The Eastern rugby team stood in awe of what it saw at Stanford. Surrounded by expensive facilities, beautiful foliage and 80-degree weather, Eastern was in a foreign territory.

“The pictures and stories of how nice the campus is does not do it justice,” Eastern coach Frank Graziano said. “Their facilities are absolutely second to none.”

None of that mattered when the teams stepped on the field Saturday as the Panthers played one of their best games of the season, winning 45-5.

“We got out there, and we took the time to see all the facilities, and we were in awe,” Graziano said. “While we may have been in awe, we sure didn’t play like it.”

Graziano could not say enough times how well his team played. He compared Stanford’s skill to that of Penn State, which Eastern lost 35-5 at home a few weeks ago.

“That was the best we have ever played since I’ve been coaching here,” Graziano said. “They were a Penn State quality team, and Penn State whooped our butts. We earned this one.”

Eastern wasted no time getting its first try of the game as Becky Carlson put her team up early in the first five minutes, surprising Stanford.

“We got on the board and put pressure on them right away,” Graziano said. “We kind of stunned them a little bit.”

Eastern held a 17-0 lead into the half and Graziano made sure to tell his players to look at the scoreboard and pinch themselves to make them realize what they saw was really there.

The Panthers built up a 38-0 lead before Stanford finally got its first points late in the game to make the score 38-5. And not even that seemed to stop Eastern.

“That didn’t even waver us because we went right back down and scored on them,” Graziano said.

The 45-5 win gave the Panthers their second consecutive win after falling to Penn State. Brittany Brown had two tries while Nikki Ponce lead the team with three.

Brown played in the place of injured senior captain Kate Taake and Graziano said she filled in nicely.

“This was the first time we have ever played without Kate before,” Graziano said. “(Brown) played in her spot and played super.”

But Graziano said the key player was Ponce, who Stanford could not contain throughout the game.

“They couldn’t find an answer for her,” Graziano said. “She’s got a little deceptive speed and caught them off guard.”

The defense was also applauded after the win.

“We covered and just kept covering,” Graziano said. “Even though we got broken a few times, they didn’t get through.”

Eastern next travels to Western Kentucky at 1 p.m. Saturday.