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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eagles’ comeback falls short

POCATELLO, Idaho – This time there wasn’t quite enough Meyer Magic.

After his magnificent play rallied fifth-ranked Eastern Washington from another dismal first half, All-American quarterback Erik Meyer threw two interceptions that allowed Idaho State to escape with a 34-30 win in the Big Sky Conference football opener for both teams Saturday afternoon.

The Bengals (3-1), celebrating homecoming and the 200th game at Holt Arena with 9,405 fans, pummeled the Eagles (1-2) for 30 minutes. It was a flurry of yellow flags, mental mistakes and offensive and defensive lines that got pushed around.

“We got dominated up front,” Eastern head coach Paul Wulff said. “The defensive line a little bit, more on offense. … That we were only down 17 at halftime was a blessing.”

But it was a different story in the second half as the Eagles charged back.

Down 24-7 at halftime, Meyer engineered three scoring drives to tie the game, and immediately after the Bengals regained the lead he did it again.

Although Casey Willis missed the extra point after Ryan Cole’s 1-yard touchdown run, which kept the Bengals in front 31-30, there was still 6:09 to play.

The defense, which gave up 213 yards in the first half, including 126 on the ground, came through, giving the offense the ball with 3:12 to go. However, after converting on third down, Meyer led Tyler Coleman too far on a slant-in from the right and safety Dustin Murray intercepted, returning the ball 39 yards to the EWU 16.

The defense allowed only a field goal, giving Meyer 1:19 to try to do his thing one last time. But on second down from the 33, Pago Togafau picked off Meyer’s high throw to Raul Vijil.

“He did a lot of good things,” Wulff said. “The one bad throw was the last one, he kind of forced it.”

Meyer finished 31 of 47 for 364 yards despite being sacked seven times.

“Once we got going, we couldn’t be stopped until those two errors at the end,” Wulff said. “It’s hard to get a drive going when you’re backed up to your own end zone because you have 5,000 penalties or whatever we had.”

Eastern had 12 penalties for 99 yards, eight for 54 in the first half. Once, starting at their 20, the Eagles faced first-and-25 from the 5.

Eastern’s defense was solid in the second half.

ISU got 10 points, but the touchdown was set up by a long kickoff return and the late field goal by the interception return.

“We had to come back and make plays,” said defensive tackle Keith Grennan, who had one of the sacks with Jason Belford getting two. “We knew we always had a chance.”

The defense ended up allowing 134 yards on the ground, though three sacks for minus-32 yards helped, and 301 yards total.

“We went a little more basic, and with the momentum change when we started scoring points, I don’t know if they were as committed to the run,” Wulff said.

In the first half, Eastern took a quick 7-0 lead after Gregor Smith picked off Matt Hagler at midfield.

A 17-yard run by Dale Morris on the first play set up a 21-yard pass to Richmond Sanders, who was wide open in the end zone.

Then a series of special team mistakes allowed the Bengals to run off 24 unanswered points.

“You can get away with not scoring every time, but you can’t make that many mistakes and lose the field (position),” offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said. “Turnovers and penalties got us in that early hole.”

Meyer completed 17 of 28 passes in the second half for 250 yards.

“I was really proud of our kids, regardless of the circumstances, of how they competed in the third quarter and fourth quarter,” Wulff said. “We flat-out fought and got back in the ballgame. Good football teams do that and this is a good football team.

“It’s definitely a battle uphill. We’ll see how we respond because we’re not good enough right now, as was evident today.”