Kramer Has Team On Task

The only thing standing between Eastern Washington and the automatic Division I-AA playoff berth awarded annually to the Big Sky Conference champion is a home game against a .500 team.

But coach Mike Kramer, whose Eagles are 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Big Sky, is approaching Saturday afternoon’s 1:05 Woodward Stadium matchup against Cal State Northridge as anything but a lock.

And with good reason.

The Matadors (5-5 overall, 3-3 Big Sky) might be the most dangerous .500 I-AA team in the country, considering their two non-conference losses came to Division-I opponents Hawaii and New Mexico State and two of their three Big Sky defeats came while record-setting quarterback Aaron Flowers was sidelined with a broken leg.

As a result, Kramer gave his Eagles little time to celebrate following last Saturday’s 31-14 road win over Northern Arizona that clinched at least a share of the conference title.

“The last thing you want to do is not be prepared for a game where you’re probably going to be favored against a team that can torch you, make you look bad and wreck all the celebrations that might have already been planned in your minds,” he said. “We have to be driven and focused and get back on the wagon.

“As for now, we have to live of the moment, and that moment is Cal State Northridge.”

Flowers, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior, threw for 500 yards and five touchdowns in leading Northridge to a 49-27 win over the Eagles last fall. The 22-point loss was the worst of the season for EWU, which lost its other four games by a combined total of just 19 points.

This year, Flowers has thrown for 2,470 yards and 20 touchdowns in just seven games. His total offense average of 352.9 yards per game would rank No. 1 in the nation if he had played in 75 percent of his team’s 10 games.

But even if Northridge pulls off an upset Saturday, the Eagles can still earn the Big Sky’s automatic playoff berth if Montana State (5-4, 4-2), the only team to beat EWU this season, loses to either Cal State Sacramento this weekend or defending conference champion Montana next weekend.

Productive seniors

In its last two wins over Idaho and NAU, Eastern Washington has amassed 972 yards of total offense.

Senior quarterback Harry Leons and senior running back Rex Prescott have accounted for 946 - or 98 percent - of those yards.

Youth movement

Conventional wisdom would suggest the time for beating up on Portland State is now, because the youthful Vikings (4-6, 3- 4) look like the league’s team of the future.

In last Saturday’s 37-7 loss to Montana, tailback Charles Dunn ran for 100 yards to become the first freshman in school history to rush for more than 1,000 in a season. In addition, freshman wide receiver Orshawante Bryant has caught 32 passes for 407 yards - while averaging 30.5 yards per kickoff return, and freshman quarterback Jimmy Blanchard has thrown for 944 yards in just seven games.

Straight talk

Montana coach Mick Dennehy didn’t mince words in explaining the motivation behind last Saturday’s rout of PSU.

“I think Portland State honestly used this football game to gauge where they are in the Big Sky Conference,” Dennehy said after the game. “And we told our kids … ‘Let’s show them where they are, that they’re not ready to play with us.”’

Quick kicks

Brian Ah Yat’s 93-yard scoring pass to Jim Farris in Montana’s win over PSU was the longest in the school’s history, besting the 90-yard scoring strike Dave Dickenson threw to Matt Wells in 1995. The crowd of 12,387 that watched the game was PSU’s largest since 1994 when 14,016 witnessed the Vikings’ 48-16 rout of Southern Utah… . Northridge is trying to add San Jose State, a Division I school, to its 1998 schedule and might succeed since San Jose is coached by former Matador coach Dave Baldwin.

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