Hobbled Adams leads Eagles over Bengals

Vernon Adams likened last Saturday's Big Sky Conference football game to a boxing match, one that went the entire 10 rounds.

Because that's what it took, virtually the entire 60 minutes for Eastern Washington to finally put the Idaho State Bengals on the mat. The Eagles won a 56-53 shootout at Roos Field witnessed by 11,256 - the third largest crowd ever and the biggest non-Montana game audience.

"Idaho State came out firing, it was a boxing match," Adams said.

The limping Adams, who would later be diagnosed having broken two bones in his foot, never let the pain affect him in passing for four touchdowns and running for another pair - along with 79 rushing yards on 14 carries - and in the process becomming the all-time Big Sky leader in touchdown passes with 99.

Adams finished the day completing 23 of 35 passes for 354 yards, eclipsing 10,000 career yards in the process.

The Eagles are now 5-1 and 2-0 in the Big Sky Conference and travel to Cedar City, Utah for a Saturday contest against Southern Utah (1-1 Big Sky, 1-5 overall), the last team to defeat them in conference play on Oct., 27, 2012. Kickoff is at 12:05 p.m.

"He was playing through a lot of pain," EWU head coach Beau Baldwin said. "He still was finding ways to get first downs. He gutted it out, and he made a lot of plays."

It took a lot of big plays to shake the Bengals, now 1-1 and 2-3 overall, who led 14-7 with 6 minutes, 51 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

That's when Adams, Cooper Kupp and Dylan Zylstra spurred an EWU run outscoring ISU 28-3 to lead 35-17 with 9:26 on the first-half clock.

Adams scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 30-yard run at the 4-minute mark of the first quarter. A minute and 46 seconds later Kupp had his second touchdown as Eastern got its first lead, 21-14. Adams scored from 3 yards out with 9:26 to go in the half and then special teams delivered.

Samson Ebukam broke in on ISU's rugby-style punter C.J. Reyes, blocking the kick that was recovered by Zylstra with 4:35 to play in the half and Eastern led 35-17.

But ISU punched back with a pair of scores by Madison Mangum in the final 3:22, cutting Eastern's lead to 35-31 at the break. The second Bengal TD was set up by an Adams' interception.

Eastern's defense stifled the Bengals and their momentum to open the third quarter and the Eagles quickly regained an 11-point lead, 42-31 on Cody Hecker's 2-yard run with 11:56 remaining in the third. That score was keyed by a Mario Brown 73-yard run, who was chased down by ISU's Cody Sorenson at the 2. Brown would lead the Eagles on the ground with 126 yards in 18 carries.

Idaho State's next possession lasted just two plays before safety Jordan Tonani reached out to intercept a Justin Arias pass. Two plays later Kendrick Bourne scored on a 43-yard catch, pumping the Eagles' lead to 49-31 with 10:37 to play in the third.

Over the game's final 20 minutes the momentum swung back Idaho State's way as they outscored Eastern 21-7. Broc Malcom and Xavier Finney scored to cut the lead to 49-45 1:11 into the fourth quarter.

Kupp's third touchdown of the day pushed Eastern back to a two-possession lead at 56-45 with 6:30 to play, but Williams second touchdown of the day with 3:52 to play made it 56-53. Kupp led Eastern with eight catches for 132 yards.

Eastern got the ball back, took advantage of ISU's limited timeouts and ran out the clock.

"They did a lot of stuff offensively that made it very difficult on us," Tonani said. "All of a sudden they're hitting big plays and the tide is starting to shift on us."

Eastern held a slim 617-614 edge over Idaho State in total yardage, losing the passing battle 421-354 as Arias completes 27 of 41 yards for six touchdowns. Eastern had a 263-193 edge on the ground.

EWU punter Jake Miller served up a crucial 70-yard punt to the ISU 6, helping stop the Bengal's late first-half surge.

Tevin McDonald, Ronnie Hamlin, Cody McCarthy and Miquiyah Zamora each had eight tackles for Eastern.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].