The Eastern football team (3-1) starts its Ohio Valley Conference play, as the Panthers begin their OVC title defense against Eastern Kentucky (2-2) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at O’Brien Field.

For Eastern Kentucky coach Dean Hood, the focus starts with the Panthers’ Walter Payton Award candidate Jimmy Garoppolo.

Garoppolo has thrown 20 touchdowns in the team’s first four games and has led Eastern to the No. 1 ranked offense in the FCS, averaging 617.8 yards per game.

The senior quarterback is also tied with former Panther Tony Romo for the most career touchdowns in the OVC with 85.

Garoppolo leads the FCS in passing as the quarterback has thrown for an average of 430 yards per game. His 20 touchdowns also lead the country.

“The No. 1 concern is (Garoppolo), that’s the obvious and No. 2 is the guy’s that he is throwing the ball to,” Hood said. “Just how skilled the receivers are and how well the understand the scheme and how well they catch the football and make people miss that’s definitely a concern.”

The receivers Hood is referring to are Erik Lora, Adam Drake, Keiondre Gober and Jeff LePak.

Those four Panther receivers are in the OVC’s top-10 in catches per game, with Lora leading the conference at 11.2 receptions per game. LePak is the only receiver of the quartet who is not in the conference’s top-10 in receiving yards per game.

Eastern coach Dino Babers enters the conference opener after playing in the toughest non-conference schedule in the school’s history. After a 43-39 loss to Northern Illinois, Babers said the Panthers have to remain focused on Eastern Kentucky and not look back at what could have been in DeKalb.

“The disappointing thing for the football team is that it could have (won), but we can’t let Northern Illinois beat us twice.” Babers said.

Last season, when Eastern played Eastern Kentucky, the Colonels defense held the Panthers to their lowest scoring output of the season in OVC play: 24, but in return the Panther defense only allowed seven points.

“Thess guys know what they’re doing on defense,” Babers said. “They have a lot of pride and they have won a lot of championships over there — they have great tradition over there.”

On Saturday, the Eastern defense will go up against red-shirt freshman running back J.J. Jude, who tied a program record with four rushing touchdowns in the Colonels’ win against Morehead State on Saturday.

Before the Morehead State matchup Jude had 19 total carries in his team’s first three games, but against the Eagles Jude ran the ball 33 times for 195 yards.

The Colonels are ranked second in the OVC in rushing, averaging 210.8 yards per game.

Hood said the success of the team’s ground attack has led Eastern Kentucky to dominate time of possession in games and lead the OVC in third down conversions.

Babers said it is vital to stop the Colonels running game.

“They are going to come in here and be physical with us, and they are going to try to run the football and we are going to have to stop the run and see if we can get the run going ourselves,’ Babers said.

In Eastern’s previous game, Northern Illinois rushed for its season high 367 yards, while allowing 127 rushing yards to the Panthers — their season low.

“We want to get back to playing winning football,” Babers said. “We didn’t win the game last week. So, right now we’ve got that loser’s taste in our mouth and we need to make sure that we’re going to get it out.”

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