam Parsill.

Taylor tied the career touchdown record on a one-yard run with 2:19 left in the half. The Panthers were able to score one more time before halftime with Romo connecting with senior fullback Andre Jones from one yard out for a 41-0 lead.

On the defensive side the Panthers pressured FAU’s quarterbacks and manhandled their offensive line off the block. The Owls were unable to come up with a first down the entire first half and did not get on to the plus side of yardage until the third quarter.

“It was good play calling by coach Roc (Bellantoni),” said senior cornerback Obinno Coley who had two sacks on the day. “We just saw a weakness in their o-line and we took advantage of that.”

In the second half, scoring died down as both teams ran into fumble problems. Both teams fumbled

three times in the second half with Eastern losing two and FAU losing one.

After last week’s second half collapse against Tennessee-Martin head coach Bob Spoo decided to leave some of his starters in a little longer. “Because of last week I was a little concerned,” Spoo said. “I didn’t want to get into substitutions too early.”

Taylor remained in the game long enough to break both records in the fourth quarter. He broke the yard record on his longest run of the day with a 58-yarder down the right sideline and took control of the touchdown record on the Panthers last score of the day with 3:51 left in the game on a three yard run.

The Panther defense could not hold on to a shutout as the Owls were able to get on the board with 10 seconds remaining on a one yard run by quarterback Garrett Jahn.

Eastern hopes they can take this success into next week’s game against Murray State which will decide the conference champion. “We did our job today,” Spoo said. “Maybe we are peaking at the right time. It’s going to come down to this final game.”