Defense salvages Eastern

The team that plays best usually wins – but not always.

This turned out to be a good thing for Eastern Washington University on Saturday, as the Eagles survived a dreadful first half and overall languid performance to turn back Big Sky Conference football foe Northern Colorado 17-7, keeping their playoff hopes on life support.

A muffed punt by UNC and a couple of big defensive plays helped the 24th-ranked Eagles (6-3 overall, 4-2 in the Big Sky) avoid a potentially embarrassing loss to the Bears (1-9, 1-5) in front of a homecoming crowd of 5,215 at Woodward Field.

“It was just one of those things where we came out and weren’t ready to go at the beginning,” said Matt Nichols, Eastern’s sophomore quarterback. “Fortunately,” Nichols added, “our defense came out, like they’ve done all year, and kept us in it.”

On a day when Nichols, the Big Sky’s top-rated passer, threw for a meager 172 yards and one touchdown, Eastern’s defense forced two Northern Colorado turnovers inside its 5-yard line and pitched a second-half shutout to help offset an otherwise flat performance.

The Eagles, trailing 7-0 at the time, got their first big defensive stop early in the second quarter when middle linebacker Makai Borden, following a short shovel pass, separated UNC’s Ryan Chesia from the football at EWU’s 1-yard line and then flopped on top of it.

The second big stop turned out to be the clincher. Early in the fourth period when junior cornerback Ryan Kelley – with the Eagles leading 10-7 – celebrated his first start at Eastern by stepping in front of Bears receiver Brandon Smith and picking off a Dominic Breazeale pass on his own 2-yard line.

“Actually, it was a good call by our defensive coordinator (Jody Sears),” Kelley said of his big interception. “We were in Cover 2 and their wide receiver ran very wide. We were taught in practice that if he went wide to sink with him and try to squeeze him out of bounds and stay underneath.

“I knew I had help over the top, so that’s what I did.”

Following Kelley’s interception, UNC forced Eastern to punt from its own 35 and was still in position to pull off the upset. But after return specialist Cory Fauver muffed the kick, EWU’s Nicholas Ramos recovered on the Bears’ 31. When the Eagles used a 29-yard pass from Nichols to Aaron Boyce and 2-yard run by Dale Morris to score with just less than 9 minutes left, the issue was pretty well decided.

“Huge plays, obviously,” Eagles coach Paul Wulff said, “and we needed all of them, because we came out very flat. We didn’t respond and play well the first half, and they really took it to us – just dominated the line of scrimmage.

“We were fortunate today to not play a good football game and still win.”

Nichols, who left the game later in fourth quarter after taking a big hit on a first-down scramble, seemed out of synch throughout much of the game. He missed open receivers and threw an ugly interception that stopped a promising drive on Eastern’s first possession.

He completed 14 of 23 passes, was sacked three times and finished the game with 126 fewer passing yards than the 298 he was averaging coming in.

“It just wasn’t a good day,” Wulff said when asked to assess Nichols’ performance. “Good thing our running game kind of got untracked. Once that happed, we seemed to get some rhythm on offense, which helped.”

Junior fullback A.J. Jimerson finished with 100 yards on 11 carries for the Eagles, while junior running back Dale Morris added 65 yards on 17 carries.

Northern Colorado, which snapped a 16-game losing streak and picked up its first conference win as a second-year member of the Big Sky by edging Montana State 16-13 last weekend, was paced by junior running back David Woods. Woods finished with 102 yards rushing and the Bears’ only touchdown.

UNC quarterback Dominic Breazeale completed 18 of 26 passes for 146 yards, which gave Bears coach Scott Downing plenty of reason to praise his team’s effort.

“Save for the turnovers, we played better this week than we did last week against Montana State,” said Downing, whose team is in only its second year as a member of the Big Sky and the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision. “Make no mistake – the team we played today is a good, solid football team.” They’re not a bunch of rum dumbs out here playing us.

“But our kids are working hard and continued to get better.”

A fact that did not go unnoticed by Nichols, who said, “They were definitely a lot tougher than we thought,” Nichols said. “They’ve really improved from last year and have transformed from a D-II team to a team that’s able to compete in the Big Sky.”

“They’re playing well right now.”

Montana 34, Portland State 31: Cole Bergquist passed for 305 yards and two TDs to Mike Ferriter and the Grizzlies’ defense held the Vikings’ offense scoreless in the second half for a victory at Missoula.

Northern Arizona 29, Montana State 14: At Bozeman, Cyrus Igono blocked three punts in the third quarter to help the Lumberjacks beat the Bobcats.

Weber State 52, Idaho State 37: At Ogden, Utah, Trevyn Smith scored a career-high five touchdowns to lead the Wildcats over the Bengals.

UC Davis 31, Sacramento State 26: At Sacramento, Calif., Matt Engle threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Aggies over the Hornets.