Eastern Washington unable to complete upset, falls in 2OT to Fresno State 34-31

It took until the second half, but Eastern Washington got its offense rolling Saturday against Fresno State.

Its defense was stout throughout.

But after taking the lead once in the fourth quarter and again in the first overtime, the Eagles couldn’t quite finish off the Bulldogs, who dodged an upset with a 34-31 double-overtime win at Valley Children’s Stadium in California in the first-ever matchup between the two football programs.

After Dylan Lynch made a 25-yard field goal to give Fresno State its final lead, Kekoa Visperas scrambled to his right and threw toward the sideline toward Efton Chism III – but Levelle Bailey stepped between them for a game-ending interception.

The redshirt sophomore Visperas completed 27 of 46 attempts for 233 yards and two touchdowns in addition to that one interception. He found Chism for a two-yard touchdown in the third quarter that cut Fresno’s lead to 21-17, and in the first overtime he completed a one-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Stell Jr. that, with the point-after, gave Eastern the lead, 31-24.

But following the touchdown, Stell was called for unsportsmanlike conduct as he got in the face of a Fresno defender. Rather than enforce the call on the PAT, Fresno opted to start its overtime possession at the 13-yard line.

The Bulldogs scored four plays later on Elijah Gilliam’s one-yard touchdown, and they tied it with a PAT by Dylan Lynch, who had missed a 35-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds of regulation.

Eastern trailed 14-3 at halftime. Aside from a 21-play, 85-yard drive that ended in a 23-yard Soren McKee field goal, the Eagles’ other 23 first-half plays gained them just 48 yards, and they punted on their final four possessions of the second quarter.

But their defense was able to limit Fresno State’s offense to 136 first-half yards, allowing two touchdowns on short fields: one following the Eagles’ failed fourth-down conversion attempt on their opening drive, the other after a fumbled exchange between Visperas and Michael Wortham in the backfield.

“Not much was going right for us offensively in the first half,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said in a postgame radio interview. “We got into halftime and made a few adjustments. Kekoa calmed down, saw everything a little bit better, and we put him in some different spots and got our run game going.”

Eastern scored touchdowns on each of its first two possessions of the second half, starting with a 12-yard touchdown run from Wortham out of the backfield. After Fresno answered with a touchdown, Chism’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 75-yard Eagles drive to get them back within four points.

Fresno’s next two drives ended in an interception (by Conner O’Farrell) and a punt, and finally Eastern was able to take the lead on a 33-yard touchdown run by Justice Jackson on a fourth-and-4 play, 24-21.

Eastern (0-2) – which lost 35-10 to North Dakota State last week – outgained Fresno, 366-364, one week after the Bulldogs (2-0) gained 487 yards in a 39-35 road win at Purdue. The junior Jackson led the Eagles with 79 rushing yards on 11 carries, and redshirt sophomore Tuna Altahir had 43 yards on 15 carries.

Playing without senior starters at tight end (Blake Gobel) and receiver (Jakobie James), Visperas threw more than half his passes to Chism (16 targets) and Stell (14). Chism finished with nine catches for 71 yards; Stell had seven for 77. Nolan Ulm added four catches for 50 yards, and Austin York had four more for 31 yards, including a one-handed grab that set up the Eagles’ overtime touchdown.

Fresno quarterback Mikey Keene, a redshirt sophomore, completed 23 of 39 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. He was sacked three times.

Gilliam led the Bulldogs with 86 rushing yards on 20 carries. He scored twice. Senior Erik Brooks led all receivers with 95 yards on eight catches.

Defensively, linebacker Ben Allen led the Eagles with 11 tackles, including two of them for a loss (and one sack). Redshirt freshman safety Drew Carter was credited with three pass breakups.

Eastern will play its first home game of the season next week against Southeastern Louisiana (0-2) before going back on the road for its Big Sky opener at UC Davis (1-1) on Sept. 23.

“It’s huge,” Visperas said in a postgame radio interview of playing at home. “On the Red, we don’t lose. We protect it with our souls, our hearts and our bodies.”