Eagles Clinch Sky Tie Prescott Sets School Record With 272 Yards In 31-14 Victory

There have been countless football textbooks written on how to block, run, tackle and throw.

And the Eastern Washington Eagles looked like they had studied every one right down to their indexes Saturday night in punishing Northern Arizona 31-14 in front of a mostly hostile Walkup Skydome crowd of 12,083.

Rex Prescott ran for a school-record 272 yards and three touchdowns, Harry Leons passed for 308 yards and another score and Eastern’s defense stoned one of the most prolific offenses in the country as the Eagles ran their overall record to 9-1 and clinched at least a share of their first Big Sky Conference championship since 1992.

Unfortunately, there have been few textbooks written on the proper etiquette of celebrating a conference title. So coach Mike Kramer and his players were a bit unpolished in reacting to their unlikely title run.

Kramer, taking his lead from the Green Bay Packers, leaped into the stands to plant a kiss on his wife, Sandy. Prescott, exhausted from his huge night - which also established him as EWU’s top single-season rusher with 1,284 yards - simply took a knee near the tunnel leading to the Eagles’ locker room.

And offensive tackle Jim Buzzard stood near midfield, stared into the stands and cried.

“I just want to remember this time and this place,” the 6-foot-3, 260-pound senior said. “I couldn’t even imagine this happening, but hugging everyone now makes me realize it has. It took five years, but we’re here now.”

Actually, the Eagles (6-1 in the Big Sky) still have one more step to take before gaining sole possession of the championship trophy and earning the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

They need a win over Cal State Northridge in next Saturday’s 1:05 p.m. regular-season finale at Woodward Stadium to make sure Montana State, the only team to beat them, doesn’t sneak in for a share of the title like Idaho did in 1992.

“The other half of that (‘92) trophy is in Moscow,” Kramer said, “and we don’t want anybody to have half of this one. So I’ll guarantee you, by tomorrow, we’ll be thinking solely of Northridge.”

Senior Derek Strey agreed.

“Four years ago, this was just a dream - to get a Big Sky Championship and get that ring,” he said. “But now, there’s a lot of seniors sitting in that locker room who want it outright.

“It might sound greedy, but we want it all.”

And if the Eagles can put together another effort like they did in knocking NAU (6-4, 4-3), the preseason Big Sky favorite, out of the playoff picture, there is little reason to believe they won’t get it.

Prescott jump-started the romp with an 80-yard touchdown run over left guard on Eastern’s second play from scrimmage. And aside from taking a few breaks to catch his breath and have trainers tend to his tender shoulder, he bedeviled the Lumberjacks all evening.

“Rex was magnificent,” Kramer said of his 5-7, 170-pound senior running back. “Let’s face the facts, he didn’t run through blown-open holes all night. There were times when he turned the corner with people in his face and just kept torquing. His heart was bigger than his entire body tonight.”

Prescott seemed shocked by what he had accomplished.

“Oh, wow, it’s huge, man,” he said after breaking Mel Stanton’s single-season (1,236 yards) and single-game (271) rushing records that had stood since 1965. “I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks, beginning with my O-line.”

Prescott also thanked the defense for pulling the plug on NAU’s high-voltage offense and limiting the Lumberjacks to just 295 total yards. Linebacker Justin Guillory led all EWU tacklers with 10, but senior tackle Chris Scott was the most dominant player in the defensive front, making eight stops, including three sacks.

It was his fourth-quarter hit on quarterback Travis Brown that forced a fumble and set up Eastern’s final drive, which allowed Prescott to break the single-game rushing record with his 2-yard touchdown run.

NAU coach Steve Axman was deeply disappointed with his team’s performance.

“I really expected to hold up defensively, but we didn’t,” he said. “The better team won this game.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: EWU 31, Northern Arizona 14 E. Washington 14 0 7 10 31 N. Arizona 0 0 7 7 14 EWUPrescott 80 run (Atwood kick) EWUPrescott 8 run (Atwood kick) EWUMitchell 31 pass from Leons (Atwood kick) NAUFlores 27 pass from T. Brown (Goldstein kick) EWUAtwood 21 field goal NAUF. St.Paul 41 pass from T. Brown (Goldstein kick) EWUPrescott 2 run (Atwood kick) A12,083 EWU NAU First downs 27 19 Rushes-yards 44-284 33-74 Passing 308 221 Comp-Att-Int 20-30-0 18-43-0 Return Yards 14 83 Punts-Avg. 5-42.8 8-36.3 Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-1 Penalties-Yards 5-49 2-12 Time of Possession 32:31 26:33 RUSHINGEastern Washington, Prescott 25-272, McKenzie 16-16 and Leons 3-(minus-4). Northern Arizona, Carson 19-69, McDonnell 4-11, Shelton 1-11, Pearsall 1-3, T. Brown 8-(minus-20). PASSING-Eastern Washington, Leons 20-30-0-339. Northern Arizona, T. Brown 18-42-0-221, C. Brown 0-1-0-0. RECEIVING-Eastern Washington, Correa 10-122, Ogden 6-100, Knaevelserd 2-38, Mitchell 1-31 and McKenzie 1-17. Northern Arizona, Flores 4-71, Lockett 3-42, Pearsall 5-41, F. St. Paul 1-41, Black 1-13, McDonnell 2-11, Searcy 1-6 and Carson (1-minus-4).