Ewu Defense Rules Wulff Expected Lopsided Outcome In First Scrimmage

Eastern Washington University football coach Paul Wulff wasn’t necessarily disappointed that he watched a scoreless scrimmage Saturday afternoon at Woodward Stadium in Cheney.

A veteran defense - led by seniors Dario Romero and Julian Williams - held Eagles offensive squads to 191 yards. The defense also recorded 10 quarterback sacks that totaled 56 yards of losses.

“I’m actually happy it was this way instead of the offense running up and down the field on the defense,” said Wulff, whose team opens the season Sept. 2 at Oregon State.

“Defenses should be ahead of the offense at this point, and I’m happy that was the case. But our offense needs to make some serious strides this next week so that heading into Oregon State we can execute the way we want.”

The offense came close to scoring on one drive, getting the ball to the defense’s 13-yard line on a 43-yard screen pass from starting quarterback Fred Salanoa to running back Jesse Chatman. However, the drive ended on third down at the 4-yard line when coaches respotted the ball to begin another series of plays.

“It was a very controlled scrimmage,” said Wulff, whose team will hold its second and final scrimmage on Friday at 3 p.m. at Woodward Stadium. “Nothing was designed to score touchdowns. It was designed to execute and see where we’re at after the first week. Next week we’ll do a lot more situational things, and we will treat it as much like a game as possible.

“And we’ll try to score touchdowns.”

Starting defensive tackle David Alcala led the defense with seven tackles, including four quarterback sacks. Central Valley High School graduate Jeff Allen added five tackles and three sacks from his end position, and Romero, a tackle, chipped in five tackles, a pair of sacks and batted down a pass.

Williams, a starting safety who had a pair of tackles Saturday, and Romero are eligible after completing their bachelor’s degrees this summer. Recent NCAA legislation now gives “non-qualifiers” out of high school the opportunity to regain a year of eligibility if they graduate in four years. As nonqualifiers, they originally had a year of eligibility taken away from them by the NCAA.

“Those two guys bring a huge maturity factor and experience to our team,” Wulff said. “If we didn’t have them we would still be a good defensive football team, but they obviously make us a lot better.

“The defense is definitely ahead of the offense right now,” he added. “But they still have a ways to go even though they have made good progress. We have experience on defense and it should be one of our strengths this year. As long as they come out and play hard and we stay healthy, we have a chance to be awfully good on defense.”

Chatman finished with 31 yards on six carries for the offense, with starting running back Jovan Griffith adding 36 on four rushes. Mario Sweet, a talented third-string running back, added 28 on five carries.

Salanoa completed 7 of 12 passes for 72 yards and a pair of interceptions. Backup Chris Samms was 3 of 8 for five yards. Freshman Neal Sharma completed 3 of 4 for 39 yards.

Joe Levens was the leading receiver with three catches for 16 yards.

“Offensively we need to continue to improve,” Wulff said. “But we believe by the first game we should be where we need to be. We have to get consistency from our quarterbacks and our offensive line.”

Injury update

Eastern received a blow Saturday when University of Memphis transfer David Sherrod - a starter at offensive tackle - went down with a knee injury. He will have a MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the injury. Eastern is already thin at tackle as James Venters continues to struggle with a year-old kneecap injury.

“We’re hoping David’s injury isn’t serious,” said Wulff. “It’s really tough because tackle is a thin spot for us. He’ll be back, but it’s definitely not an area where we want to have an injury.”