Eastern Washington can’t find crucial defensive stop in loss to Montana 52-49

A rumbling rushing score on a third-and-10 by Jared Taylor.

An onside kick by Jackson Cleaver that he recovered himself.

A fourth-and-goal throw that DaJean Wells couldn’t quite get to.

It was a memorable night for the offense of Eastern Washington’s football team. It was also a good night, for the most part, for its special teams units.

And, for other reasons, it was a notable night for the Eagles’ defense.

Eastern Washington may look back at its performance Saturday against Montana as a turning point, especially in the second half, when the Eagles closed a 17-point gap to a three-point deficit with four and a half minutes to play.

But when the game was finished in front of a crowd of 8,846 who were mostly – but not entirely – there to root on the Eagles, Montana had won, 52-49.

And what a wild game it was.

“There was a ton of guts,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said. “A ton of belief.”

For Eastern Washington, though, there just weren’t a ton of stops.

It was Montana’s first win in Cheney since the red turf was first installed in 2010, ending a six-game losing streak for the Grizzlies. The victory improved No. 8 Montana’s overall record to 4-1 and gave them a win in their Big Sky Conference play opener.

The Grizzlies racked up 701 yards of offense, 16 shy of Montana’s single-game record. Quarterback Logan Fife finished 30 of 42 for 364 yards and five touchdowns. One of those went to Junior Bergen, Montana’s senior wide receiver who finished with 150 yards on seven receptions.

After punting on their opening drive, the Grizzlies scored 31 points on their next four, which helped them build a 31-14 halftime lead that looked like just the start of a dominant effort. And in many ways it was: After half, Montana scored three more touchdowns, punted just once and had another drive end in a missed field goal.

But after the break, the Eagles (1-4, 0-1) put together their best offensive half of the season. Aside from a three-and-out right after halftime and a failed fourth-down conversion at the edge of Montana’s red zone, the Eagles scored at will against Montana’s defense.

The barrage started with a 48-yard touchdown run by the senior quarterback Taylor, who barreled through the Grizzlies defense, lost the ball momentarily, regained possession and scampered the rest of the way to the end zone to make it 31-21 midway through the third quarter.

Montana answered with a 69-yard touchdown run by Eli Gillman, who had a game-high 160 yards on just 15 carries.

But the Eagles kept at it. After Efton Chism III caught a six-yard touchdown with 13:57 left in the fourth quarter to make it 38-28, Cleaver sprung a surprise onside kick by dribbling the ball just past the required 10 yards and falling on it himself.

“We’ve got to take calculated risks, which we did with that onside kick,” Best said. “We’ve got to stop somebody, and if we’re not stopping somebody let’s try to create our own momentum.”

It took just seven plays and just under 3 minutes for the Eagles to score again – on a seven-yard run by Kekoa Visperas – to make it 38-35.

Following that, Eastern had Montana in fourth-down situations twice but could not get a stop. The last one came on a fourth-and-goal play from the 2-yard line when Fife found tight end Jake Olson, who caught the ball just past Wells’ fingertips, for Montana’s last score with 2:34 to play, making it 52-42.

Eastern answered that score, too, with a 16-yard touchdown catch by Cole Pruett. But the Eagles’ final onside kick with 52 seconds left bounced out of bounds, and the Grizzlies kneeled out the clock to secure the win.

“I should have jumped a little sooner,” Chism said of the onside kick that he nearly recovered. “It’s definitely frustrating when you look back at the replay and you’re inches away. It’s a game of inches, which is tough, challenging.”

Chism finished with 107 receiving yards, becoming the seventh EWU player to amass 3,000 career receiving yards. He also scored three touchdowns.

After a slow first half, the redshirt junior Visperas finished 22 of 38 for 265 passing yards and four touchdowns while also rushing 11 times for a career-high 61 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first time he’d scored multiple passing and rushing touchdowns in the same game, something quarterback Eric Barriere – who was on the EWU sideline on Saturday – did just twice in his career at Eastern.

The Eagles’ 551 yards of offense were a season-high, four more than they had in their 42-27 victory over Monmouth in the first game of the season. They finished 9 of 14 on third down and didn’t turn the ball over.

Soren McKee made all seven point-after attempts but missed a 40-yard field-goal attempt wide right – his first miss of the season – on Eastern’s opening drive.

Now Eastern heads into a bye week with seven conference games left, still looking to end a losing streak that has stretched to four games. The Eagles’ next game is Oct. 12 at Sacramento State.

“I think as an offense it feels good when you look up and see how many points you scored,” Chism said. “We’ve had a couple tough ones in a row. Hopefully that momentum carries over.”