Eagles win thriller over Bengals

POCATELLO, Idaho — The Idaho State Bengals have to be excited that the next time they meet Eastern Washington that Eric Barriere and Andrew Boston will not be across the line of scrimmage.

That combination of quarterback and wide receiver combined for two touchdowns, the most damaging of which coming with 25 seconds remaining capping the most unlikely of comebacks as Eastern escaped from Holt Arena with a 46-42 Big Sky Conference spring football victory.

“We witnessed number three is the best player in America,” head coach Aaron Best said of Barriere in a postgame EWU radio broadcast interview.

In winning for a second straight week, Eastern (2-1) erased a 42-31 ISU (1-2) lead scoring twice in the final 5 minutes, 49 seconds. Barriere first concluded a drive that consumed 2:45 and covered 86 yards on an 8-yard TD strike to Blake Gobel closing it to 42-39 on a 2-point conversion, Barriere to Boston.

The Bengals had been virtually lights-out on third down conversions going 8-of-13. But they missed on a third-and-four, compounded things with a false start penalty on the punt.

That gave the Eagles and Barriere the ball at their own 40 with 4:16 to play. Barriere connected on four passes — two to Boston for 31 yards, one to Talolo Limu-Jones for no yards and a 12-yard strike to Efton Chisim — helping drive his team to the ISU 17. It was then burn the clock time with Dennis Merritt getting the next four calls and moving the ball to the 6, setting up Boston for the winning points.

“The guts, just the amount of energy, the passion, the resiliency that they showed behind (number) three,” Best said of the team. “He told me midway through the fourth quarter we ain’t losing this and he kept his word.”

Barriere passed for 455 yards and five touchdowns and completed 34-of-50 passes with two interceptions. Boston finished with 10 receptions for 143 yards and two scores, Freddie Roberson had eight for 142 and Limu-Jones added eight grabs for 99 yards and a score.

This was a game punctuated by momentum swings that piled up points on each side.

After Eastern built an early 10-0 lead, Idaho State scored the next 21 consecutive points, but a Merritt score sent the Eagles to the locker room trailing 21-17.

A Limu-Jones’ TD at 10:01 of the third helped Eastern regain the lead 24-21 but Idaho State wrapped 1-yard touchdown runs by Tyler Vander Waal around Merritt’s second score to lead 35-31 heading into the fourth.

“Give a lot of credit to coach (Rob) Phenicie and his staff, they were ready and took it to us for the better part of 59 minutes,” Best said.

Anthany Smith clinched the victory with an interception on the game’s final play, securing Eastern’s 11th-straight time over Idaho State. Ty Graham led his team with eight combined tackles while Tre Weed had five solos.

Eastern now has one of its bye weeks and next takes on former EWU head coach Beau Baldwin and Cal Poly on Saturday, March 27.

Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.