Marlon Jones Jr.’s late pick-six secures Eastern Washington’s 40-29 comeback win over SE Louisiana

As someone with a reputation as a shutdown corner, Marlon Jones Jr. is not often the player at whom opposing quarterbacks will throw.

So when Zachary Clement threw errantly between two Southeastern Louisiana teammates in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter Saturday, the Eastern Washington redshirt senior reminded himself to stay in the moment.

“There’s always a split second when the ball’s in the air, the lights are getting bright, the fans are cheering,” Jones said. “Those are the opportunities we have to take advantage of.”

Jones certainly did. He leapt at the 35-yard line, secured the interception and ran down the right sideline to the end zone, securing a 40-29 nonconference comeback victory for Eastern Washington in its first game at Roos Field in Cheney this season.

“My coach might be mad at me because I was supposed to be playing man (defense) on my guy,” Jones said. “But I knew that they wanted to throw at No. 9 (Darius Lewis), so I sunk off a little bit and waited for the ball to come, and it was right where I thought it would be.”

Dating back to last season’s finale, it was the Eagles’ second pick-six in as many home games, following up on Tre Weed’s 40-yard interception return against Northern Colorado last year. It was the seventh interception of Jones’ career and his first touchdown.

And it was crucial, giving Eastern its first win of the season after the Eagles lost by 25 points to the second-ranked FCS team, North Dakota State, in their opener and lost by three points in double-overtime last week at Fresno State of the FBS.

“Just because of how the last two games went, it didn’t really feel like we were 0-2, but we were,” Jones said. “So just getting this win was like finally, we get some sort of satisfaction to go with the amount of hard work that we’ve put in.”

Southeastern Louisiana came in 0-2 but ranked No. 19 in the FCS Stats Perform Top 25, a nod to the program’s second-round playoff appearance last year and its two losses to FBS teams Mississippi State and South Alabama.

But Eastern had little trouble moving the football against the Lions’ defense, totaling 530 yards of offense on 92 plays. Their 37 first downs were the program’s most since the Eagles had 37 on Oct. 16, 2021, in a 71-21 win over Idaho.

EWU redshirt sophomore quarterback Kekoa Visperas set career highs across the board with 33 completions on 47 attempts for 349 yards. He threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half – a 3-yard connection with Efton Chism III and a 5-yard pass to Nolan Ulm in the second quarter – to help the Eagles take a 17-14 halftime lead.

Yet the lead was tenuous. By then, the Lions had blocked a field-goal attempt, one that came at the end of an 11-play, 79-yard drive. The Eagles also capped a 66-yard drive with a failed fourth-down conversion. Right before halftime, they failed to secure a loose ball on a kickoff, which could have given them one last scoring chance.

“We let them hang around, honestly,” Visperas said. “On the offensive side of the ball we’ve got to finish drives and put points on the board.”

The Eagles opened the second half with a 10-play, 45-yard drive that stalled at the Lions’ 37-yard line, prompting Nick Kokich’s only punt of the game – a beautiful hanger that Eagles tight end Austin York caught over his shoulder and downed at the 3-yard line. That set up another three-and-out by a Lions offense that managed just 293 yards.

But after Eastern’s next two drives netted only a field goal, Soren McKee’s second of the game, the Lions took a 21-20 lead in the final minute of the third quarter on Bauer Sharp’s second touchdown.

After that, though, Eastern’s offense finished drives with authority.

Junior Justice Jackson starred on the subsequent possession, gaining 28 yards over four consecutive plays. Facing a fourth-and-4 at the SLU 27, Visperas broke the pocket and scrambled for a 12-yard gain, and two plays later Jackson bulldozed his way for a 7-yard touchdown. He finished with a team-high 91 yards on 12 carries.

The Eagles missed the 2-point conversion attempt, though, and the Lions responded with a 10-play, 85-yard scoring drive – one they finished with a successful 2-point play – to retake the lead, 29-26 with 5:39 left.

Visperas then said he told offensive coordinator Jim Chapin to stay the course.

“I told (Chapin) on the headset, ‘Why do we gotta switch it up?’ ” Visperas said. “We only play at one pace, and we only play one way. And you saw what happened. That’s just who we are.”

Four plays into the drive, the Eagles were at the SLU 36. Then, facing a third-and-6 at the 20-yard line, Chism lined up in the backfield next to Visperas. The play call was for Chism to run a wheel route through the line and down the left sideline.

“I never know if it’s going to be there for sure or not until I see it, but (Chism’s) a dude,” Visperas said. “He’s gonna make a play.”

Chism caught Visperas’ pass and fell to the 1-yard line. On the next play, Tuna Altahir scored on a run through the left side to give the Eagles a 33-29 lead with 1:34 left. On the next possession, Jones made his interception on a play he said the Lions had run successfully earlier .

“It was really the cherry on top of how hard the team has worked this last offseason (and) these first two weeks,” Jones said .

The Eagles will turn their focus to 16th-ranked UC Davis, their first Big Sky opponent of the season. That game is scheduled at 7 p.m. Saturday in California.

EWU coach Aaron Best said he’s been impressed with how the team responded after two losses, and he was impressed with the poise of his team in-game on Saturday.

“I want to see what we do in response to a win, on the road, in Davis, in league play,” Best said. “Now all of a sudden, the stakes rise.”