LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Mountaineer defense assembled stops when the team needed it most, and the Eastern Oregon University football team muscled its way past College of Idaho, 21-10, on Saturday afternoon at Community Stadium.
The Yotes got inside EOU's 30-yard line on six different occasions but were held to only one field goal on those tries.
"I am really pleased," said head football coach Tim Camp. "We wanted to play more of a complete game today. I think we accomplished that. Our defense and our offense certainly had the best performances of the day. We are continuing to develop, and that's really what we wanted to do in this game."
Key Performances
EOU saw strong performances on both ends of the field.
Junior quarterback Zach Bartlow went 15-for-27 for 179 yards, including three passing touchdowns, while junior running back Alfred Gross registered 113 yards on 17 carries for the Mountaineers.
Racking up 105 receiving yards, sophomore wide receiver Joshua Richards caught two touchdowns for EOU, including a 59-yarder in the third quarter that put the Navy and Gold on top, 21-10.
Defensively, EOU saw tenacious efforts from senior linebacker Gary Posten and junior linebacker Tucker Stanley, as they tallied 15 and 10 tackles, respectively. Both senior defensive back Adam Bese and junior defensive back Jesus Retano mustered interceptions for the Mountaineers.
The Storyline
College of Idaho snagged an early 10-0 lead in the opening stanza via a three-yard rushing touchdown by AJ Martin and a 28-yard field goal by Hartvig Bondo. Meanwhile, EOU couldn't find any continuity on the offensive end, tallying just 32 on its first three drives.
The Navy and Gold put its first-quarter woes behind and capped an 8-play, 56-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Bartlow to Richards to get on the board at the 12:29 mark of the second quarter. The Yotes failed to get past their own nine, and the Mountaineers capitalized with another touchdown, this time from Bartlow to sophomore wide receiver Brenden Kelly.
In the final moments of the half, College of Idaho threatened to score after Teejay Gordon's pass to Austin Diffey brought the Yotes to EOU's 29-yard line, but Retano stepped in front of Gordon's toss on 3rd-and-5 to keep the I-84 rival at bay.
After the Mountaineers forced a turnover on downs on College of Idaho's first possession of the second half, Bartlow found Richards for the 59-yard touchdown to extend EOU's lead to 11 (21-10) with 7:20 left in the third quarter.
Although the Yotes got inside the Mountaineers' 30-yard line on their final two possessions of the third, EOU's tenacious defense forced two turnovers on downs to stay afloat.
In its last possession of the contest, College of Idaho (3-7, 3-6 Frontier) attempted one last gasp, this time getting to EOU's 15-yard line, but Bese came away with the huge interception on 4th-and-10 to put the ball back in the hands of the Mountaineers for the remainder of the game.
"Today gave us a chance to get back home and to get a big conference win," said Camp. "There are still a lot of things we can improve on. I believe the assistant coaches and our players showed a great amount of spirit in their approach to this game."
Stats of the Game
0 – Points allowed by EOU's defense in the final three quarters.
0 – Penalties committed by the Mountaineers.
Up Next
EOU (4-6, 4-5 Frontier) concludes the 2015 season on Nov. 14 against No. 1 Southern Oregon at noon. It will be Senior Day at Community Stadium, as eight student-athletes will don the Navy and Gold one last time.
