Eastern’s boat doesn’t need any more rocking

Paul Wulff laughed – momentarily – as he considered inventing a distraction to help his football team prepare for 16th-ranked Northern Arizona.

“Playing Northern Arizona is a big enough issue in itself,” the Eastern Washington head coach said of Saturday’s 2 p.m. game at Woodward Field. “This is the best team we’ve faced. … We need a great week of practice and excellent mental preparation.”

What he doesn’t need is another player quitting, as has happened the past two weeks, or less than ideal hotel accommodations like they encountered in Portland last Friday.

“Sometimes good character thrives on adverse situations,” Wulff noted.

Of course, sometimes it doesn’t and after posting a pair of impressive Big Sky Conference wins, Wulff doesn’t want the Eagles (3-2, 2-0) to push the envelope with the Lumberjacks (2-2, 2-0).

The first distractions were two weeks ago when senior backup offensive guards Jeff Christenson and Matt Doyle decided to quit playing. The Eagles pounded Idaho State 47-22.

Last week sophomore starting defensive lineman Jacob Galstad hung it up. Then there was a meeting and a party in the not-quiet-big-enough Portland hotel Friday night, which encroached on Eastern’s preparations.

“When you get that late in the process before a game, you start focusing in … you don’t want outside distractions,” Wulff said. “You kind of want to have your own mental space, so to speak, time by yourself to make sure you’re starting to channel your thoughts in the right direction. You get disturbed when you’re in an environment that’s not conducive to that. That was more unpredictable than some of the motels we stay in. This didn’t work – that wasn’t the right fit for us.”

If that wasn’t enough, someone broke into three rooms in the early morning hours. In one room, the intruder got away with a few items. They were discovered at a nearby apartment complex several blocks away and returned to the team, minus a cell phone and Game Boy. Occupants woke up in the other rooms and the intruder mumbled that the desk had given him the wrong key and high-tailed it out.

At checkout time, the traveling party downsized from 48 rooms to 43 to wait for the 6 p.m. game.

“The kids did a great job staying focused and our coaches did a good job of channeling their focus in the right direction,” Wulff said. “Our kids were very mature in handling the distractions.”

Obviously. They handled Portland State 41-21.

Eagles nest

The NAU game on Saturday will be shown by KGPX, the PAX affiliate, which is channel 34 for most viewers but can be found on cable channel 8. KGPX is also considering the Sacramento State game on Oct. 30.

Eastern is adding 3,100 temporary seats for next weekend’s home game against seventh-ranked Montana, but less than 1,500 reserve seats remain out of the more than 11,000 capacity. A record crowd of 17,142 attended Eastern’s 2002 game against Montana at Albi Stadium. The Woodward Field record is 6,879 versus Idaho in 1992, which will make this year’s Eagle-Grizzly game the largest event ever held in Cheney. Tickets can be ordered by calling 509-359-4339 or 1-866-4GO-EAGS, or through TicketsWest.

Sky writing

Idaho State held the ball almost twice as long as Montana State, running 93 plays to pile up a 462-326 advantage in yardage, yet they lost 17-13. A big reason was two of the three third-down conversions the Bobcats made in 14 attempts. One was a 56-yard pass on third-and-11 that set up the game-tying touchdown in the third quarter. On a third-and-1 in the fourth it was a game-winning 55-yard TD pass.

NAU is dangerous on both sides of the ball. Sacramento State never got inside the 20 as the blitzing Lumberjacks hassled Ryan Leadingham into 18 of 33 passing for 199 yards and two interceptions in a 26-0 win.