Just when the Big Sky Conference football tie-breaking procedure had people comparing it to one of those headache-causing story problems — remember, the ones dealing with trains traveling in opposite directions? — along came UC Davis and North Dakota.
Going into last weekend, more than half the league’s teams had a shot at the title, with a match-up featuring Montana State and Idaho State taking one of them out of the title equation.
But when the black rubber dust of the artificial turf filling finally settled last Saturday, only two were standing. That’s because two of the league’s second-division teams did some unexpected giant killing.
First, North Dakota won its second conference game, shocking Northern Arizona 30-28 in Grand Forks. NAU (5-2 BSC) was the team that owned the tiebreaker with 6-1 Eastern by virtue of their 28-27 win in Flagstaff, Oct. 25.
Next, the previously winless Aggies of UC Davis (1-6) rolled down to San Luis Obispo and stole a 48-35 victory over Cal Poly (5-3), who lost for a second straight weekend.
So that leaves No. 5 ranked Eastern, 6-1 in league play, facing Portland State with the Vikings once again the lone impediment between the Eagles sharing a third consecutive conference championship, likely earning a top-4 seed, first-round bye and host of up to two rounds of playoff games.
Last year Eastern had to rally from a 21-7 halftime deficit and then outscore PSU 14-6 in the final 1 minute, 44 seconds — PSU missing a point-after kick — with Cooper Kupp scoring with 31 seconds remaining to salvage a 42-41 win at Roos Field.
“Their coaching staff has done a very good job schematically every time we’ve played them, and what they’ve done against us offensively and defensively has been challenging,” EWU head coach Beau Baldwin said. “You can’t predict any kind of score based on records — it just doesn’t work that way.”
Kickoff is 7:10 p.m. at Providence Park in a game televised live regionally on ROOT Sports. PSU (2-5 3-8) has lost three straight and five of their last six. Eastern has won seven of its last eight.
The Vikings have favored the run by a slight amount, 2,288-2,098. Shaquille Richard has led that ground attack with 624 yards on 109 carries. Kieran McDonagh, who split time at quarterback in last year’s game, has nine starts, completed 133 of 262 with 11 interceptions and eight touchdowns. Kasey Closs (42 catches, 538 yards and four touchdowns) is McDonagh’s favorite receiver.
Eastern will sport a new look for the game when they debut white helmets.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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