Win over Weber puts Eastern in playoffs against McNeese

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Matt Nichols helped run and pass the Eagles past Weber State

Putting the finishing touches on a four-game winning streak and 8-3 finish to the regular season, Eastern Washington scored 24 unanswered points to roll past Weber State 38-16 last Saturday in a Big Sky Conference football game at rain-soaked Woodward Field.

The win over the Wildcats sends the Eagles to the NCAA Football Championship Sub Division playoffs at McNeese State in Lake Charles, La.

The game is this Saturday, Nov. 24 at 5 p.m. Pacific time at Cowboy Stadium. There is currently no word on television coverage of the game.

McNeese State is 11-0 and enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. This will be EWU's first-ever meeting against the Cowboys, who won the Southland Conference title with a 6-0 record.

In 2004, Eastern defeated top-ranked and top-seeded Southern Illinois 35-31 in a round one road game.

But back to what got the Eagles headed to their third playoff appearance in the last four seasons.

“I'm very excited to play like this against a great football team in these conditions, and find a way to win,” Eagle head coach Paul Wulff said.

A slippery field caused by day-long rain slowed down Eastern's offense in the first half, and the Eagles fell behind 16-14 with 7:55 to play in the third quarter.

But a 51-yard kickoff return by Tony Davis was followed by passes of 21 yards to Aaron Boyce and 22 yards for a touchdown to Brynsen Brown.

That gave Eastern, who trailed in the game for all of 28 seconds, the lead for good.

Still trailing just 21-16, Weber State stayed within striking range of the Eagles through much of the third quarter until a brilliant play on fourth-and-inches at the Wildcat 36 broke it open with the first of 17 unanswered points.

The back-breaker was a 36-yard pass from Matt Nichols to tight end Nathan Overbay as Nichols faked a sneak into the line, but then pulled back and tossed to a wide-open Overbay, gave Eastern a 28-16 lead.

“It was a play we worked on, and we knew we needed to take our shots in this game,” Wulff said.

“We were going to use all the tricks we had if we needed to.”

Nichols also tossed a 4-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Jimerson in the opening quarter on an eight-play, 80-yard drive before the rain began. He also had a 14-yard touchdown strike to Shane Eller, and Jimerson capped the scoring with an 11-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Jared Kuhl had 14 tackles, Anthony Dotson had 13, Bryan Jarrett had eight with two passes broken up and Ira Jarmon had six with four passes broken up and an interception that led to an EWU field goal in the fourth quarter.

Weber State finished with 326 yards of offense as the Wildcats ended their season with a 5-6 record overall and 4-4 in league. Weber State had entered with a three-game winning streak, with an average of 57.7 points and 602.7 yards of offense in those three outings after averaging just 312.6 yards and 15.7 points in its first seven.

Freshman quarterback Cameron Higgins had 238 yards passing for the Wildcats, but had passed for 776 yards and eight touchdowns in his last two Big Sky outings.

Trevyn Smith, the Big Sky's leading rusher entering the game with 1,230 yards, had just 84 against the Eagles.

Kuhl, Dotson, Jarrett and Jarmon, as well as Eller, were among the 12 Eastern seniors playing in their final regular season game at Woodward Field on “Senior Day” at EWU. Four of Eastern's starting offensive linemen are also seniors, and Wulff had nothing but praise for his seniors after the victory.

“I think this is one of the best teams we've ever had, and when I say that I mean kids that care about each other and love the game,” Wulff said.

Eastern won four-straight games to earn the chance to be selected. Nichols hopes the Eagles have another four-game winning streak in them.

That of course would propel them to a national championship.

“Coming off of last season our ultimate goal to get to where we are now,” he said.

“I think a lot of our guys came together towards the end of the season and we started making plays when we needed them

Back in July, the Eagles were picked to finish fifth in the league by both the coaches and media.

But Eastern finished second and Nichols is thankful for the low pick.

“That just gave us motivation,” Nichols said.

“We knew we were better than fifth in the Big Sky and we just had to come out and prove it.”

EWU's playoff history:

2005 - at Northern Iowa - L

38-41 (First Round)