Eagles are 'Sky kings once again

Kendrick Bourne was finally able to forget the four other passes that he was not able to get his hands on last Friday.

Because the one grab the Portland native did make from 10 yards out proved to be the winning points for the third-ranked Football Championship Subdivision Eastern Washington University Eagles who rallied to score a 35-28 Big Sky Conference football victory over the Portland State Vikings at Providence Park.

With the win, the Eagles (8-0 Big Sky, 10-1 overall) tied the University of North Dakota - a team they did not play in 2016 - for the conference title. Eastern equaled its best regular season finish in 108 years of football and finished with its second unbeaten Big Sky season in 30 years in the conference.

"I know coach talk and 'They're better than their record and that stuff,' (but) that team that we just played is a very good football team," Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin said in a postgame radio interview. "I knew it was going to take a lot and it was going to be a 60-minute battle."

Bourne, a 2013 graduate of Milwaukie Arts Academy in Portland, caught quarterback Gage Gubrud's bullet of a pass in traffic just inside the end zone with 8 minutes, 19 seconds to play.

The defense then wrapped up the package.

The Vikings had one more shot at a tie, starting at their own 19 with 8:14 to play. Quarterback Alex Kuresa led the drive that reached the Eagles' 23, but Samson Ebukam's sack of Kuresa forced Portland State into a fourth and 15.

Kuresa's scramble came up three yards short, Eastern took over and ran out the clock. Portland State finished the season 3-8 overall and 2-6 in the league following last year's playoff appearance.

Ebukam, from David Douglas High in Portland, had a pair of sacks for a combined loss of 16 yards. Alek Kachmarcik led the Eagles with 14 total tackles, while Zach Bruce had nine solos and 11 total. Victor Gamboa had an interception.

Eastern never led until Bourne's catch. They rallied to tie at 14-14 and 21-21. They trailed again before true freshman Tamarick Pierce scored on a 6-yard run with 12:45 to play to tie the game at 28-28.

Following Pierce's score, his second of the game, Eastern's defense forced Portland State into a three-and-out and Gubrud then marched his team on the deciding nine-play, 61-yard drive.

Gubrud connected on his last four passes, three to Nick Sblendorio to keep the drive alive. Gubrud went 24 of 41 for 304 yards and an interception for the sophomore from nearby McMinville, Ore.

After PSU put Eastern on its heels early, dominating play and the clock, carving out a 14-0 lead by the 2:14 mark of the first quarter, the Eagles began their comeback.

It started with Sblendorio's 46-yard touchdown catch from a scrambling Gubrud with 15 seconds to play in the opening quarter. The teams played a scoreless second quarter and went to the halftime break with PSU leading 14-7.

Pierce's first score from 2 yards out with 9:24 to play in the third evened it at 14-14. A key play in the drive came on a third and 18 at the EWU 47 when Gubrud found Cooper Kupp down the right side for 38 yards. After battling the defender for the leaping catch, Kupp crashed to the turf on his left shoulder. He left the game, not to return, and was later seen on the sideline in a sling.

But 2:01 later Nate Tago's first of two touchdowns gave the Vikings back the lead at 21-14.

After the team's traded possessions, Eastern got the ball back. It took just two plays, both to Shaq Hill, who beat his defender down the left sideline, caught a perfectly-thrown Gubrud pass in stride for 84 yards and a 21-21 tie with 3:58 to play in the third quarter.

"You need to find some of those," Baldwin said, referencing Hill, the Stockton, Calif. senior who led his team with seven catches and 124 yards. "That was a big moment."

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Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.