EWU wants to continue surge against Vikings

Coach Beau Baldwin continues to be impressed by the resiliency of his Eastern Washington University football team.

“The guys have done a great job of just attacking each week as its own, regardless of what happened the week before, and just finding a way,” he said earlier this week about the way his defending national champion Eagles (4-4 overall, 4-2 Big Sky Conference) have managed to put themselves back in the postseason playoff picture, despite opening the 2011 season with four consecutive losses and battling through a rash of serious injuries.

“I’m just proud of them for stepping up in situations where it would have been easy to just fold it and call it quits.”

But to make sure all the hard work that went into evening its record isn’t wasted, Eastern must find its way past Big Sky rival Portland State (4-3, 2-2) in this afternoon’s Senior Day game that kicks off at 1 at sold-out Roos Field.

The Vikings (4-3, 2-2) are coming off a 36-10 nonconference home win over NCAA Division III Willamette. They dropped their last two conference games to first-place Montana State (38-36) and second-place Montana (30-24).

“Our goals and expectations are to continue to play, get better and have a chance to win and go into the postseason,” said Nigel Burton, PSU’s second-year head coach, who – like Baldwin – knows his team can’t afford another loss. “That’s what we want to be able to do, that’s what our kids bought into, and we think we have a legitimate chance to do that.”

The Vikings will have to do it without senior running back and top scorer Cory McCaffrey, who had rushed for 731 yards and 13 touchdowns prior to suffering what could be a career-ending ankle injury in the loss to Montana.

Freshman Shaquille Richard got the start in place of McCaffery against Willamette and shared the running back duties with senior Willie Griffin. The two combined for 146 rushing yards and one touchdown,

“They did a nice job,” Burton said of his latest ball-carrying tandem. “But if we have any chance of winning in Cheney, they’re going to have to play better than they did on Saturday.”