MACOMB — When the Panther defense scored long before the offense struck pay dirt, it was a sure sign it would be a long day in the first round I-AA playoff game against Western Illinois Saturday.

The Panther offense simply couldn’t convert all day long, and went 1 for 17 on third down conversion tries in a 48-9 season-ending loss to the Leathernecks at Hanson Field.

The Leathernecks will play host to Gateway Conference rival Western Kentucky next Saturday. The Hilltoppers were a 59-20 winner over Ohio Valley Conference champion Murray State Saturday.

“We were just terrible today,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said.

The Leathernecks stuck to a game plan of pressuring senior quarterback and three-time OVC Offensive Player of the Year Tony Romo and stopping the run.

The plan worked.

“We were watching a lot of film on them and we noticed that a lot of the teams in the OVC were rushing only three,” Western senior linebacker Cornell Middlebrook said. “They were only rushing three most of the time so we decided we were going to put more pressure on them.”

Romo said it was the most pressure he’d seen in his career, which at the collegiate level ended Saturday.

“They just did a really good job of understanding what they had to do and they executed,” Romo said. “And then we really hurt ourselves with turnovers.”

The Panther barrage of bad plays began in the first quarter where Eastern mustered only two first downs and Western took a 21-0 lead after it received the ball on its own 30, the Panther 47 and the Eastern 23-yard-line after a blocked Tim Scofield punt.

Eastern’s first score came after redshirt-freshman Will Bihun tackled Western running back Attley Lawson for a loss in the end zone. The Panthers trailed 21-2 and were looking to turn the momentum.

But Eastern literally fumbled the opportunity.

On the first play after receiving the free kick on the Eastern 41-yard line, Western sacked Romo and Letherneck defensive lineman Will Daun recovered a fumble on the play.

“I felt like we had to do something and get something started,” Spoo said. “That might have been the spark. But they have an answer for just about everything we throw at them.”

Eastern did not score again until the third quarter on a Romo 30-yard pass to junior tailback Andre Raymond, capping a six-play, 61-yard drive, which for the first time all game showed the Panthers had signs of life on offense. The Panthers trailed 34-9 at that point with 8:05 left to play in the third quarter.

“We had dropped balls and lots of things that are uncharacteristic,” Spoo said. “We just didn’t function well.”

Romo completed only 21 of 44 passes for 215 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The Leathernecks sacked him three times. Raymond caught seven passes for 77 yards and senior tailback J.R. Taylor led the Panther rushing corps with 18 carries for 88 yards. No other Panther had more than two rushing yards.

“I just think we had the better athletes with character and I think we have a better coaching staff too,” Western head coach Don Patterson said. “I’m really thankful to have them around.”

Western quarterback Russ Michna, the Gateway Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year, completed 11 of 17 passes for 164 yards with one interception and two touchdowns. Lawson carried the ball 20 times for 104 yards and one touchdown.

Eastern Junior linebacker Nick Ricks led the defense with nine tackles despite twice leaving the game with an injury.

“He’s been playing hurt all year and he came back on every play,” Spoo said. “Unfortunately a lot of guys didn’t come back hard on every play today.”