Eastern freshman running back Desmin Ward carried the ball six times for 15 yards in the Panthers’ 24-21 win against Southeast Missouri on Saturday afternoon at O’Brien Stadium.

Three of Ward’s six carries resulted in touchdowns, as he was the only Eastern player to find the end zone. Ward got the call on nearly all of Eastern’s short-yardage rushing situations.

“I like Desmin a lot because he runs north and south,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “He’s the guy to have in that situation because he does run behind his pads.”

But it was the Panthers’ ground game as a whole that pushed Eastern (3-4, 1-2 Ohio Valley Conference) to its first league win. Red-shirt senior running back Travorus Bess rushed for 124 yards on 20 carries, and red-shirt sophomore running back Chevon Walker rushed for 66 yards on 15 carries.

Bess’ 124-yard performance was the first 100 or more rushing yard game for an Eastern running back since he rushed for 183 yards against Illinois on Sept. 6.

Ward’s first touchdown came with 7 minutes, 22 seconds remaining in the first quarter. He capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run to give the Panthers a 7-0 lead.

He also had a four-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a one-yard score in the third quarter.

Ward’s score in the second quarter was his lone rushing attempt outside of the tackles. He lowered his head and bulled his way through a SEMO defender for the score.

The middle was clogged up and the outside was there,” Ward said. “It was either him or the end zone. I wanted that touchdown.”

Eastern’s other points came on a 40-yard field goal by red-shirt senior kicker Tyler Wilke.

Wilke’s field goal came with 9:02 remaining in the game and proved to be the game winner, as SEMO senior running back Timmy Holloman scored his second touchdown of the game on a two-yard dash to bring the Redhawks (2-5, 0-3 OVC) within three points with 6:26 left in the game.

The Panthers did the majority of their rushing between the tackles despite an unexpected defensive scheme from SEMO.

Eastern offensive line coach Jeff Hoover said the Redhawks switched from a traditional four-man defensive front to three down lineman with a flex player (a lineman-linebacker hybrid) acting as a pass rusher.

“We made some adjustments on the sidelines and started gashing it with some inside zone,” Eastern junior guard Chaz Millard said. “They were putting a lot of defenders in the box.”

Hoover said he talked with the offensive line after one series and made the necessary run blocking adjustments to continue running the ball well.

“Our main idea was to stop the run,” SEMO freshman linebacker Philip Klaproth said. “There were a few plays we let go. They started running more zone. The cutbacks were killing us. We weren’t playing our assignments.”

Eastern’s adjustments worked, as Eastern’s running backs needed the holes in the middle of the line because SEMO was stopping any attempt to run outside of the tackles.

“When we tried to run wide it didn’t look like we were very successful, yet we were able to pound it inside the tackles,” Spoo said. “That’s really an encouraging fact.”

Ward said he gave all the credit to his success to the offensive line.

“Those holes were nice all game for all three of the running backs,” Ward said.

SEMO head coach Tony Samuel said his team wore down defensively against the Panthers’ ground attack.

“They have a nice crew of running backs there,” Samuel said. “When they got close, they brought in the big freshman in there and let him bang a little bit.”

Bess said the offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage helped lead to the win. He said all he had to do was simply run through the holes the offensive line created.

“A big part of our strength is running in the middle,” Bess said. “Defenses don’t want to just let offenses run up the middle on them.”

Eastern struggled with its ground game in its two prior OVC games with 108 rushing yards against Tennessee Martin on Oct. 9, and 20 rushing yards against Jacksonville State on Sept. 27.

“It feels really good to get back on track,” Millard said. “Especially to get the running game started – getting back to playing EI football and running the ball. Not getting shut down in the run. We’re not used to that.”

Scott Richey can be reached at 581-7944 or at [email protected].