Ewu Regains Its Strength Prescott, Mackenzie Power Eagles To 30-17 Win Over Sacramento State

Eastern Washington was still nursing a hangover from last weekend’s upset loss at Montana State, so it proceeded accordingly during Saturday’s 30-17 win over Sacramento State.

The Eagles started with slow, measured steps - like someone trying to feel their way to the medicine cabinet for an aspirin. But by the time the rain, wind and hail had subsided and most of those in a Woodward Stadium crowd of 2,445 had left in search of shelter, coach Mike Kramer’s team had accomplished what it set out to do.

With running back Rex Prescott rushing for a career-high 201 yards and Mike MacKenzie, his backup, adding 101, the 19th-ranked Eagles fashioned a workman-like win that kept them well-positioned in the Big Sky Conference standings and heaped even more importance on next Saturday’s showdown against No. 2-ranked Montana in Missoula.

Eastern (5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Sky) put up 221 of its 283 rushing yards after intermission, wearing down the younger, less-experienced Hornets (1-4, 1-2) behind a steady barrage of traps, counters and straight dive plays.

In extending their shaky 14-10 halftime lead, the Eagles held the ball for nearly 21 minutes and scored 16 points on the second of Griffin Garske’s two TD passes - a 5-yard flip to backup tight end Lance Ballew - and three Josh Atwood field goals.

Garske, making his first start of the year in place of injured senior Harry Leons, also threw a 24-yard scoring pass to Joe Mitchell in the first half.

“We still have a lot of angst and concern left over from the Montana State loss that we really haven’t gotten out of our blood,” Kramer said after the game. “We didn’t play with the type of fresh enthusiasm we should play with on game day, but we found ourselves offensively and got into a rhythm in the second half that we basically lacked last week.”

Prescott, who scored Eastern’s first touchdown on a 2-yard run, carried 30 times and averaged 6.7 yards per carry.

“That was a much better game than last week,” he said after becoming only the seventh EWU rusher to gain more than 200 yards in a game. “The offensive line really did a good job of knocking them off the ball.

“Those holes were so big, man, anybody could have run through them.”

Particularly noticeable was the savage blocking of right tackle Jim Buzzard and center Kevin Peterson, who helped Prescott and MacKenzie become the first players in school history to each rush for more than 100 yards in one game.

“I guess we did something for the record books today,” said Buzzard, a 6-foot-3, 260-pound senior. “After last week, we had to prove something to ourselves. We had to go out and be convincing, and I think we were.”

Eastern’s defense limited the Hornets to 11 first downs and 305 yards of total offense - more than one-third of which came on a couple of long catch-and-run plays by Carlos Smith.

“After we lost to Montana State, the D-line came in and pretty much resolved ourselves to not letting anything like that happen again,” said senior defensive tackle Chris Scott, who had a hand in six tackles.

Smith, who finished with six receptions for 163 yards, caught a 57-yard first-quarter pass that set up the Hornets’ first TD and pulled down another bomb from quarterback A.J. Bernhardt, this one covering 47 yards for a third-quarter touchdown.

Bernhardt threw for 219 yards, but completed only 11 of 30 passes. He also handed Eastern its first touchdown by throwing an interception on the game’s first play from scrimmage.

Eastern’s Maurice Perigo picked off the errant pass at the Hornets’ 36-yard line and Prescott scored six plays later.

Mitchell’s touchdown catch, which came with just over 4 minutes left in the first period and put the Eagles up 14-7, was a showstopper. The 6-3 senior leaped high to tip the ball away from a Hornet defender and then made a one-handed catch while falling near the back-right corner of the end zone.

Garske starting in place of Leons, who was held out because of a concussion suffered last Saturday, completed 11 of 18 passes for 137 yards.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: EWU 30, Sac. St. 17 Sacramento St. 7 3 7 0 17 E. Washington 14 0 10 6 30 EWUPrescott 2 run (Atwood kick), 12:16 SACRoberts 1 run (Brown kick), 9:08 EWUMitchell 24 pass from Garske (Atwood kick), 1:57 SACFG Brown 41, 5:17 EWUFG Atwood 29, 11:13 EWUBallew 5 pass from Garske (Atwood kick), 3:42 SACSmith 47 pass from Bernhardt (Brown kick), 2:44 EWUFG Atwood 20, 12:45 EWUFG Atwood 22, 6:27 A2,445

Sac EWU First downs 11 25 Rushes-yards 29-86 57-283 Passing 219 145 Comp-Att-Int 11-30-1 12-19-0 Return Yards 75 84 Punts-Avg. 7-44.6 5-41.8 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0 Penalties-Yards 9-108 6-45 Time of Possession 24:26 35:34 RUSHINGSacramento St, Roberts 20-62, Bernhardt 8-21, Taylor 1-3. E. Washington, Prescott 30-201, McKenzie 18-101, Garske 9-(minus 19). PASSING-Sacramento St., Bernhardt 11-30-1-219. E. Washington, Garske 11-18-0-137, Zurfluh 1-1-0-8. RECEIVING-Sacramento St., Smith 6-163, Roberts 2-16, Messer 1-15, Mitchell 1-13, Kool 1-12. E. Washington, Correa 3-50, Mitchell 2-31, Ogden 2-28, Prescott 2-27, Williams 1-8, Ballew 1-5, McKenzie 1-(minus 4).