EWU notebook: Ambrose Marsh nearly has pick-six on forgettable day for defense
BOZEMAN, Montana – When Patrick Duchien dropped back to pass on a third-and-12 play in the fourth quarter, Ambrose Marsh had a pretty good idea what the Montana State backup quarterback was going to do with the ball.
“They hadn’t really pushed the ball vertically outside most of the game,” Marsh said, “and I kind of just knew once the quarterback dropped back that my guy was going to sit at the sticks.”
That’s just what Duchien did, and the redshirt freshman cornerback pounced, intercepting a pass for the first time in his college career and giving the Eagles one of their few highlight plays in a 57-3 loss Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.
Marsh didn’t quite get into the end zone – he was tackled at the 8-yard line – and the Eagles offense failed to score. But it was the latest play in a promising season for Marsh, who is the only freshman to start all five games on Eastern’s defense.
“I’ve gotten more comfortable each game,” he said. “It only takes the first couple games to realize all right, I can play with these guys. It’s nothing really different as long as you prepare correctly.”
Marsh is tied for fourth on the team with 22 tackles and has three pass breakups plus a forced fumble.
Schakel gets onto the field
One week after playing but not attempting a pass in his first college game, third-string quarterback Jake Schakel led Eastern’s final two drives Saturday, including one that went 12 plays and gained 55 yards against Montana State’s backups.
The 6-foot-2 redshirt freshman completed 7 of 10 passes for 46 yards. He also scrambled three times for another eight yards.
In his career at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, Schakel threw for 9,284 yards and 109 touchdowns, including 3,012 yards and 39 scores as a senior in 2023.
Third-down struggles continue
Eastern’s inability to move the yardage sticks haunted them again Saturday, when they went 4-for-16 on third downs.
Best attributed that to struggles on first and second down, which didn’t give the Eagles many manageable third downs against the Bobcats.
On the season, the Eagles have converted on just 20 of 73 third downs, a rate (27.4%) that is the worst in the Big Sky. Last year, the Eagles were the league’s best in such situations with a conversion rate of 56.4%.
“It’s not a panic mode, but we’ve really got to look at each other, we’ve got to look at some things,” Best said. “We’ve got to settle on some things, now that we’re five games in coming back home against Portland State.”
Third-down defense has also been an issue for the Eagles, who rank 10th in the league with an opponents conversion rate of 46.8%.
“It’s just executing under pressure,” Marsh said. “You get put in pressure situations, it has to translate from practice. We’ve got to get off the field on third down a lot more.”
An off-day for MSU kicker, EWU punter
On a day when the Eagles blocked a field goal, they also were faked out on another that resulted in a touchdown, and they didn’t punt particularly well.
The fake came with the Bobcats already up 30-3 in the third quarter and lined up for a 42-yard field goal attempt. What happened instead was that freshman holder Colby Frokjer stood up as the ball was snapped and ran with it through the left side of the line for a 26-yard touchdown.
Sophomore Myles Stansted, who had made the first 72 PATs of his career before Saturday, missed the point-after, the second time he’d done that in the game.
Eastern senior punter Landon Ogles had his own struggles. He shanked three punts and finished with an average distance of 31.8 yards, his worst in 16 career games with the Eagles.