Eastern running back Shepard Little left Saturday’s game with a hamstring injury, with 4:06 remaining in the first quarter and did not return.

Eastern coach Kim Dameron said he was taking every precaution with Little, who has already missed two games earlier this season, and decided to sit him out for the rest of the game, as the Panthers defeated Murray State 48-26 at O’Brien Field.

“He went down and I don’t know how bad the hamstring is, but I wasn’t taking any chances with him,” Dameron said.

Little went down untouched on a second-down carry, which netted the running back eight yards. He started the scoring for Eastern, capping off the Panthers’ eight-play, 75-yard opening drive with a 24-yard touchdown run. His status for Eastern’s matchup at Jacksonville State on Saturday is still not certain.

“I felt terrible for Shep that he wasn’t able to play, but really I wasn’t about to take a chance on him for next week or the week after or whenever he can get back,” Dameron said.

The Panthers were able to run effectively without Little, who rushed for 57 yards on eight carries, as Taylor Duncan had a game-high 171 yards on 30 attempts, scoring two first-half touchdowns.

As a team, Eastern ran for 342 yards, with Jimmy Lera adding 79 yards and quarterback Jalen Whitlow rushing for 20 more, which included a one-yard touchdown. The Panthers did this without starting center Nick Borre and fellow offensive lineman Jimmy Lowery, who has missed half the season.

Whitlow, who threw for a career-high 312 yards, while throwing three touchdown passes against the Racers gave all the credit to the Eastern offensive line.

“I shouldn’t be sitting right here,” Whitlow said in his postgame press conference. “Those five o-linemen should be sitting right here. Without them we’re just a regular offense.

Eastern has the second best rushing offense in the Ohio Valley Conference, averaging 325.8 yards in league play. Whitlow was proud of the Panthers’ offensive line, as Eastern improved to 5-1 in OVC play.

“If you just watch them, they put in work and they make my job easier,” Whitlow said. “Down two offensive linemen and I’m not even going to call them backups because they’re not really backups, but two other guys that had to step in and step up and they did that.”

Red-shirt sophomore Charlie Athans made his first start, filling in for Borre. Athans, who was red-shirted in 2012 and was a reserve lineman last season, impressed Dameron.

“Charlie Athans went in and did a great job for his first start,” Dameron said.

The praised continued for the rest of the linemen.

“They just mauled them and moved the line of scrimmage and made it easy on the backs,” Dameron said. “I can’t say enough about the progress they’ve made. I’m telling you now, you lose your center and be able to go out there and have a performance like that. I’m really proud of them.”

Defensively, safety Jourdan Wickliffe was substituted in and out during the game.

“He’s been beat up all year,” Dameron said. “He’s not the most muscular guy in the world. We gotta get coach Riley (Allen) to put a little weight on him in the spring, but he’s got a little bit of a bad knee.”

Wickliffe leads the Panthers with four interceptions this season.

“When he got hurt we tried to get him in and out a little bit,” Dameron said. “We’re a little thin at safety right now.”

Eastern’s leading tackler Kamu Grugier-Hill left the game in the third quarter after a hit on Murray State running back Pokey Harris on the second play of the second half.

Grugier-Hill ended the game with six tackles and was credited with 0.5 a sack, before his head hit the knee of Harris, as he was tackling the Murray State player.

The linebacker did not return, as the trainers kept him out.

“With an injury like that we take extreme precaution and make sure that we’re going to err on the side of caution,” Dameron said. “You just don’t take chances with that. I’m hopeful that he will be able to come back next week.”

The Panthers kick off at Jacksonville State at 3 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville, Ala., as Eastern needs to win to have a chance of at least a share of the OVC title.

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