Eagles Have Plenty Riding On Final Game Ewu’S Main Incentive Is To Post Third Winning Season In A Row

Eastern Washington’s 1998 football commencement exercises will be held today - with little pomp and even less circumstance in Cedar City, Utah.

It is there that eight seniors on coach Mike Kramer’s roster will pull on an EWU jersey for the final time when the Eagles (5-5 overall, 4-4 Big Sky Conference) close the season with a non-conference game against Division I-AA independent Southern Utah (4-6).

Kickoff is set for noon at Eccles Coliseum where both schools, which are meeting for the first time, hope to write positive endings to disappointing seasons.

Eastern is coming off a 27-23 loss to Weber State and has a winning season riding on the outcome. If the Eagles can stop SUU’s spread option and pick up the victory, they will post their third consecutive winning season for the first time since 1986.

Southern Utah is hoping to stop a late-season slide that has included three losses in their last four games, but coach C. Ray Gregory is hinting that his Thunderbirds might be in a little over their heads.

“They are really fast, particularly in the secondary and in the skill positions,” Gregory said of the Eagles. “Watching tape, it’s just zip, zip, whoosh … and we know how speed kills.

“Right now, we’re playing hard, but we’re having a tough time finding a way to win.”

The Thunderbirds opened the season by shocking Montana 45-35 in Missoula, but lost All-American fullback Brook Madsen to a broken arm in the closing minutes of the upset.

Madsen, a 225-pound senior, has not played since, but he started working out again earlier this week and could return today.

Without Madsen, SUU has gone 0-2 against Big Sky opposition, losing to Cal State Northridge 44-14 and Idaho State 50-33. Eastern lost to Northridge 38-35, but crushed Idaho State 44-13.