The No. 2 Eastern Washington University football team hosted Weber State University this afternoon (Oct. 23) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., where they were edged 35-34 on what was the 94th annual Homecoming game.
The loss was the first of the year for the Eagles, who are now 7-1 overall and 4-1 in Big Sky Conference play. It also snapped the nation's longest active home winning streak at 20 games at Roos Field for the Eagles. Ironically, the last loss at home for EWU was against Weber State on Nov. 4, 2017. The Wildcats, who are the four-time defending Big Sky Champions, are now 3-4 and 2-2.
"Weber State had a high today in offensive out-put, and a lot of that is due to the fact that our defense was out on the field too much. Three of those times, Weber State had fake punts, so give credit to them because we were out-coached today. Weber State took advantage of it. Coach (Jay) Hill is a great coach, he's a special teams coach and a defensive guy," said head coach Aaron Best. "They held us in check and just kind of off of our rhythm for the better part of the game until we got into a fourth quarter rhythm after our score and the turnover by our defense. We had too many dropped balls on offense, we put the ball on the ground too many times and had three turnovers. We had too many errors, forced errors by us, but credit to Weber State's defense. But their offense came in and dictated the outcome of the game. We were an extra point away from seeing the game go to overtime, but we didn't because we didn't execute and that was the theme of the day."
Redshirt senior quarterback Eric Barriere became Eastern Washington's and the Big Sky Conference's all-time leader in career total offense, now sitting at 13,558. He breaks for EWU quarterback Matt Nichols' record of 13,308. Barriere also inched closer to the passing yards record with 12,051 in his career.
Barriere threw for 245 yards passing and two touchdowns, plus one of his own on the ground, and completed 19 of his 39 pass attempts plus an interception. He was the team's leading rusher with 85 yards. Talolo Limu-Jones led the way with 47 receiving yards on three catches, followed by Robert Mason III who had 40 on three as well.
Dennis Merritt rushed for 30 yards with two touchdowns. Tight ends Blake Gobel and Dylan Ingram were the recipients of Barriere's two touchdown passes.
Calin Criner led the team in tackles with 12, followed by Jack Sendelbach with 11. Criner also had a fumble recovery and half of a sack, plus a break-up. Debore'ae McClain had two sacks for a loss of 18 yards, plus a quarterback hurry. Mitchell Johns had four tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble.
The Eagles had 434 yards of total offense (189 rushing, 245 passing) compared to Weber State who 482 total yards, 213 of which came on the ground and 269 through the air.
Game Details
Eastern Washington struck first at the 7:49 mark of the first quarter. Barriere scored on an 11-yard rushing touchdown, capping an 11-play, 80-yard drive. Seth Harrison, who was 4-for-5 on extra points today, helped the Eagles take a 7-0 lead.
The Eagles had five fumbles in the first quarter, two of which were covered by Weber State, but Eastern Washington still led 7-0 after one quarter of play.
It didn't take Weber State long to respond in the second quarter, scoring on a one-yard rushing touchdown that capped a seven-play, 65-yard drive, tying the game 7-7 after the extra point.
Eastern Washington retook the lead when Barriere found Ingram for a three-yard touchdown, following a drive that took 4:48 off the clock on 13 plays and 88 yards as EWU.
The Wildcats brought all their tricks to Cheney, executing three fake punts. The first came on fourth and three midway through the second quarter and it led to a 31-yard field goal attempt, cutting EWU's lead to 14-10.
Eastern Washington looked to get the ball back following a stalled drive from the Wildcats, but another fake punt gave WSU a fresh set of downs, eventually leading to a 45-yard field goal attempt through the uprights, but EWU held on to a 14-13 lead at the half.
The second half started well for the Eagles. On a Mitchell Johnson sack that was recovered and returned 33 yards by Caleb Davis, Merritt scored a four-yard rushing touchdown and the Eagles took a 21-13 lead after the extra point.
The third quarter was lackluster from there. On the ensuing drive, a seven-yard rushing touchdown from Weber State cut EWU's lead to one-point, 21-20, after the extra point, capping a 60-yard drive.
The Eagles were held to just nine yards of total offense in the third compared to Weber State's 122. Still, it was 21-20 Eastern Washington heading into the fourth.
A third fake punt in the fourth quarter by WSU on fourth and four kept the Wildcats alive, and it helped them take their first lead of the game after a nine-yard rushing touchdown. Another 13-yard rushing touchdown on Weber's next drive extended the lead to 35 to 21.
Eastern Washington tried to find some fourth quarter magic, as Barriere struck Gobel for 30 yards and the lead was cut to 35-28. On the next drive, Joshua Jerome forced a fumble that was recovered by Calin Criner at Weber's 39-yard line.
Barriere would start the drive with a 24-yard rush where he hurdled a Wildcat defender and Eastern marched down the field. Merritt would find his second rushing touchdown on a one-yard scamper, but the extra point missed wide, and EWU missed out on the chance to tie the game, 34-35, which would end up being the difference.
Now 63-11 at Roos Field since the red turf was installed, Eastern Washington has a bye week before welcoming No. 6 Montana State to town for the final regular season game in Cheney, Wash., on Nov. 6. The Bobcats are 7-1 overall and 5-0 in Big Sky play after winning their seventh-straight game against Idaho State tonight (Oct. 23) by a score of 27-9 in Bozeman. Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m. on SWX and ESPN+.
More from Head Coach Aaron Best
On the Fake Punts: "The numbers on defense aren't necessarily exact because they were on the field for 16 or 18 plays instead of six or eight because of extended drives by three fake punts. At the end of the day, if you get in second and 10 or third and eight, we have to make stops to be able to try and get the ball back, but we just ran out of gas, so a testament to Weber State who came in with a great game plan and dictated from start to finish as far as their intensity. They out-executed us today."
On the Eagle Defensive Performance Today: "All is not lost, but we have to look in the mirror a little bit. Their offense was playing up-tempo, they haven't really played that up-tempo the entire year from start to finish. There was something that they saw from their standpoint that they tried to take advantage of. They do what they do and they do it well. We have to look at it going into the bye week and take a hard look at where we're at, but again, we're 7-1 going into game nine in two weeks. This hurts, for sure, but our guys were prepared and ready, we went against a team that was fighting for their lives in the Big Sky Conference and four-time defending champions. They are going to bring their A-game, and they did that today."
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