Eastern Washington’S Touchdown Hijinks Not A Big Hit With Wulff

For the 9,747 fans in Bobcat Stadium, the biggest play in Eastern Washington’s 20-14 road win over Montana State last Saturday was also the most entertaining.

For Eastern coach Paul Wulff, it was simply the most perplexing.

The play, a blocked field goal that resulted in Alvin Tolliver’s 67-yard return for the winning touchdown late in the third quarter, featured a little bit of everything - most of which involved Eagles strong safety Julian Williams.

Williams, a 196-pound senior, was responsible for blocking Ryan Wilcox’s 20-yard kick, sprinting downfield to level the last MSU defender in Tolliver’s way and drawing Wulff’s wrath by standing over Shaun Ross, the Bobcat he had de-cleated, and taunting him.

Then, right in the middle of his victory dance, Williams was blindsided by one of Ross’ teammates, 250-pound Jon Montoya, who had apparently had enough of Williams’ antics.

Surprisingly, all of the theatrics went unnoticed - or at least unpenalized - by the officiating crew. But away from all the real action, a flag was dropped on Tolliver, who spiced up his return by diving into the end zone.

An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Tolliver was stepped off prior to the conversion try and when the Eagles were flagged for illegal procedure prior to the kick, Troy Griggs ended up missing a 40-yard PAT attempt that could have proven very costly.

Wulff wasn’t enamored with the conduct of his players. “I wasn’t very happy about how (Williams) stood over (Ross), and I let him know,” Wulff said. “It’s hard when emotions run high and someone makes an emotional play to ream a kid, but at the same time, that’s not what we’re all about, and it’s not Julian.

“I think they were frustrated because they knew we weren’t playing well. And Alvin jumping into the end zone? Those were two dumb plays, but at the same time, (Williams and Tolliver) made plays. They just used poor judgment.

“Fortunately, it didn’t come back to haunt us.”

Been there, Dunn that

After rushing for 324 yards and three TDs in a 40-35 non-conference win over Hofstra, Portland State senior running back Charles Dunn was named the Division I-AA offensive player of the week by The Sports Network, ESPN/ USA Today and Teamlink.

Dunn, 5-8 and 185, has rushed for 1,049 yards and 10 touchdowns and leads I-AA with an average of 209.8 yards per game.

Quick kicks

The Big Sky Conference continues to have four teams ranked in The Sports Network I-AA poll. Portland State (5-0) is ranked No. 2 behind defending national champion Georgia Southern. Montana (4-1) is sixth, Eastern Washington (4-2) 20th and Idaho State (4-1) 25th… . EWU’s injury-riddled offensive line received an emotional lift Saturday when 6-6, 310-pound junior transfer David Sherrod, a projected starter during fall camp, made his debut midway through the win at Montana State after missing the first five games with a knee injury… . Idaho State (4-1) is off to its best start since 1995 when the Bengals won their first five games only to lose their next five and finish 6-5.