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

Eastern falls to 0-3

All the answers to the questions about the Eastern Washington football team were wrong.

Yes, the Eagles, looking to rebound after two tough play-up games, failed their test, falling 21-14 to NCAA Division II Central Washington before 7,943 fans in their home opener at Woodward Field Saturday night.

The offense was sluggish, the defense was soft and special teams were inconsistent.

“We’ve got some growing up to do,” Eastern Washington coach Paul Wulff said. “We didn’t play very good football. We didn’t deserve to win. They deserved to win the game, they played better than we did.”

All the credit goes to the Wildcats (2-1), who seemed to know exactly what Eastern (0-3) was going to do on offense and defense. And, with the game tied early in the fourth quarter, had the big play on special teams to set up the win.

“Winning at Montana State in ‘02 was big, Central coach John Zamberlin, a former Eastern assistant, said. “This is better, this is sweeter.”

To add insult to injury, Eastern forced four turnovers, all on the Central side of midfield, and came away without a point. In fact, not only did the Eagles fail to get a first down on any of those four possessions, they went backward on all four.

In fact, Eastern’s offense was lucky just to get 14 points. An overthrown pass late in the first half bounced off two defenders into the hands of Tony Davis and he turned it into a 70-yard gain, setting up a touchdown that gave the Eagles a 14-6 lead at halftime.

Particularly galling was the way Central’s defensive line manhandled Eastern’s veteran offensive line. The Eagles managed just 3.9 yards a rush and freshman quarterback Matt Nichols was sacked three times.

“I thought it was going to be this year,” Zamberlin said. “Our thinking was if we could stop their running game their quarterback couldn’t beat us.”

He was right. Nichols hit 18 of 35 passes for 213 yards with two interceptions.

Senior tight end Tim Calhoun said, “I didn’t think we were overconfident going into the game. I said all week they have a good defense. They came in and thought they could win and they did.”

The EWU defense gave up 339 yards, 121 to 5-foot-8, 190-pound running back Johnny Lopez, and allowed the Wildcats to convert nine of 15 third downs as Mike Reilly hit 19 of 28 passes for 162 yards. The Eagles didn’t have a sack, didn’t force a three-and-out punt until late in the game and allowed CWU to control the clock.

With that 70-yard pass play and a 37-yard burst by fullback Alexis Alexander that set up the first down, Eastern only averaged 5.1 yards per play, finishing with 318 yards of offense.

The first four possessions in the second half failed to produce a first down and by then the Wildcats had a 21-14 lead.

They tied the game with an eight-play, 80-yard drive to open the second half. The touchdown was a 32-yard strike from Reilly, who had all day to throw, to Johnny Spevak down the middle. Reilly then ran in the two-point conversion.

Late in the quarter, with the Eagles on their 10, Ryan Donckers had his worst punt, getting just 33 yards but there was no return. However the Eagles were called for a facemask and had to punt from the 10. That punt went just 37 yards and Brandon Kennedy returned it 44 yards to the 3.

“The first thing I remember was the gunner was coming quick. I knew I had to elude him,” Kennedy, a sophomore from Gonzaga Prep, said. “The second thing I remember is if I would have cut back at the end I would have scored.”

On the next play, Reilly walked into the end zone untouched on a reverse bootleg around the right end.

The Eagles, with their first 0-3 start since 1983, now face eight straight weeks of Big Sky Conference play.