Eastern Washington stuns WSU in football 45-42

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

The All-American did what most people expected.

The new starting quarterback certainly overachieved in the eyes of everyone, except, perhaps, himself and his coach.

And the defense, much-maligned as the 2015 season ended, bent but never broke.

Combined, these were some of the parts that helped manufacture Eastern Washington's 45-42 season-opening nonconference football victory over Washington State before a sold out Martin Stadium crowd of 32,952, Sept. 3.

This game eventually propelled the Eagles to a 12-2 season, an undefeated 8-0 record and Big Sky Conference championship. Eastern earned a berth in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs where they lost 40-38 to Youngstown State in the semifinals.

The scope of this story, which appeared in the Sept. 8 Cheney Free Press, earned it the vote as the top EWU sports story in 2016.

The win was the biggest in program history since the Eagles won the 2010 national championship in a 20-19 win over Delaware. Arguably, it might be the most noteworthy victory since football was first played in Cheney in 1901.

While many say this was an upset, not so insisted Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin.

"We really felt like if we put it together and did a lot of things right, we could win this ball game," Baldwin said. Eastern has generally played Pac-12 teams tough, losing to WSU 24-20 in their last meeting in 2012 and twice to the University of Washington, 30-27 in 2011 and 59-52 in 2014.

It was a special day for Cooper Kupp, who gave up a likely high spot in the NFL draft to return to Eastern. But what's new?

Kupp had 12 catches for 206 yards and three touchdowns as he broke the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision record with 58 touchdown receptions. He also passed once - nearly for a touchdown to Kendrick Bourne - and rushed for another 29 yards.

Kupp was not the only record-setting Eagle.

First-time starting quarterback, walk-on sophomore Gage Gubrud, completed 34 of 40 passes for 474 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for 77 yards and another score - a touchdown with 1 minute, 39 seconds to play that sealed the victory by returning the Eagles' 10-point cushion at 45-35.

Gubrud's 551 yards of total offense broke the previous school record of 518 set by Vernon Adams Jr. against Oregon State - EWU's first win over a Pac-12 team 49-46 in 2013 - when he passed for 411 and rushed for 107.

"He just played like we went live in a scrimmage - and we've done that before," Baldwin said of Gubrud, who won the starting job early in preseason camp. "He didn't go out there wide-eyed or nervous."

On the other side of the ball was the defense. That unit allowed the Cougars to score on four consecutive possessions in the first half, a feat equaled by the Eagles who nearly traded point for point and trailed just 28-24 at the half.

Kupp's reception with just 1:47 into the third quarter gave Eastern a lead at 31-28. The Eagles would never trail again and the defense kept Wazzu out of the end zone until less than five minutes remained in the game.

In a span starting with the third quarter, three WSU possessions went like this: punt, punt and a missed field goal. Eastern, meanwhile, in that same time, scored twice, and nearly a third time when a Gubrud pass to Bourne was intercepted in the end zone.

And a former Cougar, punter/kicker, Jordan Dascalo, punted three times for a 55.3 average and kicked a 48-yard field goal in maybe a bit of payback for WSU yanking his scholarship.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].