Witherspoon helps EWU feast
It had been a while since Eastern Washington’s Lance Witherspoon had made much of an impact on the football field.
But on Saturday, in a Big Sky Conference game Eastern could not afford to lose, the junior defensive tackle came up big by getting involved in 10 tackles – including four for losses – as the Eagles cruised to a 35-13 upset win over 11th-ranked Montana State at Woodward Field.
“Basically, I was just trying to make plays,” said the 6-foot-2, 255-pounder from Federal Way, Wash., who had missed most of the last three games because of an ankle injury.
He made a ton of them against the Bobcats, who were held to just 22 yards rushing in suffering their first conference loss of the season.
“It was like he threw himself another coming-out party,” senior defensive back Ira Jarmon said of Witherspoon, who played only sparingly in last weekend’s 24-23 road loss to Montana. “Whenever we needed a play to be made, he made the play, and that was huge.
“He’s been having ankle problems, but now he’s back. And, hopefully, he’ll have another big game for us again next week.”
Eagles coach Paul Wulff also praised Witherspoon’s play.
“We’ve missed Lance for a while now,” he said, “and it has hurt us not having him, because when he’s on the field, we’re a better defense.”
Witherspoon and his defensive teammates were at the best in the red zone against MSU, stopping one first-half Bobcats drive with an end zone interception by Makai Borden and limiting them to a field goal after they had driven to Eastern’s 5-yard line on their first possession of the second half.
It was after the Eagles forced MSU to settle for three on that drive that they scored 21 unanswered points to take control of the game.
“We knew that if we got the ball back to our fast-break offense they would do something good,” Witherspoon said of the momentum-changing, third-quarter stop that featured back-to-back sacks of Bobcats quarterback Jack Rolovich. “If we get them the ball enough, they’ll eventually start cooking something up.
“That’s our job – to get the ball back in their hands and let them score.”
“We had a great drive to start the second half,” MSU coach Rob Ash said. “We were glad (Michael) Sweeney made the field goal, but I thought that missed opportunity (for a touchdown) was one of the keys to the game.”
According to Jarmon, Eastern’s defense is at its best when it’s defending in the red zone.
“We know we’ve got to pick up our game and try to get the ball back,” he said. “It was key to not give up the touchdown right then and have them settle for three.”
“It was a big lift,” Eagles quarterback Matt Nichols said of his defense’s red-zone heroics. “Our defense played great – kind of a bend-but-don’t-break kind of thing.”