Pac-10 Honors Cougs’ Darling

Washington State linebacker James Darling, Southern Cal quarterback Kyle Wachholtz and Stanford kick returner Marlon Evans have been named Pacific-10 Conference players of the week.

Darling, a junior from Kettle Falls and a first-year starter, had a game-high 12 tackles, nine of them unassisted, and forced a fumble in the Cougars’ 24-15 win over UCLA on Saturday.

Wachholtz threw for three touchdowns in Southern Cal’s 31-10 victory over Arizona. Playing only the second and fourth quarters while splitting the quarterback position with Brad Otton, he completed 8 of 9 passes for 138 yards.

Evans returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, breaking a third quarter tie, as Stanford beat Oregon. He leads the nation in kickoff returns with a 46-yard average.

Bengals ranked, too

Some luster was added to Saturday’s Idaho-Idaho State game in Pocatello when the Bengals crept into The Sports Network Division I-AA poll at No. 24.

ISU (3-0) made the rankings for the first time since 1983, which is also the last time an ISU team sported a 3-0 record. The Vandals (1-1) remained No. 13 after their second bye week of the season.

Current ISU streaks: Five straight wins (two from 1994 season) for the first time since 1981 and four straight home wins for the first time since 1985. This at a school that has struggled mightily since winning the national championship in 1981.

Saturday’s game, the Big Sky opener for both teams, begins at 11 a.m. PST at Holt Arena and will be televised live on Prime Sports. Idaho has won the last seven games in the series, never scoring below 41 points.

Montana (3-1) moved up a spot in the poll to fifth after clubbing Boise State 54-28. BSU (2-1) dropped from third to 11th. Northern Arizona (3-1) is at No. 20.

Injury front

The good news from Eastern Washington’s 14-6 loss to Portland State on Saturday is that the Eagles didn’t suffer any major injuries.

However, EWU had hoped offensive lineman Ken Henningsen would be able to play against Weber State this Saturday, but he’ll be held out after having arthroscopic knee surgery last week. Linebacker Terry Cloer won’t play this weekend after suffering a concussion in practice two weeks ago. He’s having complications from the injury that have coaches concerned.

EWU coach Mike Kramer plans on making a couple of personnel changes. Joe Sewell will start at running back in place of David Lewis. However, Lewis and Rex Prescott should see time.

Sewell has seen extensive playing time this season as a substitute for Lewis. A senior, Sewell missed last season with a knee injury, but has been impressive in three games this season.

And senior Jay Day probably will start in front of Doug Dorton at free safety.

Idaho’s James Durrough, a freshman linebacker, had surgery Thursday on a torn knee ligament and will miss the rest of the season. Idaho will attempt to receive a medical redshirt so Durrough doesn’t lose a year of eligibility.

Vandals running back Joel Thomas is expected to play Saturday. He had arthroscopic knee surgery two weeks ago.

Award tossed at Dickenson

In the no-brainer decision of the week, Montana quarterback Dave Dickenson, who set a school record with six touchdown passes in Saturday’s drubbing of Boise State, was named the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week.

Dickenson was 26 of 38 for 383 yards as the Grizzlies thundered BSU before a record 18,505 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula.

The defensive award went to Northern Arizona tackle Jerome Herring, who registered 10 tackles and three sacks in a 68-7 drubbing of Cal State-Northridge.

MSU’s Kenyatte Morgan claimed special teams honors with a 72-yard punt return for a score in a 45-14 win over Southwest Texas.

Garske heading to EWU

Former Mead High School quarterback Griffin Garske has left Utah State to enroll at Eastern Washington, where he will begin football practice with the scout team this week, Kramer said Monday.

Garske will redshirt this season, Kramer said. Garske was a record-setting quarterback in the Greater Spokane League, as was current EWU starter and former University High standout Brian Sherick.

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