Box Score LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 3 Carroll College football team made a significant step in defending the Frontier Conference for a 12th straight time with a 31-21 win at No. 22 Eastern Oregon University Saturday.
A near capacity crowd watched the rematch that featured the two conference powers. Early in the season the first game was claimed by the Mountaineers 41-33, ending a 44-game conference winning streak by Carroll.
The Fighting Saints came to La Grande looking to revenge the lone loss on their impressive record, but in the first half they ran into an inspired Mountaineer defense that would give up only a 22-yard Tom Yaremko field goal in the first quarter, and an 11-yard touchdown pass from Dane Broadhead to Matt Ritter with only 69 seconds left in the half.
Eastern Oregon was unable to put the ball in the end zone in the first half and had to wait until late in the third quarter to finally put points on the board with a four-yard
Chris Ware to
Jake Burroughs pass play for a touchdown. This score was proceeded with a first position third quarter Broadhead to Chance Demarais 12-yard touchdown pass.
The third period action ended with a comfortable Carroll College lead of 24–7, and a sizable statistical lead in favor of the visiting Saints.
In the fourth quarter, Carroll was unable to control the ball and keep Ware's arm from giving Carroll an easy win, as twice Ware found speedy wide receiver
Abraham Naway for long touchdown passes. The first for 48 yards, and the second for 52. Carroll was able to keep their lead comfortable with a Demarais three-yard scoring run.
EOU could not find an answer to the power running of Demarais, as he ran for 237 yards on 26 carries. Broadhead balanced out the Saints offense by passing for 114 yards with 16 completions on 26 attempts.
The Mountaineers were led by Ware's 275 passing yards on a 17 for 30 performance, and Kevin Sampsons's 63 yards on 16 attempts.
Eastern Oregon welcomes Montana State-Northern to Community Stadium next Saturday for Senior Day and the final regular season game in La Grande this season. Kickoff is scheduled for noon, not the usual 1 p.m. start.
