Eastern looks to disappoint T-Birds this time

Last year Southern Utah made Senior Day most memorable.

Colton Cook kicked a 36-yard field goal with just 3 seconds remaining - the last of three he connected on that afternoon - to cap the Thunderbirds’ 30-27 win over the then No. 1-ranked Eastern Washington Eagles at Eccles Coliseum in Cedar City.

The Eagles would like to return the gesture and make the Thunderbirds trip home to Utah just as long as the one Eastern endured in 2012.

SUU and Eastern will have a 5:05 kickoff at Roos Field Saturday in Eaastern’s 87th annual Homecoming game that will be played in front of another sellout crowd that will approach 10,000.

Eastern, currently tied on top the Big Sky Conference standings at 2-0 along with Montana State and Cal Poly, is 4-2 overall. The Thunderbirds are 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

Southern Utah is coming off a 17-7 win at home over Portland State where SUU won the turnover battle 5-1. The Thunderbirds lost at UC Davis 21-3, but beat NCAA Football Bowl Division member South Alabama 22-21 to open the year.

“It’s going to be a slugfest – it is,” Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin said. “We are going to get their best punch.”

Eastern enters the contest seeking its third win in a row following a huge 35-14 road win at North Dakota last Saturday.

In last year’s game, senior quarterback Brad Sorenson passed for 392 yards. SUU entered just 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the league. Eastern was a perfect 5-0 in Big Sky play and 6-1 overall and the top ranked team in the Football Championship Subdivision.

For a team that lived on a tightrope all year with two of their five wins coming by six points and two more by just three, Eastern got some of what they had been dishing out down in Utah’s canyon country.

It was a day of uncharacteristic mistakes and near misses last year. A Demetrius Bronson fumble on the SUU 12 with 14 minutes, 51 seconds to go with EWU leading 27-20 negated potential points. The next Eastern possession ended in an incomplete pass in the end zone to Nicholas Edwards with 10:14 remaining.

Another late possession saw quarterback Kyle Padron’s pass sail just past the outstretched fingertips of Brandon Kaufman so Eastern settled for a 37-yard field goal try from Jimmy Pavel that just skirted the outside of the left goal post with 2:51 to play.

“They have a veteran offensive line and it all starts there,” Baldwin said. “Brad Sorenson brought a lot to the table for them, but their quarterback now (Aaron Cantu) is finding his way and getting better every day.”

This is the second trip to the eastern part of Washington state this year as earlier SUU played – and lost 48-10 – in Pullman to Washington State, Sept. 14.

These teams have played some close ones in the past and there’s not much to suggest that the Homecoming game on the Roos Field red turf will be much different. The two met in Cheney in 2010 in a nonleague game with Eastern winning 31-24 and 41-28 in Utah in 2009. The Eagles lead the all-time series 4-2.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].