Saturday's 'Shaq attack' helps Eagles' towards their playoff goal

On a day when most observers figured that Cooper Kupp would once again grab the headlines, as he deservedly does with regularity, Shaq Hill beat him to the ink.

Where Kupp has ruled the record books almost since first donning No. 10 in 2013, Hill, a senior from Stockton, Calif. put himself into that conversation -albeit maybe only briefly - with his four touchdown catches that propelled Eastern Washington University to yet another come-from-behind win, 49-31 over Northern Colorado.

The show that Shaq put on during Homecoming and Military Appreciation day before just short of 11,000 fans at Roos Field, not only paved the way to Eastern's fourth consecutive win, improving the Eagles to 5-1 overall, but helped them remain undefeated, 3-0 in conference play and primed for the postseason at the halfway point of the season.

Hill tied the 30-year-old school record of four touchdown receptions, originally set by Jamie Buenzli in 1987 against Nevada and equaled by Joe Pierce in 2003 versus Central Washington.

While he made many an acrobatic grab from quarterback Gage Gubrud - who in his own universe had stunning stats completing 33 of 39 passes for 435 yards - it was Hill's final score that might have been his best, and possibly most important trip of the day into the black Sprinturf at Roos.

With Eastern clinging to an 11-point lead, 42-31, and the clock working itself towards the 1-minute mark, Gubrud found Hill all alone about the Northern Colorado 25.

After catching the ball in space, Hill soon had a group of three UNC defenders try to stop him short of the end zone, hoping to preserve a thread of a chance for a Bears' comeback.

As he tried to get his 5-foot, 10-inch 180-pounds over the goalline Hill was determined as ever.

"I just wasn't going to go down," Hill said following the game. "The only thing I was worried about was the ball," which he shoved over the goal line, but not before an official's review, just to be sure.

This season has offered one last chance for Hill to resurrect his Eastern career that has had some truly special moments, like a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown versus North Dakota, and a 93-yard return in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs versus Illinois State.

His 52-catch, 756-yard 2014 season earned Hill third-team All-Big Sky honors and set the stage for 2015, which would have been his true senior year. He was a conference honorable mention recipient in 2013 where he had a career-best 790-yard, nine-touchdown campaign.

But Hill injured his knee in EWU's 2015 opener versus Oregon, and, after a pair of surgeries, missed the rest of the season.

There was a lot of soul-searching following the injury.

"I went through a lot going through that and I kind of decided to sit back and asked myself, 'Do I really love it (football), and I really did,'" Hill said in an Oct. 3 interview at the EWU Coach's Show with broacaster Larry Weir. "There's not one little thing that I don't love," he added.

On Saturday, Hill's final two touchdowns helped the Eagles distance themselves from the pesky Bears, who led at halftime 17-14, and prior to his third TD, a 42-yard pass from Gubrud, had closed to within 35-31 on a Quinn Zamora score.

But panic is not part of the mindset in the Eagles' locker room.

"It's kind of just a mindset, we've been in this situation before," Hill said. "It was kinda' deja vu from last week," he added referencing the Eagles comeback against Cal Davis where the Eagles trailed 23-14 at halftime before storming out of the locker room to score a 63-30 win.

"Nothing changed for us," Hill said.

"I feel like we're getting comfortable with the uncomfortable," he added. "A lot of people would be uncomfortable in that situation but we're comfortable with that."

Hill's role as a kick returner has diminished this season, but he's still out there to block, and run interference, for youngsters like Simba Webster and Antoine Custer Jr.

He tells either Webster or Custer, "Just follow me, that's where the hole is going to be."

And they do.

Hill helped spring Custer loose on his 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown versus Northern Iowa, effectively turning the tide in what would become a 34-30 Eastern win.

"It is a little different considering I started here doing kick returns, (but) I just attack the role," Hill said.

Hill longs to get Eastern back to the FCS playoffs, and so far it's so good.

If they get there with Eagles' fourth Big Sky title in five years, Hill would share a unique spot as the only player in school history to earn four rings that go with that honor.

Now when teams prepare to defend arguably the best corps of receivers in FCS football, Hill, who lines up with another lethal weapon in Kendrick Bourne, showed last Saturday that if "Coop" or "KB" don't get ya' "Shaq" certainly will.

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