By SKYLINE SPORTS & NEWS SERVICES
No. 4 Eastern Washington 49, Northern Colorado 31 — Northern Colorado bottled up Cooper Kupp, but the Bears couldn’t contain senior wide receiver Shaq Hill and sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud.
Hill caught a school-record four touchdown passes from Gubrud, who had yet another standout day for the Eastern Washington football team in a 49-31 victory over Northern Colorado in Eastern’s 90th Annual Homecoming Game Saturday at Roos Field in Cheney.
The Eagles had their fifth-most yards in school history, finishing with 659 for the team’s third performance this season of 600 or more. Gubrud had 514 yards of total of offense to rank fourth all-time at EWU, and in just six career starts now has five of the top 10 performances all-time at Eastern.
“We found the big moment type of shots to Shaq — Gage saw him and took advantage,” said Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin after watching that duo have three TD connections of at least 29 yards. “I really loved the way he played – he was patient, didn’t try to force things, took the run when it was there and played very base that way. Shaq had a monster day – not just the numbers, but he was playing strong and had a grit to the way he was playing the game.”
Kupp, the reigning FCS Offensive Player of the Year, had only 59 yards on five receptions, and rushed three times for 13 yards, a year after having school records with 20 catches for 275 yards versus the Bears. Saturday’s game between the unbeaten Big Sky Conference teams was a rematch of down-to-the-wire Eagle wins last year in Greeley (43-41) and 2014 in Cheney (26-18). Eastern also barely beat the Bears 35-28 during EWU’s trek to the NCAA Division I Championship in 2010.
“Coop makes it tough on a defense,” Baldwin said. “Ultimately, when you do decide to do that to him the rest of our offense can make it really tough on another team. You just have to stay patient. We’ve seen both sides of it where an opponent is not going to let No. 10 beat them, and then others who know there are too many other guys.”
Eastern is 5-1 and 3-0 in the Big Sky Conference, and the Bears are now 3-2 and 1-1 in the league. Both teams opened league play with a victory over Northern Arizona, with EWU winning 50-35 on Sept. 24 and knocking the Lumberjacks off 21-18 on Oct. 1. Northern Colorado’s lone loss was a 47-21 setback at Colorado State on Sept. 17.
Eastern reached the mid-point of the regular season and heads into its bye week having exceeded expectations after a grueling early-season schedule that included an FBS bowl team (Washington State), two of the top 10 teams in FCS (North Dakota State, Northern Iowa) and the preseason favorite in the Big Sky Conference (NAU). In their final five regular season games, the Eagles will play a pair of teams who advanced to the FCS Playoffs year ago (Montana and Portland State), and another ranked in the top 25 in FCS this season (Cal Poly). Eastern had won six straight games a year ago only to lose its last three and fail to garner a playoff berth.
“It’s been a tough stretch – it’s been a six-game battle,” Baldwin said. “It’s important to go into a bye week coming off a win, and that’s huge.
“I think we’re in a good spot. If I compare it other teams from our past, I think in a lot of areas we’re as good as we’ve been. There are other areas we have to still catch up – you have to strive after perfection even though no one achieve that.”
No. 24 North Dakota 40, Sacramento State 7 — UND rolled up 422 rushing yards and scored five times on the ground in ruining Sacramento State’s homecoming and winning for the fourth straight time.
UND averaged 8.0 yards per carry as Brady Oliveira (111), Austin Gordon (102) and quarterback Keaton Studsrud (100) all rushed for more than 100 yards. All-American running back John Santiago, who suffered an injury in the first quarter of UND’s win over Cal Poly last week, added 76 yards on eight carries.
“We were able to run the football effectively and get some good defensive stops in the first half,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We gave up one explosive play in the first half, but really controlled both lines of scrimmage after that and were able to score some points and build a nice lead at halftime. We wanted to come out and score first in the second half and we were also able to do that.”
Studsrud scored on runs of six yards and 50 yards to stake UND to a 13-0. Santiago scored a 26-yard touchdown and Oliveira scored twice as the visitors pushed their lead to 34-0 five minutes into the second half. North Dakota piled up 369 yards in the first half alone as the lead swelled to 27-0 before intermission. Studsrud rushed for 93 of his 100 yards in the first two quarters. He added 203 yards passing for the game.
The win pushes UND to 3-0 in conference play, tied with Eastern Washington three games into the league schedule. UND is 4-2 overall after two straight losses to begin 2016.
UND returns home next weekend to host Southern Utah in the 100th UND Homecoming Celebration. Sac State plays at Montana.
Weber State 14, Portland State 10 — For the second time in three weeks, Portland State stood on the doorstep of a crucial touchdown. Both times, PSU could not convert.
On Saturday in Ogden, Portland State moved the ball 61 yards down to the Weber State 14-yard line. But the hosts snuffed out a fourth down try with four to go as Alex Kuresa’s pass attempt to Trent Riley fell incomplete.
“It was a mix-up of signal,” PSU second-year Coach Bruce Barnum said. “There was a miscommunication on it (between players), so as coaches we need to work on it because it cost us on a crucial play.”
The Wildcats took over with 2:24 left in the game and were able to run out the clock. The win was the second straight to open conference play for Weber State as the Wildcats moved to 3-2 overall. Portland State fell to 1-2 in Big Sky play, 2-4 overall.
In its conference opener at Southern Utah, Portland State rallied from a three-score deficit to draw within 38-31 with less than 30 seconds to play and a drive down to the SUU 4-yard line. Alex Kuresa threw an interception that Jarmaine Doubs returned 98 yards for a touchdown in Southern Utah’s 45-31 win.
Portland State scored first with a one-yard touchdown run late in the first half to take a 7-0 lead at halftime. The Wildcats started the second half with a scoring drive, capped by a three-yard touchdown run by Emmanuel Pooler to tie the game 7-7. The Vikings added a field goal early in the fourth quarter to take a 10-7 lead before Weber State came right back down the field with a 12-play, 75-yard drive with Jadrian Clark finding Andrew Vollert for a 12-yard touchdown to take the lead with 8:44 to play.
“This was a war and we knew it would be going into it,” said WSU head coach Jay Hill. “I thought our defense played outstanding at times and the offense made some big plays when they needed, especially in the second half. It was a very physical battle against a really good team and it was great to get the win.”
Josh Burton led the Wildcats with a career-high 16 tackles. Burton had nine solo tackles and seven assisted tackles. LeGrand Toia had 10 tackles with one tackle for loss and Tre’von Johnson and Landon Stice each had nine tackles.
Clark finished the day 12-of-25 passing for 86 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 77 yards. On the ground, Emmanuel Pooler led the way with 14 carries for 75 yards and one touchdown. Pooler also had one reception for 24 yards, giving him 99 all-purpose yards.
That set up Portland State’s final run at the end zone that came up just short. PSU was in a similar situation two weeks ago at Southern Utah. Trailing 38-31 in the closing seconds, the Vikings were at the SUU four-yard line but threw an interception.
Portland State gained only 317 yards in the game, its second-lowest total of the season. The Viking defense held WSU to 271 – a season-low by an opponent.
“What a battle,” said Barnum. “That was old-school football on both sides. We knew we were coming in here against a good defense. They did a nice job preparing the last two weeks. They struck us on both sides of the football.”
The Wildcats have now won seven of their last eight games at home and will be at home next Saturday to host Montana State. Portland State hosts Cal Poly.
SUU running back Raysean Pringle/ SUU athletics.
Southern Utah 24, UC Davis 3 — UC Davis possessed the ball for more than 37 minutes and the Aggies’ defense limited Southern Utah to 77 yards rushing. But UCD could not find the end-zone against SUU’s revamped defense and the Thunderbirds won for the second time in three Big Sky outings.
Southern Utah got rushing touchdowns from senior running back Malik Brown, junior quarterback Patrick Tyler and sophomore running back Raysean Pringle in the second quarter to take a 21-3 lead to halftime. Keita Calhoun’s 28-yard field goal was the only score in the otherwise stagnant second half.
“We got momentum in the second quarter, and we did what we needed to do,” SUU first-year head coach Demario Warren said. “We kept our guys healthy, and that is a huge win for us. I’m really proud of the effort. That’s another Big Sky win.”
Southern Utah limited UC Davis to 290 yards, piling up 14 tackles for loss in the process. Despite its advantage in time of possession, UCD managed just 2.1 yards per carry and converted just 4-of-19 third downs. SUU managed only 260 yards as the running game managed just 2.5 yards per carry and 77 yards on 31 carries.
Southern Utah plays at North Dakota next week. UC Davis hosts Northern Colorado.
Montana 67, Mississippi Valley State 7 — Click here for full game story: http://skylinesportsmt.com/griz-steamroll-mvsu/
Northern Arizona 20, Montana State 14 — Click here for full game story: http://skylinesportsmt.com/bobcats-come-up-just-short-again-as-nau-earns-first-d-i-win/
