EWU notebook: Northern Arizona special teams tries to negate electric returner Michael Wortham

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona – Special teams ended up as a moot point in Saturday’s game at Walkup Skydome, but it got to that point of equilibrium in an interesting way.

It was apparent early in the Lumberjacks’ 30-18 victory over the Eagles that they had little interest in allowing EWU senior Michael Wortham – the Big Sky leader in kickoff return yards – to touch the football.

The opening kickoff was a pooch to the EWU 15-yard line that Noah Cronquist fielded and returned 11 yards.

The next kickoff looked similarly intentioned but Wortham was wise to it, rushing up to return the ball in the same spot. He brought it to the 50-yard line.

In the end, though, the Lumberjacks succeeded. Wortham, in his final game with the Eagles, finished with four returns for 110 yards, his longest was that 35-yard return, and on another kickoff, the Lumberjacks booted the ball out-of-bounds.

The most memorable kickoff was not one returned by EWU, but by NAU when, opening the second half, J’Wan Evans caught the ball a few yards into the end zone – and then walked to the 1-yard line without kneeling or calling for a fair catch.

That meant when the Eagles tackled him there, he was down. No touchback.

One play later, NAU quarterback Ty Pennington ran to his left but was tackled by Matthew Brown in the end zone for a safety. That made the score 14-9. It was EWU’s first safety since the 2021 season.

Both teams settled for red-zone field goals in the third quarter. A first-half miss by EWU’s Soren McKee was balanced out by NAU’s failed fourth-down trick play from the 6-yard line that ended in a loss of yards: the Lumberjacks lined up in a swinging gate formation, took the snap but didn’t get a throw off.

Another lost turnover battle

For the fifth time this season, the Eagles turned the ball over more than they took it away, the latest letdown in a point of emphasis for the team this season.

The turnover wasn’t particularly costly in that it came in the final two minutes when the Eagles needed not one score but two, sandwiched around a potential onside kick.

But the dearth of turnovers on the defensive end was still notable. On the season, the Eagles forced seven turnovers, including six interceptions and one fumble recovery. Only two FCS teams forced fewer this season.

It was indicative of the larger struggles Eastern had all year on defense.

After the game Saturday, EWU head coach Aaron Best echoed a sentiment he voiced at the start of the season: that the Eagles needed to be better on defense, even if they weren’t the Big Sky’s best.

“It starts with getting to the middle of the pack and then work our way up to the top of the pack,” Best said. “… Whatever it is, we’ve got to be better. We’ve got a top 15 offense in the country and not a top 15 defense in the country, and those things don’t match up.”

Chism check-in

Following a 13-catch, 119-yard performance, Efton Chism III finished his final season at Eastern Washington with one of the best-ever in program history.

His 120 receptions are the most ever made in a single season by an EWU receiver. His 1,311 receiving yards this year rank 10th in program history, and his 13 touchdown catches are tied for the 10th-most ever by an Eagles receiver in a single year.

Another way to look at it: Eastern’s quarterbacks completed 247 passes this year, and Chism caught almost half of them. Wortham was second on the team in receptions with 25. No one else had more than 20.

In his career, Chism finished with 3,852 receiving yards (third in team history), 37 touchdowns (third) and 346 receptions (second). The only players ahead of him in those categories are Cooper Kupp (first in all three) and Eric Kimble.

Chism said Saturday that the team never quit, even as the close losses accumulated.

“The leaders on the team and everyone else who was a part of this program didn’t quit, didn’t give up,” Chism said. “Every week was a new week, regardless of our record. Even when things were going wrong, we still showed up and gave it our all. At the end of the day, that’s huge to me, and I don’t take that for granted.”