Kupp pours it on

So how is that hip, Cooper Kupp?

“It feels great,” Kupp said after catching 12 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns to help Eastern Washington to a 55-50 thriller over Montana State.

“It’ll be a little sore tomorrow, but I’ve got another seven days to get back,” said Kupp, who was listed as questionable with a hip injury but turned uncertainty into an exclamation mark at Roos Field.

He caught two touchdown passes in the second quarter, including a 38-yarder from Jordan West that gave EWU its biggest lead of the game, 34-14 with 3 minutes, 28 seconds left until halftime.

Early in the fourth quarter, Kupp’s 38-yard TD catch made it 55-38 – the eventual winning points.

In the process, Kupp moved into second place in school and Big Sky Conference history with 43 touchdown catches, three short of the 46 caught by Eric Kimble from 2002 to 2005.

MSU gambles, loses

The Eagles took an early 14-0 lead thanks partly to a head-scratching gamble by MSU coach Rob Ash. On fourth-and-3 from the MSU 33-yard-line, Ash elected to go for it, but running back Chad Newell was stuffed by linebacker Miquiyah Zamora and Nzuzi Webster.

Two plays later, EWU’s Jabari Wilson went off left tackle and off to a 33-yard score.

MSU gambled again – and lost again – on its next possession. After moving 65 yards to the Eastern 10, Ash eschewed the field goal and called on Newell. This time it was Eastern defensive end Samson Ebukam with the tackle.

Four plays later, Eastern made MSU pay again with a 62-yard TD run from Wilson.

In all, the Cats went for it five times on fourth down, converting the last three, but the damage was done and they trailed the entire game.

Aftet the game, Ash said, “We felt we needed to extend possessions. That was going to give us the best chance to win the game.”

Zamora said the stops were a confidence-booster for a defense that had been pushed around in its first two games.

“I don’t think it was arrogance on their part – they just wanted to make a statement,” Zamora said. “For us, on fourth down, you have to buckle down.”

Young ‘D’ comes up big

The final numbers weren’t pretty.

The young Eastern defense was stuck on the field for more than 38 minutes and gave up 718 yards and 50 points.

Despite that, the cup was half full when the game ended, as Webster and his teammates celebrated his game-clinching interception of Dakota Prukop with 8 seconds left.

“You can’t quit,” said Webster, a redshirt freshman who was one of seven underclassmen starting against MSU and facing another dual-threat quarterback. “We were well prepared with the other guys we’ve played, and it feels great making the clutch play to end the game.”

The defense also got two fourth-down stops in the first quarter.

Because of injuries, the Eastern defense is getting even younger. With senior roverback Todd Raynes out with a back injury, redshirt freshman Cole Karstetter got his first start.

“It was fun getting out there,” said Karstetter, from Ferris High. “I’ve heard a lot about the tradition of playing on the red and defending it, so it was good to keep that going.”

Defensive end Keenan Williams, a true freshman from Cheney, got his second career start.