The Eastern rugby team will try to extend its program long 22-game winning streak as its faces off against Missouri at 11 a.m. Saturday at Lakeside Rugby Field.

The Panthers (6-0) are coming off a tough win and will try to continue that as they face the Tigers for the first time since 2002, when they won 68-0.

The Panthers do not know too much about the Tigers, so they will try to focus on the things that need to be improved.

“We have watched the film twice and obviously we saw places that we could do better against Northern Iowa,” Eastern head coach rugby Frank Graziano said. “Right now we are just trying to get our details and stuff sorted out.”

After playing the close game last week, a 22-20 victory against Northern Iowa, the Panthers will have to continue to play well to finish their final four games of the season undefeated.

“The natural tendency is to have some little emotional let down,” Graziano said. “So we will try to keep their emotions up as high as we can, and if they do get down, we will figure out what we have to do to bring their emotions back up. If we keep it technical this week, I think we will be just fine.”

Eastern was able to get out of Northern Iowa without any serious injuries. It came out with their normal bumps and bruises, but they will settle for that after setting the program record for tackles in a game.

“I’m surprised by the amount of tackles,” senior No. 8 Stephanie Militello said. “Thirty-three tackles by one person (Militello), I have never known that to happen. The record in a game was 21, and now, it is me with 33 and Chase (Cain) with 28. That will stay in there for a while.”

Also, an impressive stat in Saturday’s game was the scrums. The Panthers worked on scrums all week and it showed in the game. They have continued to work on the scrums this week and they hope it will show again.

“The scrum was good, probably as good as it has been in the last half-dozen years,” Graziano said. “All the extra work we put in was good. Northern Iowa’s scrum is very good and we pretty much neutralized it.”

Now with Northern Iowa out of the picture, the Panthers will try to get back to shutting out their opponent, something they have done in half their games this season.

“Since our freshmen year Chase and I have always wanted to not have anyone score on us,” Militello said. “We pride ourselves on our defense. So I think for sure that Chase and I, and I would assume that the rest of the team wants to go without anyone scoring on us again.”

After the Missouri game, the Panthers will take on Illinois Oct. 24 at Lakeside Rugby Field.

Bob Shaughnessy can be reached at 581-7944 or

[email protected].