Eastern Washington struggles defensively in loss to UC Davis 48-38

In the lead-up to Saturday’s game at Roos Field against UC Davis, Eastern Washington players avoided mentioning Lan Larison by name, opting instead to just refer to him as “No. 3.”

Containing No. 3, they said, was the No. 1 priority. For one quarter, the Eagles did just that, holding the front-runner for the Big Sky Offensive MVP to just 27 yards on his first nine touches.

But as has so often been the case with this season’s Eastern Washington football team, as its defense held up its part for the first 15 minutes, its offense sputtered.

Eventually, Aggies running back Larison busted loose, and once he did it seemed the rest of the UC Davis offense came with him, as the sixth-ranked Aggies beat the Eagles 48-38 for the program’s first win over Eastern Washington after losing the first 11 matchups.

“He’s a tough tackle. … I don’t think he gets enough credit even though you might say he gets a ton of credit,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said of Larison. “Our challenge to the defense was to contain him … (257) all-purpose yards, that’s a decent day at quarterback, and he doesn’t play that position.

“He’s a good player, but I think we made him a little more effective than we anticipated.”

Larison has been the focal point of an Aggies offense that came in averaging 436 yards of offense, third most in the Big Sky. That offense was stunted early, held to 45 yards on its first four drives, each of which ended in a punt.

Yet once the Aggies got going – Larison’s 53-yard touchdown run was the first of four consecutive UC Davis touchdowns that gave them a 28-9 lead – it made the first quarter look as if the Aggies had merely been patiently testing the Eagles’ defense for weaknesses that they could later exploit.

Eight of the Aggies’ final 10 drives ended in points, including touchdowns of 40, 26 and 90 yards as UC Davis (7-1, 4-0 Big Sky) became the third team in the past four games to rack up more than 500 yards against the Eagles (2-5, 1-2) this season.

“I hurt for these kids. I want these kids to be successful,” Best said. “But there are too many things that are in our control as coaches and players (for us to) allow 48 points and 26 first downs, to allow 549 yards on 68 snaps. There’s too much in our control.”

After taking a 3-0 lead on its second drive of the game, Eastern went three-and-out on each of its next three drives, failing to capitalize on the stalwart play of its defense early on.

“The defense played great in that first quarter,” EWU senior wide receiver Efton Chism III said. “We’ve got to go down there and score. We have to get that first first down. That’s super important for us.”

It was another standout game for Chism, who scored Eastern’s first touchdown on a 61-yard reception in the second quarter that cut Davis’ lead to 14-9. Jackson Cleaver missed the ensuing extra point wide left, which led to the Eagles going for 2-pointers after their next two touchdowns. They failed on both attempts.

That meant that in the second half, when Kekoa Visperas’ 2-yard touchdown run sparked an Eagles’ comeback not unlike the one they mounted three weeks ago against Montana, the Eagles pulled within 10 points (31-21), rather than getting back within a single score.

Cleaver made amends of sorts on Eastern’s next possession when he drilled a career-high 45-yard field goal to make it 31-24.

But after that, the Eagles were unable to get a stop on defense, allowing touchdowns by wide receivers Chaz Davis and Samuel Gbatu Jr. – the second of the game for each – to balloon the Aggies’ lead to 45-24 with 11 minutes remaining.

Eastern made things somewhat interesting by recovering a muffed punt and scoring a couple of more touchdowns – one on a Jared Taylor run and a second on another scamper by Visperas – but the defense’s inability to get another stop made those mostly moot.

This season, EWU opponents have reached the red zone 26 times, and every time they have left with points, including 23 touchdowns.

The loss overshadowed some strong individual performances on both sides of the ball for EWU. Redshirt freshman safety Derek Ganter Jr. made a career-high 11 tackles, including his first career sack, and forced a fumble – the first one by the Eagles’ defense this season.

Chism set a career high with 15 receptions – on 20 targets – that went for 170 yards and a touchdown, his eighth of the season. He leads the Big Sky with 69 receptions this year and has 750 receiving yards.

With 3,291 career receiving yards, he ranks fifth on the program’s all-time list after passing Kendrick Bourne (3,130).

Playing without injured starting receivers Nolan Ulm and Miles Williams, redshirt sophomore Wesley Garrett made the first six catches of his career (for 76 yards) and scored his first touchdown. He was also the one who recovered the muffed punt.

Visperas also threw for a season-high 319 yards, completing 30 of 42 passes while accounting for four touchdowns, including the two he ran for.

But again, that effort resulted in a loss for the Eagles, who are by their own admission still looking to put together the proverbial full four quarters of team football as they prepare to face the 13th-ranked Idaho Vandals (5-3, 2-2) next week in Moscow.

“If you just look at the big plays they made, it was the same big plays,” Ganter said.

“… That’s just something we did in pockets. We had good energy, in pockets.”