Eastern’s Scott Weatherford punted the ball to Northern Illinois with less than six minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, trailing the Huskies 43-39.

It proved to be the last time the Panthers would have possession of the ball on offense.

The Huskies took over with 5:04 left, and Eastern coach Dino Babers had two timeouts remaining. Those timeouts were not enough to stop Northern in its 43-39 win at Huskie Stadium Saturday night.

Northern quarterback and Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch ran for a game-high 189 yards and also threw for 235 yards with two passing touchdowns.

On the game’s final drive, the Huskies converted three third downs, the last two converted by Lynch.

The Panthers called a timeout with 3:01 on the clock, but two plays later, Lynch gained 12 yards on the ground for a first down. The final blow to Eastern came after the Panthers called their final timeout with 49 seconds left to play and Northern facing a third down and 11. Lynch proceeded to complete his 21st pass attempt of the game to Luke Eakes.

The 21-yard pass sealed the third win for Northern and Eastern’s first loss of the season.

Eastern quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who went toe-to-toe with Lynch the entire night, tied the Ohio Valley Conference and Eastern record for most career touchdown passes as he threw six against the Huskies.

Garoppolo tied former Eastern quarterback and current Dallas Cowboy Tony Romo with 85 touchdowns.

Garoppolo and the Eastern offense scored the game’s first 20 points in the first 7:24 of the first quarter, which included two touchdowns in a 10-second span. Garoppolo threw for 450 yards on 34-of-49 passing. He also threw two interceptions, bringing his season total to three. Both of Garoppolo’s interceptions led to touchdown drives for Northern.

After Garoppolo’s third touchdown in the first quarter, the Huskies were able to slow down the Panther offense.

Northern coach Rod Carey said his defense was able to stall Garoppolo because the Huskies made Eastern one-dimensional.

“We tried to slow down the run first,” Carey said. “That was the first thing we had to do because you’ve got to get a player of that caliber in situations where he’s going to pass, and then you can get after him some.”

The Panthers averaged less than two yards per rushing attempt in the first half, running for 34 yards on 18 carries.

“There came a point in the second quarter when we had that lead, and we were trying to run the ball, but we weren’t able to do it.”

Garoppolo, who had 180 yards on 13 completions after throwing his third touchdown of the game, finished the half with 255 yards on 20 completed passes in the first half.

Northern’s defense, which had nine sacks in its previous game against Idaho, sacked Garoppolo five times Saturday night — the most he has been sacked all season.

“We got stalled up once we were up 20,” Garoppolo said. “They got a good pass rush after us. They were only sending a couple guys and got after me.”

Eastern’s quick start was boosted by an on-side kick recovery after the Panthers’ opening drive touchdown.

The recovery was sandwiched between an Erik Lora 14-yard touchdown catch and an Adam Drake 43-yard touchdown catch.

Babers also decided to go for two points after the Panthers’ first touchdown, but Eastern failed on the attempt. Babers said he wanted to be aggressive at the start of the game to let Northern know the Panthers were in DeKalb to win.

“We knew we needed to start fast,” Babers said. “We thought that would be the best thing for our team — to let them know that we’re going to go after this thing.”

Despite falling behind Northern for the majority of the third quarter, Eastern was able to take a 39-36 lead with 9:53 in the fourth quarter after Lora caught his third touchdown.

Less than two minutes later came the game-winning touchdown for the Huskies with an eight-yard score from Keith Harris, which was his second touchdown of the game.

Babers said that Eastern could improve after the loss, especially going back and mending mistakes on offense.

“You play the game to win, and we did not win,” he said. “We know that we played a quality opponent, and we know that some of the mistakes we made on our part were because of what they were doing on the defensive side of the ball.”

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].