It was another instant classic between the Eastern Washington University football team and the University of Montana tonight (Oct. 2) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. The No. 6 Eagles were down 21-10 entering the final quarter of play and outscored the Grizzlies 24-7 in the final 15 minutes to win 34-28. With the victory, Eastern Washington improves to 5-0 (2-0 Big Sky Conference) on the year, equaling its best start in program history since 1984, and handing Montana its first loss of the year (3-1, 1-1).
"It was one of those classic, in the moment games that is an instant classic right away. At the end of the day, there were a lot of plays on both sides of the ball between two awesome teams. We were playing on our home field with awesome fans on both sides. Like I've said many times, it's unfortunate that somebody has to lose in this game. We knew it was going to be back-and-forth and they had the upper hand in the first half. We kind of held it together, and our defense played outstanding and the offense got points when they needed to get points," said head coach Aaron Best. "We gave up the late kick return to kind of give the game a little bit more of a twist when we were up 10, and they grabbed momentum at that point. Again, number three (Eric Barriere) without a doubt showed why he's the best player in America at our level. There's no argument, there is zero argument. We heard all week that they'd only given up two touchdowns and our guys were up for the challenge. At the end of the day, when those things are said, those don't go on the bulletin board those things are just remembered."
The win also marks the 19th-straight at Roos Field, as the Eagles improve to 6-0 over Montana since the infamous red turf was installed in 2010. The Eagles have now won 28 games since 2010 when trailing or tied when entering the fourth quarter, five of which have been led by redshirt-senior quarterback Eric Barriere.
Barriere completed 26 of his 42 passing attempts, throwing for 422 total yards and two touchdowns, plus two interceptions. The yardage total marks his eighth career game with over 400 passing yards. Barriere's targets of Talolo Limu-Jones (231 receiving yards) and Andrew Boston (80 yards, two touchdowns) each passed 2,000 receiving yards in their careers. The total for Limu-Jones was also the eighth most in single-game history for the Eagles in his sixth career game with over 100 receiving yards.
On the defensive front, Jack Sendelbach led the way with 12 total tackles to move into 25th all-time on EWU's all-time list. Ty Graham also had 12 tackles plus a sack, and Marlon Jones Jr. and Demetrius Crosby Jr. each grabbed an interception.
Jackson Cleaver was a perfect 2-for-2 on both PATs and field goals.
Down by 11 entering the fourth quarter, Eastern Washington scored 14 unanswered points to open the final frame. The first touchdown was scored on a nine-yard completion from Barriere to Boston and the next on a two-yard rush from Micah Smith to take a 24-21 lead.
Montana then marched down the field and faced first and 10 at EWU's 11 when Demetrius Crosby Jr. intercepted a pass in the endzone. On the ensuing drive, Dennis Merritt added to the lead with a one-yard rushing touchdown and the Eagles went up 31-21. On the very next drive, Montana had a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to cut the lead to 31-28 after the extra point.
After a three-and-out for the Eagles on their next drive, Marlon Jones Jr. came up with EWU's second interception of the fourth quarter on Montana's 47-yard line. The Eagles marched down the field and a Cleaver 30-yard field goal extended the lead to 34-28.
On its final drive, Montana faced first and ten on the EWU 13 as time expired and came up empty as Eastern Washington went on to win 34-28.
Eastern Washington scored on its opening drive when Barriere connected with Boston for a nine-yard completion to take a 7-0 lead after Cleaver's extra point. Montana then outscored the Eagles 14-3 to end the first half, taking a 14-10 lead into the locker room. The Eagles were outscored 7-0 in the third quarter before mounting their fourth quarter comeback.
"Montana has a good defense, they test you because they play man. We ran the ball well enough to keep them honest. The unfortunate thing in this game that didn't go our way were penalties. We had way too many of them and we gave up too many sacks that were big yardage sacks," commented Best, whose team was 11-for-79 on penalties versus Montana's 6-for-50. "But we kept balance as much as we could and we got in a flow when we could, but we knew it was going to be haymakers throwing on both sides and today we came out on top."
As a team, Eastern Washington had 538 yards of total offense, 422 of which came through the air from Barriere, while the Grizzlies had 358 total yards (187 rushing, 171 passing).
Eagles Now 62-10 on the Red Turf with Record 19-Game Winning Streak
Having won all five of its regular season home games in 2019 and all eight in 2018, Eastern was 3-0 at home in the 2020-21 season and is currently 2-0 in 2021 to give the Eagles a school-record 19-straight wins at Roos Field.
The Eagles entered the 2021 season as one of three teams with the longest active home winning streaks in FBS with 17 consecutive victories, and EWU improved that to 18 with a resounding 63-14 win over Central Washington on Sept. 11 and then again on Oct. 2 with a 34-28 win over Montana. The other schools who entered the season with 17-game home winning streaks included James Madison, which extended its streak to 19 with a 55-7 win over Maine on Sept. 11. North Dakota also had a 18-game streak before falling 16-10 to North Dakota State on Oct. 2.
Eastern is now 62-10 (86.1 percent) overall at "The Inferno" since 2010. The stadium has been known as Roos Field since 2010 when a new red synthetic Sprinturf surface made its debut. Eastern's last home loss came on Nov. 4, 2017, versus Weber State.
Dahlgren & James Make Starting Debuts Versus Griz
Two redshirt freshmen made their starting debuts in Eastern's showdown with Montana on Oct. 2, both on offense. Luke Dahlgren started at left offensive guard, as usual starting guard Wyatt Hansen moved to right tackle to fill that position held previously by Matthew Hewa Baddege. In addition, EWU started four wide receivers and no running back versus the Griz, and Jakobie James received his first career start. Dahlgren is a 2019 graduate of Forks (Wash.) High School, and James graduated the same year from Redlands (Calif.) HS.
Here are the current starts by EWU players:
Current Starts on Defense (191 starts by 21 players): Calin Criner 24, Tre Weed 23, Jack Sendelbach 22, Mitchell Johnson 22, Darrien Sampson 15, Joshua Jerome 12, Ty Graham 11, Jacob Newsom 7, Darreon Moore 7, Brock Harrison 6, Anthany Smith 6, Debore'ae McClain 6, Marlon Jones Jr. 6, Ely Doyle 6, Cale Lindsay 4, Keshaun King 4, Matthew Brown 4, Caleb Davis 3, Jusstis Warren 1, Cage Schenck 1, Ahmani Williams 1.
Current Starts on Offense (237 starts by 21 players): Tristen Taylor 52, Eric Barriere 34, Andrew Boston 29, Conner Crist 14, Talolo Limu-Jones 14, Johnny Edwards IV 12, Freddie Roberson 12, Dylan Ingram 12, Wyatt Musser 12, Wyatt Hansen 10, Matt Shook 7, Dennis Merritt 6, Tamarick Pierce 6, Anthony Stell Jr. 4, Matthew Hewa Baddege 4, Brad Godwin 2, Efton Chism III 3, Luke Dahlgren 1, Jakobie James 1, Blake Gobel 1, Gunner Talkington 1.
More Comments from Head Coach Aaron Best:
On Players Stepping-Up: "We played with our back-up kicker Jackson Cleaver the entire game because Seth Harrison was a scratch right before game time. Even with guys that have career days like Talolo Limu-Jones, those are the players you assume would have big games, and rightfully so. Limu Jones, Andrew Boston, Dennis Merritt, Eric Barriere and Efton Chism III had great games, but the one guy that put that stretch to six points, that put the game away after getting moved back by a couple of false starts, was Jackson Cleaver. We managed the clock as well as we could and on defense we did as much as we could, but what a game, it came down to the last play on about the 20-yard line with four seconds left in the game with Montana's back-up quarterback in, you couldn't have drawn it up any better in terms of just the pure adrenaline that was going on late in that game. Like I said, it's unfortunately someone had to lose. It's great for FCS football that two teams got together in the top-ten and we were fortunate enough to make enough plays tonight."
On Winning Streaks: "The biggest one is that we are 1-0 this week. With everything you can attach to this week, we were 1-0, and that's what we do each and every week. We had a great week of practice and we'll get as healthy as we can. We'll go on the road next week and face a team in Northern Colorado that can turn it on when they need to. They'll be at home, so advantage them out of the gate, that's the way it always is with the home team. So, we'll get some rest and celebrate for 24 hours, but this was big. Not just for this football team, but for this University, this city, and this community. This was awesome and we've come to realize that this is how we play games whether it's the regular season, postseason, nonconference, in-conference, home or away, we keep everybody on the edge of their seats and keep everybody in their seats until there are four zeros on the clock. Going in, we felt like we had to score at least 38 points and it was going to be an uphill battle the entire time. This is a really, really, really good defense. Maybe they had an off night, we'll look at the film, but at the end of the day none of us thought in a million years we'd be able to do at times what we did against a stout defense that went into Montlake and beat the University of Washington from the start. A great team that we played."
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No. 6 Eagles Mount Fourth Quarter Comeback in Win over No. 4 Montana - goeags.com
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