Eagles return, knock off SUU

CEDAR CITY, Utah – Returning to the site of its last conference loss, Eastern Washington made sure history didn’t repeat itself. The Eagles shook off a slow start to pull away from Southern Utah in the second half and pick up a 42-30 road victory.

Playing without junior quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., who is out for three to six weeks with broken bones in his foot, the EWU offense hardly skipped a beat, tallying 568 yards, as it was effective on the ground and through the air.

After trailing 7-0 and 14-7 in the first quarter, the Eagles (6-1, 3-0) took the lead for good when sophomore QB Jordan West connected with Kendrick Bourne from 15 yards out for their second touchdown with 2:12 remaining in the first half. West finished 20 of 27 for 288 yards and three touchdowns in relief of Adams.

“It was gutsy. That’s the best thing I can say,” EWU coach Beau Baldwin said of his quarterback’s performance. “We knew he was talented, we’ve seen it every day in practice – live arm, understands the concepts, can make the throws, make the reads. He was just gutsy. … He looked like a poised guy that has played a lot of football, and that’s a tribute to his mental toughness. He did a great job.”

Bourne was West’s favorite target on the day, hauling in five passes for 90 yards and the two touchdowns.

As solid as the offense played, it was Eastern Washington’s defense that was the story of the game.

SUU quarterback Ammon Olsen was constantly under pressure and was eventually knocked out of the game with an injury to his non-throwing arm.

While the T-birds had success in the early going, the Eagles stiffened up after the first quarter. Freshman cornerback Victor Gamboa recorded two interceptions, including one at the Eagles’ 4-yard line to get the ball back just one play after West threw his only interception of the game.

“Of course there’s always going to be those first quarter or first series nerves, and I got those out of the way and I started to feel good and it started to slow down for me. I’m just ecstatic,” West said. “Once we started rolling, our defense was killing it. The offensive line was just blowing open holes, I mean both of our running backs (combined) for over 200 yards. It was a great day.”

On the ensuing Southern Utah possession, Tevin McDonald blocked a Thunderbirds punt, which was recovered by Terence Grady at the T-birds’ 15-yard line. That possession led to Bourne’s go-ahead touchdown just before the half.

After allowing an SUU field goal in the final seconds of the second quarter, the Eagles took the second half kickoff and quickly drove to a 1-yard touchdown run by Jalen Moore for a 28-17 lead.

Moore carried the ball 22 times for a career-high 134 yards. Teammate Mario Brown wasn’t far behind, with 22 carries for 133 yards and two scores. All told, the Eagles amassed 280 yards on the ground.

Southern Utah (1-6, 1-1) responded with a 74-yard strike from Olsen to Chris Robinson to pull the Thunderbirds within four, as the Eagles had a breakdown in coverage on the play.

“(I’m) extremely pleased (with the defensive performance). We created a couple key turnovers, got some stops,” Baldwin said. “We had one blown play in the second half, but other than that they were getting stop after stop. It was a total team effort, and the defense I thought, against an offense that’s very capable, they took it to another level.”

That’s as close as the upset-minded T-birds would get though, as the Eastern Washington offense would not be stopped. Gamboa recorded his second interception in the red zone with 6:44 remaining to end another SUU scoring threat, and the Eagles were nearly able to grind out the remainder of the clock before tacking on their final score.

“I was just proud of in the first half how they were attacking that game,” Baldwin said. “We were attacking the game; different people were stepping up – offense, defense, special teams – and they just carried that over into the second half.”

Next up for Eagles is a home game against Northern Colorado on Saturday at 1:05 p.m.