Eastern cruises, but isn’t sharp

Charles Searcy took the opening kickoff 73 yards but a penalty backed up the play 64 yards.

It was that kind of Saturday night for the Eastern Washington football team before an opening-night record crowd of 7,110 at Woodward Field.

The Eagles (1-1) did enough good things to dispatch Division II Western Oregon 48-7, but it wasn’t the type of outing to inspire a lot of confidence for the fifth-ranked I-AA team heading into Big Sky Conference play.

“I’m happy we won,” Eagles head coach Paul Wulff said. “We just didn’t, on offense, have a very good day. We didn’t execute very well. I think our defense did some good things.”

Western Oregon had 17 first downs but only 215 yards of total offense and a 2.7-yard per play average.

“I thought we played pretty well,” said EWU linebacker David Eneberg, who had seven tackles. “We had some penalties that hurt. It’s hard to say, some of them were pretty close (judgment calls). We just have to play smarter, I guess.”

Eastern’s starting offense never went three-and-out and rolled up 569 yards, but the defense never completely stymied the Wolves (1-2), either. Though WOSU punted 12 times, the Wolves didn’t have a three-and-out until their 12th possession early in the fourth quarter.

Blocking is an issue for EWU, especially for a run game that produced just 125 yards and a 3.4 average until a 36-yard gain in the last minutes. Pressure on the quarterback is a concern for the defense that got just one sack and forced two turnovers; and penalties are problematic throughout the lineup. The Eagles were flagged 12 times for 110 yards.

And then there is the kicking game. After Sheldon Weddle made 32- and 48-yard field goals in the first half, he missed from 33 and 28 yards in the second. The Wolves’ first-half touchdown was set up when a Ryan Donckers punt was blocked.

On the bright side, Brett Bergstrom, a backup wide receiver, was tremendous on kickoffs.

“We were very vanilla on offense, we didn’t do very much tricky stuff,” Wulff said. “It was very simple, we just wanted to execute a very base game plan and there were things we struggled with. We didn’t block real well, we dropped some passes, the quarterback missed some reads. Every position had a hand in not executing.”

There were highlights, beginning, as usual, with the passing combination of quarterback Erik Meyer and wide receiver Eric Kimble.

Meyer’s scrambling ability negated most of the Wolves’ pressure and he consistently found a variety of receivers. He hit 22 of 34 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns. Along the way he moved to No. 1 on the career total offense list with 7,440 yards, passing Mark Tenneson, who had 7,428 from 1989-92.

“We played crappy in the first half,” Meyer said. “I don’t know. I missed on a lot of throws, a lot of reads I usually make. I just felt better we moved the ball, got it going on offense (in the second half). I definitely take blame for not putting the game away earlier.”

Kimble, who had six catches for 145 yards and two touchdowns, had the best play, out-jumping a defensive back for the ball and breaking out of the tackle for a 50-yard scoring play. The TD came immediately after Searcy returned a punt 32 yards.

That made it 17-0 before the end of the first quarter, but if there were doubts about Eastern’s struggle, note it was only 20-7 at halftime.

The first half included a blocked punt by true freshman Jacob Kragt, setting up a field goal that made it 10-0, and Weddle’s career-best 48-yard field goal as time expired.

After Meyer concluded his night with 34-7 lead following two TD passes in the second half, the backups did good things to close it out.

Backup QB Alex Smart was sharp in his debut, completing his first two passes, including a 24-yard touchdown to Richmond Sanders that made it 41-7. Rookie kicker Casey Willis made his three extra points. Linebacker Marcus Walker returned an interception 72 yards to close the scoring.

The only visible injuries were to cornerback Isaiah Trufant (left ankle) and defensive end Mike Wolfe (reinjured knee).

The Eagles are at Idaho State (2-1) next Saturday to open Big Sky play.

“We’ve got some practices,” Wulff said. “We’ll have to find a way to get better.”

EWU 48, Western Oregon 7

EWU—Cole 7 run (Weddle kick)

EWU—FG Weddle 32

EWU—Kimble 50 pass from Meyer (Weddle kick)

WOU—Ramirez 1 run (Voges kick)

EWU—FG Weddle 48

EWU—Vijil 46 pass from Meyer (Weddle kick)

EWU—Kimble 31 pass from Meyer (Willis kick)

EWU—Sanders 24 pass from Smart (Willis kick)

EWU—Walker 72 interception return (Willis kick)

A—7,110.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Western Oregon, Vinzant 8-34, Watts 4-19, Ramirez 6-17, Knudsen 1-11, Thorson 1-(minus 8). Eastern Washington, Morris 11-58, Cole 17-58, Kefu 4-42, Meyer 4-2, Ford 2-1.

PASSING—Western Oregon, Thorson 19-49-0-125, Hubrich 3-10-1-17. Eastern Washington, Meyer 22-34-0-366, Smart 3-5-0-42.

RECEIVING—Western Oregon, Knudsen 7-47, Boss 5-43, Ching 3-16, Ramirez 3-12, Carter 2-17, Watts 1-4, Vinzant 1-3. Eastern Washington, Kimble 6-145, Vijil 5-96, Coleman 4-48, Cole 3-29, Sanders 2-35, Calhoun 2-34, McAndrews 1-9, Jarrett 1-9, Morris 1-3.