The Eagle defense has been nails the past six games, and picked a great time to have its best performance of the season.
 
The third-ranked and No. 2 seeded Eastern Washington University football team used a defensive shutout in the second half and 517 yards of total offense by sophomore Gage Gubrud to roll past the 14th-ranked University of Central Arkansas Bears at Roos Field Saturday (Dec. 3) in Cheney, Wash., in the second round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.
 
Eastern scored the final 31 points of the game in advancing to the quarterfinals, and will host Richmond next Saturday (Dec. 10) at 1 p.m. Pacific time at Roos Field at Cheney, Wash. Tickets for the game are already on sale to the general public via www.goeags.com.
 
Eastern's defense held Central Arkansas to 244 yards of offense, bettering the 292 Eastern held Idaho State to on Nov. 12. It was the third time in six games Eastern has held an opponent to 17 points or less, with the 14 allowed bettering the previous best in a 35-16 win over Montana on Oct. 29. Eastern also had a second-half shutout in a 41-17 victory over Montana State at Oct. 22.
 
Gubrud, who joins teammate Cooper Kupp as one of three finalists for the Payton Award given to the top offensive player in FCS, had a school record 47 completions. He finished with 517 yards of total offense to rank fourth in school history, while passing for 449 and rushing for another 68.
 
Eastern had 11 different players catch passes, including a career-high 13 for 126 yards by senior Kendrick Bourne. Kupp, playing with a shoulder injury suffered against Portland State on Nov. 18, had 10 catches for 95 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Eagles finished with 531 yards of total offense.
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* Eastern is 11-1 overall with its 10th-straight win, and haven't lost since falling to five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State 50-44 in overtime on Sept. 10. The Eagles finished 8-0 in the Big Sky Conference and was co-champion with North Dakota.

* Central Arkansas finished its season 10-3 and was the runner-up in the Southland Conference with an 8-1 mark. The Bears advanced to play the Eagles with a 31-24 victory over Illinois State. Down 17-7 in the third quarter, UCA scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to pull out the win over the Missouri Valley Conference foe.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* Eastern is the No. 2 seed overall in the playoffs, which guarantees the Eagles will host games up to the National Championship game on Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas (9 a.m. Pacific time on ESPN2). Eastern will next host CAA squad Richmond, which came from behind to beat North Dakota from the Big Sky 27-24 in another second round game. Jacksonville State (10-1), the runner-up last year, received the No. 3 seed and would have been a potential semifinal opponent, but fell 40-24 to Youngstown State. Five-time defending champion North Dakota State (10-1) received the overall No. 1 seed and is in the upper half of the bracket, and eliminated San Diego 45-7.
 
 
What's Next . . .
* Tickets are on sale now at www.goeags.com for Eastern's first-ever meeting against the Richmond Spiders (10-3) in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs on Dec. 10. The game will be played at 1 p.m. Pacific time at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* After spotting Central Arkansas a 14-0 lead and 163 yards of total offense, Eastern held the Bears scoreless for the final 35:11 of the game. The Eagles allowed just 35 yards in the third quarter and 40 in the final stanza to finish with a season-best defensive effort of just 244 yards allowed.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
* Down 14-0 in the second quarter, the Eagles used a 12-play, 95-yard drive to score its first points with 4:47 left in the half. On the ensuing kickoff, redshirt freshman Sam Inos forced a fumble that was recovered by fellow redshirt Tysen Prunty. Eastern tied the game three plays later on the first of two Gage Gubrud to Cooper Kupp touchdown passes in the quarter. Later, after a UCA punt, Eastern went on an 11-play, 59-yard scoring drive, capped by Kupp's 6-yard TD pass from Gubrud. That gave EWU the lead for good and a 21-14 advantage at intermission. Eastern added a field goal and a touchdown in the second half.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Sophomore Gage Gubrud completed 47-of-64 passes for 449 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It was the 14th-best passing performance in school history and his total of 517 yards of total offense ranks fourth.
* Senior Kendrick Bourne equaled the fifth-most catches in school history with 13, finishing with 124 yards. It was the 10th 100-yard performance of his career and eclipsed his previous career high of 10 grabs.
* Playing in his 50th career game, senior Cooper Kupp had the 15th performance in school history with 10 catches or more. He finished with 10 grabs for 95 yards and the 69th and 70th touchdown receptions of his career. He now has a TD catch in 41 of the 50 games he has played (all as a starter).
* Senior Shaq Hill had seven catches for 63 yards, and had his first career rushing touchdown with a 2-yard run with 1:18 to play to clinch the win.
* Sophomore linebacker Ketner Kupp, starting in place of injured senior captain Miquiyah Zamora, had a team-high 11 tackles. His total eclipsed his previous high of eight on two occasions.
* Sophomore safety Mitch Fettig had an interception and seven tackles, and junior defensive end Albert Havili had seven tackles and a quarterback hurry.
 
 
Key Stats . . .

* The Eagles have won their last six games by an average of 19.9 points per game, led by a defense which has allowed just 113 points (18.8 per game) in those six victories (Eastern's offense has scored 232 for an average of 38.7). Eastern's defense allowed only 24.4 points per game (195 total, second-best in the league) during its 8-0 Big Sky Conference start after allowing 40.7 against three challenging non-conference opponents. Eastern out-scored opponents by an average of 21.0 points per game in eight league games (45.4 to 24.4, total of 363-195).
 
* Eastern only had 74 net rushing yards against a Central Arkansas defense that entered the game ranked 15th in scoring defense (20.9) and 14th in total defense (320.1 yards per game), with the second-best defense against the run (72.8). However, Eastern forced two turnovers, and didn't have any miscues themselves despite 41-degree temperatures and 15 mile per hour winds.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Since 2010, EWU has hosted 12 playoff games at Roos Field, winning nine of them. The Eagles were the 2010 NCAA Division I Champions after winning three home games in the playoffs and then defeating Delaware 20-19 for the title in Frisco, Texas. Eastern also hosted three games in 2012 and 2013, but lost in the semifinals both seasons. Eastern hosted two more playoff games in 2014, falling in the quarterfinal round. Eastern was a perfect 8-0 in the debut season, and EWU went on to win the 2010 NCAA Division I title. The Eagles have won 85 percent of their games there since 2010 with a collective record of 40-7 and a 5-0 record this season.
 
* At 11-1, the Eagles equaled the 1997 squad with the best regular season finish in 33 seasons as a member of FCS with a 10-1 mark, and now the Eagles can set their sights on the school record of 13 victories set in 2010. This is Eastern's seventh 10-win season in 108 seasons of football at Eastern. The first was in 1967 when Eastern was 11-0 before losing in the NAIA Championship game. Since then, the 10-win seasons include 1997 (12-2), 2010 (13-2), 2012 (11-3), 2013 (12-3), 2014 (11-3) and 2016 (11-1).
 
 
Milestones & Records . . .
 
* Cooper Kupp now has 6,156 career receiving yards, and is just 21 from the all-division collegiate record of 6,177 set by Chris George of NAIA Glenville State from 1991-94. Kupp had previously exceeded the FBS record for reception yards, which is 5,005 set by Trevor Insley of Nevada from 1996-99, and the FCS record of 5,250 set by Terrell Hudgins of Elon from 2006-09. He has also surpassed the NCAA Division II record (4,983, Clarence Coleman, Ferris State, 1998-01) and passed the all-time mark in Division III (6,108, Scott Pingel, Westminster, 1996-99) in the first half against Central Arkansas. Kupp has now broken 13 FCS, 10 Big Sky and 22 EWU records in his illustrious 50-game Eastern career, with 412 receptions and 70 touchdowns.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* In November and beyond since 2004, the Eagles are now 42-13, including a 12-7 record in the FCS Playoffs. Since 2010, Eastern is 27-6 overall in November and beyond, with the lone setbacks coming in 2015 to Portland State, Montana and Northern Arizona, and in the FCS Playoffs to Illinois State in 2014 (quarterfinals), Towson in 2013 (semifinals) and Sam Houston State in 2012 (semifinals). Until losing to Northern Arizona on Nov. 7, 2015, Eastern had won its last 19 regular season games in November, dating back to a 15-13 loss to Sacramento State on Nov. 1, 2008. Since 2004, EWU has lost just six regular season games in November (NAU, Portland State and Montana in 2015; Sac State and Weber State in 2006; and Cal Poly in 2005), with an overall record of 31-6.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
 
 
Head Coach Beau Baldwin Comments . . .
 
On Game & Defense: "It was a typical playoff football game where it's a little cold with a little fog. I was really proud of our players of finding a way to win. It seemed like a grind at times, but certain imperfections are going to happen because you are playing a great opponent and there are only 16 teams left in the tournament. But we found a way to keep responding. When you are down 14-0 and find a way to work your way back and win 31-14, that's not easy to do. I'm so proud of how our defense stepped up – we've grown as the year has gone along. I don't think people were believing me four or five weeks ago when they were talking about our shootouts with other teams. That wasn't really the reality. Our defense keeps playing great football."
 
On Offense & Turnovers: "Offensively we found a way to erupt a little bit in the second quarter and finished on that last drive. Even though we didn't score as many points as we've been averaging, we found a way to win the turnover battle 2-0. When you take care of the ball in the playoffs and don't turn it over at all, and are able to get a couple, that leads to wins – it flat out does. That's one thing we did really well in that regard."
 
On Forced Fumble & Recovery on Kickoff, and Fake Field Goal: "That was a big play on special teams. Two of them actually – that was a bad call by me running that fake field goal, but Wimberly made a heckuva play. Even if we didn't get it I was okay with it, but they were pretty good at blocking field goals and kicks. But he went and made a play. And obviously, a key play was the strip by Inos and recovery by Prunty. Sometimes you can circle one or two plays, so definitely circle that one. We then tied it at 14, so that was one of the plays that can really swing a game.
 
On Halftime Speech: "It's the same I said for the last 11 halftimes, 'I do not care what the score says right now.' I said that when we've been up at half, or we've been down at half. We are going to make the proper adjustments, and more importantly, we're going to be mentally and physically better than our opponents. And what we've done for the last 11 months is going to put us in that position to be that way. It doesn't happen just by saying it – they have to have done it. Our guys were willing to work so hard in the offseason, and it's led them to these kind of second halves. It's a mental and physical toughness where we're playing with more stuff in minutes 40, 45, 50, 55, than our opponent. And it's been that way all year with this group."
 
On Filling In for Miquiyah Zamora & Alek Kacmarcik: "You can't just replace certain players. To see Ketner and Katzenberger step up like they did, that's huge. And our guys believe it. We don't say next man up and have it not mean it. Our guys live it – we all just know Ketner and Katzenberger are going to be just fine. Same with when Coop goes down. Our guys just believe that. We are excited when we get those great players and leaders back, but until then we believe strongly the next men up are going to put us in a great position to win. I'm happy for all our players, but especially those guys who maybe play limited reps and then get put into those spots on the biggest stages and answer."