BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Eastern Oregon football team rallied from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Rocky Mountain College, 43-36, Saturday.

Despite 502 passing yards from the national leader in total passing yards, Kasey Peters of Rocky Mountain College, the Mountaineers 420 yards of offense and pulled out a thrilling win at the Battlin' Bears homecoming game. Both teams combined for 1,005 yards of total offense.

"I could not be more proud of this football team," EOU head coach Tim Camp said. "They came into this game as a team and they won as a team. We had a team that was able to handle adversity and play with a great amount of heart and passion. We need to improve in some areas and I am mostly talking about myself. I am extremely happy and grateful for this coaching staff I assembled. The team and my coaches deserve all the credit."

EOU's Chris Ware threw for 363 yards completing 34 of his 55 attempts. The sophomore threw five touchdowns and two interceptions. Peters finished completing 43 of his 67 attempts with two touchdowns and an interception. Three RMC receivers finished with over 100 yards receiving. Levi Sutton finished three shy of a NAIA record with 20 receptions for 192 yards. Nathan Barnett caught 10 passes for 151 yards, and Brian Guisti had 10 receptions for 125 yards.

Mike Corral led the Mountaineers with nine catches for 126 yards. Kirk Miller and Jordyn Jackson each caught six passes for 85 and 55 yards respectively.

Peters connected with Barnett on a 42-yard touchdown strike to give RMC a 36-21 lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter. EOU proved its ranking and that its a top team in the Frontier Conference rallying from that deficit in the final 15 minutes. Ware began the rally with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Corral 29 seconds into the fourth quarter. After a defensive stop Ware drove the Mountaineers 74 yards in 11 plays, capped off by a 4-yard pass to Justin Reynolds for the chance at the tying score with 9:19 remaining.

Jackson caught the game-tying reception on the two-point conversion attempt by EOU. After another big stop by the Eastern defense, the Mountaineers marched 65 yards on 10 plays for the game winning score on a Ware 5-yard pass to Miller.

Marc-Avery Airhart, Jeff McNally, and Corey Dunn all finished with nine tackles each to lead the Mountaineer defense. Airhart broke up three passes and eight of his tackles were unassisted. Rodell Razor had one interception, and Hayden Plocher recovered a fumble.

Ware led EOU on the ground with 37 yards on 10 carries. Michael Thomas was Rocky Mountain's leading rusher with 55 yards on 13 carries. Eastern had 57 yards total on the ground, compared to RMC's 78.

Eastern Oregon returns to La Grande for two straight weekends beginning next Saturday for homecoming against Montana-Western. The Mountaineers defeated Western on Sept. 12, 45-24, in Dillon, Mont. Saturday the Bulldogs fell at Montana Tech, 16-7, in Butte, Mont. Carroll defeated Montana State-Northern, 32-0, in Saturday's other Frontier Conference game.