After solid effort at Oregon, Eastern tries to collect first-ever victory in Northern Iowa's UNI dome
Eastern Washington's All-American receiver Cooper Kupp delivers a stiff-arm at Oregon defender Ugo Amadi last Saturday. Kupp had another standout performance when he established Autzen Stadium records for catches with 15 and yards with 246. Kupp will have another hostile stadium crowd to try to quiet this Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa where the Eagles face perennial FCS power, the Northern Iowa Panthers..
rom ear-splitting noise outdoors, to ear-splitting noise indoors. That's the environment No. 7 Eastern Washington faces as they travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa this Saturday for an 11 a.m. Central Time kickoff at No. 14 University of Northern Iowa's UNI Dome.
However, if 58,000 screaming fans at Autzen Stadium in Eugene didn't much rattle the Eagles in their 61-42 opening week loss to Pac-12 power Oregon, then maybe 15,000 indoors will not either.
EWU play-by-play broadcaster Larry Weir remembers there being no place for the noise to go inside the 40-year-old dome.
"We know that playing at their home stadium and their home environment will be difficult," Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin said. "You really have to pack your lunch pail and know that they truly take their game to another level when they are in that dome."
Eastern will look for its first victory in six games in the series, with all of the previous five matchups taking place in Cedar Falls, located two hours northeast of Des Moines.
The first meeting came in the 1985 FCS playoffs when the Eagles lost 17-14, a score matched seven years later in the playoffs in 1992. The Panthers also triumphed 41-38 in the FCS Playoffs in 2005 – the last time the two schools met.
Eastern also fell in the UNI Dome in regular season games in 1989, 47-21 and 1994 by a 27-17 count.
The schools will play the second game in this home-and-home series Sept. 17, 2016 at Roos Field.
Eastern faces a Panther team that also faced a Football Bowl Subdivision foe in Iowa State in Ames where the Cyclones erased a 7-0 deficit and scored the game's final points in a 31-7 victory.
UNI's lone touchdown came on a 19-yard catch from Savon Huggins.
Northern Iowa chalked up 302 total yards versus ISU's 310 with 176 coming through the air and the arm of quarterback Aaron Bailey, who also rushed for a team-leading 85 yards. Darrian Miller led the team in receiving yards with 58.
Eastern's offense was in high-gear against last year's runner-up team in the FBS title game to Ohio State. EWU finished with 438 yards of passing offense and 549 total.
Junior quarterback Jordan West passed for 293 yards and three touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter with a leg cramp. In the first half alone, West was 22 of 29 for 277 yards. Reilly Hennessey passed for 145 yards and a pair of scores in relief of West.
Cooper Kupp finished with a career high of 15 catches for 246 yards – both Autzen Stadium records. The junior wide receiver had three touchdown receptions to give him 40 in his career, just six behind the Big Sky Conference and EWU records.
Saturday's contest is the Panthers' only home game until mid-October, and after their meeting with the Eagles they hit the road for what could be a brutal run of games at Cal Poly (Sept. 19) and then meet Missouri Valley Conference heavyweights - and the 2014 FCS championship opponents - Illinois State (Oct. 3) and North Dakota State (Oct. 10).
Last season, UNI had the distinction of beating those two teams on its way to a record of 9-5.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)