Eagles Win In A Runaway Substitute Back Gains 172 Yards As Eastern Handles Weber State

There were indications earlier in the week that Eastern Washington coach Mike Kramer believed strongly in Mike MacKenzie, his backup running back.

But Kramer’s ultimate show of trust came just minutes before Saturday night’s important Big Sky Conference matchup against Weber State when he decided to take injured starter Rex Prescott out of uniform after watching him warm up.

MacKenzie, in turn, rewarded Kramer’s trust with a stunningly productive performance that helped the Eagles breeze past the Wildcats 35-11 in front of a Woodward Stadium crowd of 3,574.

MacKenzie, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior, shredded Weber’s defense for a career-high 172 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries as 17th-ranked Eastern raised its overall record to 4-0 and its Big Sky mark to 2-0.

He scored on runs of 11 and 56 yards and finished with the 16th-highest single-game rushing total in EWU history, despite leaving the game with just more than 4 minutes left in the third quarter after being poked in the eye and suffering a mild concussion while being dragged down by his face mask.

Kramer said he expected MacKenzie to be healthy for next Saturday’s game at Montana State. MacKenzie did not talk to reporters after the game, but there was no shortage of friends willing to praise his effort.

“I think Mike knows that it’s his time,” said Kramer. “He has a lot of talent and he’s paid his dues. I can’t say I was impressed with him, because I know he’s capable of doing what he did. But I do think he has added to our legacy at tailback.”

Quarterback Harry Leons said MacKenzie “ran great.

“He really stepped up and exploded into the holes,” Leons added. “Sometimes when a starter goes down, you don’t expect a second-stringer to step in and do that well, but he really answered the call.”

Even Prescott, who said he’ll be back next Saturday after suffering a mild shoulder separation in last weekend’s 31-14 win at Portland State, jumped on MacKenzie’s bandwagon.

“He’s just a great running back,” he said. “Some of the runs he made were phenomenal. It was great watching him step in and do what he did.”

It wasn’t exactly a coming-out party for MacKenzie, who showed startling quickness and evasiveness as well as power. The Vancouver, British Columbia, native came into the game as the Big Sky’s leading rusher with an average of 98 yards per game, but many of his yards came in EWU’s first two games against NAIA opponents.

Kramer announced Wednesday that he felt comfortable with MacKenzie and redshirt freshman Nick Freese as the top two running backs on his depth chart. Freese, on the first play after MacKenzie was injured, broke loose for a 9-yard touchdown run that made the score 35-3. He finished with 54 yards on 12 carries.

Nearly overshadowed by MacKenzie’s big numbers were several other splendid individual efforts and dominant performances by Eastern’s lines.

Leons completed 18 of 31 passes for a career-high 279 yards and two touchdowns in less than three quarters. Senior wide receiver Steve Correa caught both of Leon’s scoring passes of 24 and 25 yards and finished with 119 yards on five receptions.

And punter Tom Zurfluh managed to crowd onto the long list of heroes by booming a school-record 69-yard punt late in the third period.

But none of the above - including MacKenzie - could have accomplished what they did without some simply devastating blocking.

The Eagles finished with 534 yards of total offense, 255 of which came on the ground.

Defensively, they limited Weber (2-2, 1-1) to 362 yards, most of which came after the outcome was no longer in doubt.

Weber State quarterback Steve Buck threw for 326 yards and one score, but he was sacked seven times.

EWU 35, Weber St. 11

Weber St. 0 3 0 8 11

E. Washington 0 21 14 0 35 EWUCorrea 24 pass from Leons (Atwood kick), 14:49 EWUMacKenzie 11 run (Atwood kick), 12:47 EWUCorrea 25 pass from Leons (Atwood kick), 7:54 WSUShields 29 field goal, 00:54 EWUMacKenzie 56 run (Atwood kick), 11:57 EWUFreese 9 run (Atwood kick), 4:04 WSUHarlan 68 pass from Buck (Quayle pass), 13:45 A3,574. WSU EWU First downs 15 26 Rushes-yards 26-22 41-255 Passing 340 279 Comp-Att-Int 25-49-1 18-33-1 Return Yards 101 27 Punts-Avg. 8-43 6-46 Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2 Penalties-Yards 7-79 6-46 Time of Possession 28:40 31:20 RUSHING-WSU, Poole 11-45, Rubin 5-15, Heupel 1-minus 2, Buck 9-minus 36. EWU MacKenzie 22-172, Freese 12-54, Cappelletti 6-38, Garske 1-minus 9.

PASSING-WSU, Buck 23-43-326, Heupel 2-6-14. EWU, Leons 18-31-279, Garske 0-2-0.

RECEIVING-WSU, McGhee 10-169, Quayle 9-50, Harlan 3-30, Clarke 2-19, English 1-12. EWU, Correa 5-119, Ogden 5-75, MacKenzie 3-44, Mitchell 3-23, Ballew 2-18.

, DataTimes