LA GRANDE, Ore. – If you like offense you'll love this one. The Eastern Oregon University (2-2) football team racked up a school record 76 points in their 76-55 win over Rocky Mountain College (2-3) Saturday.
The Mountaineer faithful that packed community stadium had plenty to cheer about as the Eastern offense made spectacular play after spectacular play led by fab freshman Chris Ware and his favorite target, sophomore wideout Kirk Miller. The dynamic duo connected for four Touchdowns on the afternoon.
Ware finished the game 23-35 for 443 yards and five TD's in the air. The Rainier High School grad also rushed for 114 yards and three more scores. His counterpart Miller caught 6 balls for 178 yards on the way to his four scores. The 443 yards in the air for Ware broke Joel Ryser's school record of 429 put up back in 1981.
As a whole the EOU offense tallied and a mind blowing 714 total yards. Incredibly, Battlin' Bears Quarterback Kasey Peters threw for almost 200 more yards than Ware as the Newport Beach, California native totaled 634 yards and seven Touchdowns. The two teams combined for more than 1,300 crowd pleasing yards on the day.
The game started with Rocky scoring 14 straight points only to see Eastern respond with 21 unanswered. Down 27-21 after a quick scoring drive that took the Bears just 1:27, EOU got the ball with 32 ticks left on the clock and snatched back the momentum when Ware tossed a 41 yard hail mary as time expired to tie the game at 27.
The second half saw both teams' trade blows but with the score tied at 48, Eastern somehow managed to turn their offense up another notch as the Mounties put 28 fourth quarter points on the board to win the game 76-55 in the highest scoring game at EOU in recent memory.
Eastern will be at home again next week when the NAIA defending national champion Carroll College Saints come to La Grande.
The game is being marketed as the Gold Rush Game and the Sports Information and Marketing department will hand out free, limited edition wear gold get loud T-Shirts to the first 200 students to come through the gates.
Game time is 1:00 show up early, wear gold and get loud!
