BILLINGS, Mont. – The Eastern Oregon University football team will be looking for its third straight victory Saturday at Rocky Mountain College.
The Mountaineers (2-3) (2-2) and RMC have had displays of offensive battles in the past four meetings, with the EOU winning three of those games. The pair of Frontier Conference teams have scored a combined 376 points in the past four matchups, an average score of 50 to 45.
Eastern holds an eight to three advantage over the Battlin' Bears in the 11 all-time meetings. The Mountaineers have won four of the five meetings in La Grande, and four of the six at Herb Klindt Field in Billings.
The last game between the two was at RMC on Oct. 10, when EOU rallied from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Rocky Mountain College, 43-36. Despite 502 passing yards from the national leader in total passing yards at the time, Kasey Peters of Rocky Mountain, the Mountaineers gained 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.
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.
The first meeting last season was on Sept. 5, in La Grande, defeated Rocky Mountain College, 58-50, in another battle of two prolific offenses. In a game that featured 1,029 yards of offense, the Mountaineers were able to outlast the Battlin' Bears in the final minutes. Peters threw for 513 yards, completing 42 of his 61 passes with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Ware completed 22 of his 30 pass attempts for 336 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. The two phenomenal quarterbacks combined for 91 passes with no interceptions.
The Mountaineers'
Kevin Sampson caught five passes for a team-high 125 yards. Rocky Mountain's Sutton, Cavan Cooney and Guisti each had over 120 yards receiving. Sutton had 13 catches for 131 yards, Cooney caught nine passes for 120 yards and Guisti had seven for 121. The teams combined for 67 first downs and 357 kick return yards.
On Sept. 27, 2008, Eastern and the Bears combined for 1,391 yards of offense in a matchup in La Grande. EOU pulled away with a 76-55 win, but Peters threw for 634 yards in the game, completing 43 of his 62 pass attempts for seven touchdowns and one interception.
Rocky Mountain (2-3) (2-2) is coming off of a 34-23 victory over Montana State-Northern in Billings. The Bears jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead, but was outscored 14-0 in the third quarter. A pair of 30-plus yard passes from Peters for touchdowns gave RMC the cushion it needed. Peters threw for 318 yards and completed 18 of his 26 pass attempts.
The Bears gave up 404 yards of total offense, 227 coming on the ground. Rocky has averaged giving up 144 rushing yards per game. In comes the conference's leading running attack in Eastern. The Mountaineers 859 yards on the ground are 10th in the NAIA.
Kevin Sampson leads the league in rushing yards averaging 128 per game.
Last year's game time temperature in Billings was forecasted at 21 degrees. There were some traces of snow left on the natural grass turf. Saturday the forecast for kickoff is a high of 82 degrees with no chance of a shower.
Saturday's game time is set for 1 p.m. MT, with pre-game beginning at 11:40 a.m. PT on 104.7 FM KCMB. The Bears play-by-play radio affiliates, KQBL, will be making the calls on the radio feed. There is also a live video feed from the game. Local fans in La Grande can come to Benchwarmers Pub and Grill to watch the game live.
