Mustangs stomp Eagles’ defense

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Eastern Washington’s defense, which had been solid if unspectacular all season, was a no-show Saturday night.

The 11th-ranked Eagles were shredded for 529 yards by 18th-ranked Cal Poly, which had 113 yards a week earlier, in a disheartening, 40-35 loss before 7,901 delirious homecoming fans at Mustang Stadium.

“We didn’t stop them, and when you don’t stop them you don’t win,” Eastern coach Paul Wulff said. “We didn’t play very well.”

Any hope Eastern has of making the I-AA playoffs are probably tied to winning the Big Sky Conference title. The Eagles (5-4) face Montana State Saturday and must beat the Bobcats, then hope the Cats beat the Montana Grizzlies in two weeks. The Cats and Griz are tied for the league lead at 4-1, and the Eagles are 4-2 with a win over Montana.

While the Mustangs (6-3) were doing a great imitation of the Eastern offense, it took the high-powered Eagles offense most of the first half to get untracked.

Unfortunately when they finally found their stride, the game had turned into a track meet, and the Eagles couldn’t catch up.

“Even on offense we struggled early in the ballgame,” Wulff said. “We had chances but didn’t execute well enough early in the game. We had a window of opportunity to score some points, and we didn’t. We were always trying to catch-up, and that put us in some tough situations on offense. And defensively we never did stop them.”

The Eagles, who had allowed more than 30 points just twice and 500 yards once, gave up 40 points and 500 yards in three quarters to a team averaging 306 yards and 27 points a game. Cal Poly did this damage a week after failing to score an offensive touchdown in a 30-13 loss at UC-Davis.

San Jose beat Eastern 35-24 in the season opener with 543 yards of offense.

The Mustangs, who converted just 1 of 14 third-down plays last week, were an impressive 10 of 16 against EWU.

“We missed some tackles and they broke some tackles,” Wulff said. “We couldn’t stop the option and rally to the ball. You have to give them credit. They didn’t turn the ball over much and played a lot better than they did a week ago.”

Cal Poly forced a three-and-out after Eastern took possession to start the second half. The Mustangs went 80 yards to make it 26-7 after Nick Coromelas hit the upright for the second straight PAT. From then on, each time Cal Poly scored, the Eagles countered, but each time the EWU defense made a stop, the Mustangs did the same until it was too late.

The Eagles made it 40-28 with 10:04 remaining when Erik Meyer and Eric Kimble connected on a 3-yard touchdown, but when Cal Poly got the ball back, the defense couldn’t come through.

Cal Poly converted two third-down plays with 11-yard runs by freshman James Noble, who torched Eastern for 221 yards. Then on a third-down stop the Eagles were called for a facemask penalty. By the time the Eagles forced a punt only 3:33 remained, and they were out of timeouts.

It took Meyer only three plays, hitting Kimble for 15, Raul Vijil for 30 and Craig McIntyre for 35 to score, making it 40-35 with 3:02 to play.

Jason Holmes recovered Sheddle Weddle’s onside kick and the Eagles never got the ball back. The Mustangs converted on a third-and-5, and the Eagles couldn’t come up with the ball when Brennan fumbled the snap on the next play. Brennan, who threw for 157 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 72 yards and two more scores, had to handle one more snap to run the clock out.

Meyer was at a loss to explain the first-half troubles.

“I don’t know, I have no idea, actually,” he said. “We just seemed out of sync, I have no clue. We just didn’t play well.”

Eastern finished with 521 yards of offense as Meyer threw for 428, 325 in the second half. Vijil had eight catches for 164 yards, Kimble eight for 101 and McIntyre seven for 160 and two touchdowns, all in the second half. The game marked career-highs for Vijil and McIntyre in Meyer’s fourth 400-yard passing game.

Cal Poly 40, E. Washington 35

CP—Brennan 2 run (Coromelas kick)

CP—Braden 3 pass from Brennan (Coromelas kick)

CP—Brennan 9 run (kick failed)

EW—R.Cole 14 run (Weddle kick)

CP—George 21 run (kick failed)

EW—McIntyre 47 pass from Meyer (Weddle kick)

CP—Barden 48 pass from Brennan (Coromelas kick)

EW—R.Cole 16 run (Weddle kick)

CP—Noble 74 run (Coromelas kick)

EW—Kimble 3 pass from Meyer (Weddle kick)

EW—McIntyre 35 pass from Meyer (Weddle kick)

A—7,901.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Eastern Washington, R.Cole 16-78, Morris 7-21, Meyer 9-(minus 6). Cal Poly, Noble 19-221, Brennan 22-72, George 2-26, Russell 3-21, Hives II 5-19, Konaris 2-18, Team 2-(minus 5).

PASSING—Eastern Washington, Meyer 26-38-1-428. Cal Poly, Brennan 8-21-1-157.

RECEIVING—Eastern Washington, Vijil 9-164, Kimble 8-101, McIntyre 7-160, Calhoun 1-5, R.Cole 1-(minus 2). Cal Poly, Barden 4-76, Russell 2-59, Hives II 1-19, Holmes 1-3.