The Eastern football team will hit the road again for the team’s second straight Ohio Valley Conference road game.

This weekend, the Panthers, currently 1-3 this season and 0-2 in conference, will take on Southeast Missouri. The Redhawks enter the game without a win this season, currently 0-3. One of the team’s losses were to an OVC team, falling to Tennessee Tech.

Despite not having a win yet this season, the Redhawks were a surprise to most last season when they won the OVC title.

Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said he is excited about playing two successful programs like Jacksonville and Southeast Missouri back-to-back.

“We lost to a very good Jacksonville State team and we’re going down to face a very good Southeast Missouri team,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better.”

What needs to get better, according to Spoo, is the team’s consistency.

“We’ve been inconsistent; we’ve had turnovers and penalties and those type of things don’t help winning football games,” he said. “Until we correct those things, we’ll continue to struggle.”

The Panthers have a total of six interceptions, four fumbles lost and 21 penalties for 175 yards so far this season.

Southeast Missouri head coach Tony Samuel, currently in his sixth year as coach, said he sees the Panthers as a major challenge.

“We’ve got a major challenge coming up with Eastern Illinois,” he said. “We all know their conditioning and the way they play hard, and they’re doing that again.”

With one loss in the OVC, Samuel said this game against Eastern is a ‘must-win’ for his team.

“I think we’re still in the hunt and we’ve got to win this one to stay in the hunt,” Samuel said.

Though he sees this game as a ‘must-win,’ he said he sees every game as ‘must-win.’

“I look at every conference game as a ‘must game,’ I’ve never thought of it any other way,” he said. “It’s a ‘must game’ because it’s the next one.”

The Panthers have allowed 1,601 yards of total offense so far this season. Samuel called the Panthers’ defense solid.

“(Eastern is) as solid as they’ve been and they’re really playing hard on defense,” he said.

Samuels will be facing sophomore quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the second time and he says he’s much more experience, as well as an improved running attack.

“The quarterback is older, he’s more experienced,” he said. “I think they’re running the ball well.”

For the Panthers, they will be facing junior linebacker Blake Peiffer. Peiffer has 17 solo tackles this season and is ranked nationally in tackles-per-game.

Also for the the Redhawks will be junior running back Levi Terrell, who transferred from a Division-II school after the football program there was dropped.

The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The Panthers will take on the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at home next weekend for the Family Weekend game.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].