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

Fantastic catches, strong finish lift Vernon Adams, Eagles past Grizzlies

Eastern Washington proved it again Saturday afternoon: Steady doesn’t always win the race.

For the second time in a row against their biggest rivals, the Eagles sprinted toward the finish line, took a short nap, then reawakened in time to hold off Montana, 36-26, in a football game that once again had a storybook feel.

Call it “The Tortoise and the Hare – Big Sky Conference edition.” The foil – again – was steady old Montana, grinding away. The winner, for the third time in a row, was Eastern – beating itself one minute and beating the Grizzlies one-handed the next.

Fifth-ranked Eastern did that twice on Saturday. First there was freshman wide receiver Nic Sblendorio, who one-handed a touchdown catch in the first quarter. In the waning seconds of the first half, true sophomore Kendrick Bourne did the same to give the Eagles a 20-10 lead at intermission.

“I just had to match him,” Bourne laughed.

The Eagles were still laughing midway though the third quarter, after another underclassman, sophomore receiver Cooper Kupp, scored twice in 81 seconds to give the Eagles a 33-10 lead in front of a crowd of 11,339 on a picture-perfect Senior Day.

That is, until the picture developed a few flaws, the product of a lackluster running game, some blown coverages on defense, and a late fumble by quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. in his first game in five weeks.

Suddenly the game looked a lot like last year’s in Missoula, when Eastern blew most of a 25-point lead before holding on to win 42-37.

This time a 23-point lead dwindled to 7 with less than 6 minutes left, but the Eagles moved 58 yards before getting the clinching points on Tyler McNannay’s 34-yard field goal with 28 seconds left. The key play: on third-and-21 at the Griz 27, senior running back Mario Brown gained 10 yards to put McNannay within range against a headwind.

Said coach Beau Baldwin, “If we didn’t get 10 or so on that run we may have been just outside of field goal range because of the breeze. … Honestly, once Mario made that run and we got those 10 yards, that was one of the big, big plays of the game.”

There were many big plays, most of them by the Eagles, who improved to 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the Big Sky with one game left in the regular season. If they beat Portland State on Nov. 21, they’ll clinch at least a share of their third straight conference title and fourth in five years.

More importantly, Eastern all but clinched another appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. A win at PSU also would guarantee a first-round bye and the potential for at least two home games.

Montana on the other hand, fell to 4-2 in the Big Sky and 6-4 overall, meaning the 11th-ranked Grizzlies will need to win their final two games to reach the playoffs.

“It was huge from a standpoint of where we are in terms of the Big Sky race, which is first and foremost your goal, especially this late in the year and you still have a shot at it,” Baldwin said. “For the seniors, you can’t write a better script knowing these seniors that are so deserving get to finish their regular season against Montana on the red.”

And for that, the seniors can thank the underclassmen. First there was Adams, a junior who completed 25 of 37 passes for 410 yards and four touchdowns; redshirt freshman cornerback Jake Hoffman, who set a school record with six pass breakups; Kupp, who had 134 yards in receiving plus a 67-yard punt return for a score; and the first-half heroics of Sblendorio and Bourne.

Sblendorio’s catch was right out of Adams’ dream.

“Honestly, before the game, Vernon told me that he had a dream last night that he was going to throw me a touchdown pass on this same play,” said Sblendorio, who was falling into the endzone with a Montana defender on top of him as the ball arrived.

With his left arm pinned down, Sblendorio reached out his right arm and pulled the ball to his chest as they fell to the turf, giving the Eagles a 13-3 lead. The 32-yard catch was Sblendorio’s first TD catch at Eastern.

Bourne’s catch was just as spectacular, partly because it came 17 seconds before halftime and gave the Eagles a two-score lead at halftime.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it, so I stuck my (right) hand out and it stuck,” Bourne said of his 34-yard catch.

Montana outgained Eastern, 527 yards to 461.