November 14, 2004 in Sports

Eagles defense roughed up by Lulay, but comes through when it counts

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BOZEMAN, Mont. – Travis Lulay was the real deal.

The Eastern Washington defense wasn’t – at least statistically.

The frantic finish and the scoreboard told a different story.

With Lulay at the controls, Montana State piled up 667 yards of offense Saturday afternoon and EWU defensive coordinator Jody Sears admitted, “We didn’t make too many big plays.”

“He is a great player. He just flat-out made plays,” Eastern head coach Paul Wulff said. “We were doing the right thing a lot of times defensively and he simply made big plays.”

But the Eagles’ defense did come up big when it counted.

The end result was a defensive stand in overtime that allowed the Eagles to pull out a 51-44 victory to clinch a share of the Big Sky Conference championship and a probable berth in the I-AA playoffs.

The Eagle defense limited MSU to two field goals in the third quarter after a quick touchdown had pushed the Bobcats lead to a daunting 31-10.

They made a fourth-down stop on their on their 23 in the second minute of the fourth quarter once the offense had closed the gap to 37-30.

And, they stopped the Bobcats in overtime after they had a first-and-goal from the 2.

“It was just the kids. I think they came out a little tight and that kid was just making throws,” Sears said of Lulay, who completed 33 of 54 passes for 432 yards. “We knew he was going to have to make throws and the receivers were going to have to make plays and they made them right to the end.”

However, the EWU offense found its groove in the second half and the game was on.

Erik Meyer threw his fifth touchdown pass when Eastern opened the overtime on offense, throwing a 22-yard strike to Craig McIntyre on the second play.

MSU earned a first down on its possession and got a second on a pass interference call that put ball on the 2. On first down David Eneberg ran running back Justin Domineck out of bounds for a 2-yard loss. Defensive end Tom Finnerty stopped Lulay, who rushed for 110 yards, for no gain. Safety Gregor Smith batted down a pass. Then it was Eneberg knocking down Lulay’s last throw.

So despite the gaudy numbers, the Bobcats were beat.

“He’s the best quarterback we’ve seen,” Eneberg said. “He beat us on his feet and in the air. He’s a hell of a quarterback.”

Crank it up

Led by middle linebacker Roger Cooper, Montana State was determined to stop Eastern’s running game. The Eagles were just as determined to stick to its game plan.

Then it was 31-10 and people who don’t know the Eagles had to believe the game was all but over, even though most of the second half remained.

“We found ourselves down a little bit but we were never out of it,” EWU offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said. “That took a little bit away from the running game but that’s the great thing about our offense. We have the ability to run on people and when we’re in situations we have to throw and go to that no huddle, we’re capable of that. The kids just believe and go out and make plays.”

Quick kicks

With 10 receptions Kimble has 68 receptions, breaking by three the EWU single season record set by Jason Anderson in 1994 … Kimble also had 196 yards, giving him 1,207, erasing Jeff Ogden’s 1997 record of 1,148. … EWU shared the Sky title in 1992 and won it outright in 1997. … Eastern (29) and MSU combined for 64 first downs and 1,219 yards. Both teams averaged 6.9 yards a play.

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