EWU speaks volumes
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – If it were up to Paul Wulff, the word “playoffs” would be banned from his football team’s vocabulary. That’s the last thing Wulff wanted his squad thinking about before its matchup with Northern Arizona.
Instead, Wulff preached to his team all week about getting off to a quick start and having his defense make some big plays and even find its way into the end zone for the first time.
It turns out Wulff’s squad listened as the Eagles came away with a 52-24 win over the Lumberjacks and kept their playoff hopes very much alive.
On the third play from scrimmage, Northern Arizona quarterback Lance Kriesien dropped back to throw deep in his own territory on third down. He spotted running back Lionel Scott and tried to dump it off to him. Instead, defensive end Jason Belford stepped in front of Scott and picked off the pass and walked in from 4 yards out to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead, just more than a minute into the game.
“In our meetings last night we talked about how our defense hasn’t scored a touchdown all year, so that was kind of a focus for them coming in,” quarterback Matt Nichols said. “They wanted to make a big play and get us on the board, and then less than two minutes in, they put up some points for us. That sparked us for the whole game.”
It turns out, the Eagles were just getting warmed up.
After forcing the Lumberjacks to a three-and-out, the Eagles wasted no time getting on the scoreboard again. This time, it was the offense. Nicholls found receiver Aaron Boyce open near the goal line. Boyce caught the ball before fumbling it into the end zone, but tight end Tom McAndrews pounced on the ball and recovered it for a touchdown.
Northern Arizona scored on its next possession courtesy of a 55-yard pass from Kriesien to receiver Alex Watson to make it 14-7. Eastern came right back and scored on its first play on the next drive, when Nichols found Shane Eller short over the middle, and Eller turned upfield and took it all the way for an 80-yard touchdown.
“That was huge,” Belford said. “We stressed a lot about being able to respond in situations. Our main thing is always being able to attack adversity. What better way could you have done that?”
The Eagles tacked on one more score in the first quarter to give themselves a 28-7 cushion heading into the second quarter.
From there, it was smooth sailing. The Eagles scored at will, as Nichols finished with 316 yards and five touchdown passes.
For the second straight week, the Eagles had a rusher run for more than 100 yards. After A.J Jimerson ran for 100 yards last week against Northern Colorado, Dale Morris ran for 109 yards on 16 carries and added a score.
The Eagles sit at 7-3 on the season and 5-2 in conference with a hot Weber State team on deck for next week. The Eagles know the playoffs are in their sights, but they won’t be talking about it.
“There hasn’t been any kind of talk around the locker room about the playoffs,” Nichols said. “It’s something the coaches have told us not to talk about. They don’t want the word playoffs used. We have a 0-0 record and now have to beat Weber. We’ll see what happens after that.”