A fast start was just what the Eagles needed, and they got two of them.
 
The fourth-ranked Eastern Washington University football team Eastern opened a 19-7 lead in the first half and leads of 36-21 and 50-28 in the second half to defeat Big Sky Conference favorite and No. 26 Northern Arizona 50-35 Saturday (Sept. 24) at the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, Ariz.
 
The victory snapped a two-game losing streak against the Lumberjacks, who at one point last year had handed the Eagles their only two losses in a 24-game span. Because EWU didn't play NAU in 2012 and 2013, it was the first Eagle win over the Lumberjacks since 2011.
 
Quarterback Gage Gubrud had 487 yards of total offense – his third game of the season with at least that many – and directed the Eagles on touchdown drives of 64, 62, 50, 70, 72, 76 and 43 yards. He passed for two scores and rushed for another, as the Eagles finished with 540 yards on the day.
 
Even more importantly, the Eagles had three interceptions to win the turnover battle 3-0 against a team that had no interceptions and just one fumble lost entering the game. The win avenged a heartbreaking 28-27 loss to the Lumberjacks the last time they met in Flagstaff.
 
"From start to finish, we played a lot of great football," said Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin. "They (NAU) are a great team, so we knew it was going to be a battle and it was going to be close. This is a hard place to win. For our players to find that wind and that guts in the second half to win games, that's because of our work ethic in the off-season. It's a mental and physical approach, and our players really got after it. Especially in the second half, we were playing great team football."
 
Entering the game, Eastern had jumped up four positions to fourth in this week's STATS FCS Top 25 poll, while Northern Arizona fell from 24th to 26th in the poll. In the coaches poll, Eastern moved up two slots to fifth, while Northern Arizona was 25th, with NDSU remaining No. 1 in both polls after knocking off the Eagles. In the Athlon Power Rankings, the Eagles were second behind North Dakota State, while NAU is ranked 23rd.
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
* Eastern is now 3-1 after arguably the toughest early-season schedule in school history. The Eagles opened the season by beating Washington State of the Pacific-12 Conference (45-42), falling in overtime to top-ranked and five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State (40-34) and beating 10th-ranked Northern Iowa (34-30). Northern Arizona is 1-3. The Lumberjacks lost 44-13 to Arizona State, fell at Western Illinois 34-20 in a battle of top 25 FCS teams and then blasted New Mexico Highlands 73-3.
 
 
What It Means . . .
* The league opener meant a lot to both teams, who narrowly lost out on FCS Playoff berths a year ago. Last year's 52-30 home loss to Northern Arizona ended EWU's six-game winning streak, and was just the second loss for the Eagles in their last 24 league games, with both losses coming at the hands of the Lumberjacks. In fact, the Eagles entered Saturday's rematch with an impressive 27-5 league mark (84 percent) in the last four years from 2012-15, and the only losses were to NAU (2014 and 2015), Montana (2015), Portland State (2015) and Southern Utah (2012). In the 2014 meeting in Flagstaff, Northern Arizona drove 77 yards on just three plays in the final minute to stun the second-ranked Eagles 28-27.
 
 
What's Next . . .
* The Eagles return to Roos Field on Oct. 1 for Hall of Fame Day and Believe Day for Cancer Awareness. The game versus UC Davis takes place at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time in a game televised live regionally by ROOT Sports. The Aggies entered their league opener at home versus Weber State with a 1-2 record, losing to Oregon 53-28, beating Southern Oregon 52-35 and falling to Wyoming 45-22. The average winning margin in their first three games was 21.7 points, while Eastern's first three were decided by an average of 4.3. Eastern has not lost to UC Davis in four previous meetings.

* The UC Davis game will feature the induction of former Eagle and Tennessee Titan football player Michael Roos at the 16th induction ceremony/breakfast for the Eastern Washington Athletics Hall of Fame. All of this year's inductees and induction classes may be viewed at: http://goeags.com/hof.aspx

 
Keys to Game . . .
* Eastern had its first turnover advantage of the season, coming against a Northern Arizona team which has had just one fumble lost and no interceptions this season. Eastern had a trio of interceptions by Zach Bruce, D'londo Tucker and Nzuzi Webster. The Eagles lost the turnover battle 3-1 to North Dakota State and 2-1 to UNI after tying 1-1 versus Washington State. In eight-plus seasons (2008-present) under head coach Beau Baldwin, the Eagles are 42-1 when they've won the turnover battle, 18-5 when they've been tied and 16-25 when they've lost (total of 75-31). The last time EWU lost when it won the turnover battle came in the 2009 FCS Playoffs at Stephen F. Austin when EWU had two miscues and forced four in the 44-33 loss. Thus, EWU is 33-0 since 2010 when they've won the turnover battle, 15-4 when they've been tied and 14-18 when they've lost. That's a collective record of 62-22 (74 percent), with 18 of those 22 losses (82 percent) coming in games EWU has lost the turnover battle and 53 percent of EWU's wins coming when they've won the turnover battle (79 percent when including ties).
 

Top Performers . . .
* Sophomore Gage Gubrud had his third game in four career starts with more than 487 yards of total offense. He completed 35-of-56 passes for 392 yards, and also rushed for another 95 for a total of 487. He had two touchdown passes and one on the ground.
* Senior Cooper Kupp returned after missing 1 1/2 games with a shoulder injury and caught 11 passes for 111 yards. It was his 25th performance of at least 100 receiving yards in 42 career games.
* Senior Shaq Hill caught five passes for 74 yards and had a 39-yard touchdown catch from Gubrud in the first quarter.
* Senior Kendrick Bourne had a key 40-yard reception late in the second quarter – the sixth play of his career at least that long – and finished with six catches for 100 yards. It was his eighth 100-yard career game, and third in a row.
* Senior safety Zach Bruce had a key first-half interception he returned 50 yards to set up an Eagle touchdown and early 19-7 lead. He finished with a team-high 14 tackles.
* Senior Miquiyah Zamora had 10 tackles and sophomore Alek Kacmarcik, who missed two games with a concussion, had seven. Albert Havili finished with eight stops and Samson Ebukam and Ketner Kupp each had seven.
 

Key Stats . . .
* In what was expected to be an explosive offense game, the Eagles finished with 540 yards of offense to 491 for NAU. Eastern had 392 through the air and 148 on the ground, compared to 322 and 169 for the Lumberjacks, respectively. Entering the game, the two teams combined to average 649 passing yards per game, 1,033 yards of total offense and 76 points. Eastern's defense was particularly impressive in the second half of victories over Washington State and Northern Iowa, but was thoroughly tested by the Lumberjacks. In the previous seven meetings in Flagstaff, the two teams had scored 505 points – an average of 72 per game.

* The first half alone featured five lead changes, with EWU's Roldan Alcobendas kicking a 43-yard field goal to give EWU a 22-21 advantage at intermission. That came after a career-best 55-yard kickoff return by Nsimba Webster. Eastern then scored the first 14 points of the second half on drives of 70 and 72 yards to open a 36-21 advantage.
 

Turning Point . . .
* Ahead just 36-28, Eastern's defense had a key third down stop late in the third quarter to force a Lumberjack punt. Eastern then faced a third-and-long of its own, but Gage Gubrud completed a 40-yard pass to Kendrick Bourne that led to a 10-play, 76-yard drive to give EWU a 43-28 lead with 14:20 to play.
 

Team Highlights . . .
* After having only scored seven points in the first quarter in their first three games, the Eagles scored 12 in the first quarter with scoring drives of 64 and 62 yards. Then, Northern Arizona had its first interception of the game on a fourth down play from the EWU 1-yard line, and Zach Bruce returned his third career interception 50 yards to midfield. The Eagles followed with a 50-yard drive to take a 19-7 lead.
 

Milestones & Records . . .
* Eastern wide receiver Cooper Kupp continues to inch closer to a pair of FCS all-time marks to go along with the eight EWU, eight Big Sky and 18 EWU records he currently owns. He broke the FCS record for career TD catches with a three touchdown day at Washington State on Sept. 3, and now has 61 to break the previous FCS record of 58 set by New Hampshire's David Ball from 2003-06. He is also second in reception yards (5,143, 107 behind the record of 5,250 set by Elon's Terrell Hudgins from 2006-09) and moved into second in receptions (339, 56 behind the record of 395 set by Elon's Terrell Hudgins from 2006-09).
* With 163 career receptions for 2,401 yards and 21 touchdowns, senior Kendrick Bourne now ranks in the top 14 in all three categories in school history. His touchdowns ranks eighth, his receptions are eighth and his yards are 10th.

* Teammate Shaq Hill has 122 career catches for 1,948 yards and 17 touchdowns. He is one TD from ranking 15th in school history, and he is 15 catches from the No. 21 position and 113 yards from ranking 18th in yards.

* With 10 tackles against Northern Arizona, senior Miquiyah Zamora now has 288 career tackles, ranking him 12th in school history.
 

Notables . . .
* A total of 57 of the 60 players EWU traveled with to NAU played. In the first quarter alone, 53 saw action.

* Eastern had three injured players return to action versus NAU, but EWU played without senior starting center Jerrod Jones (knee) and cornerback Victor Gamboa (concussion), while defensive end Keenan Williams (ankle) missed his second-straight game. As a result of the injury to Jones, sophomore Spencer Blackburn made the first start of his career. Also making his starting debut was Jayce Gilder as a second tight end to start the game, and true freshman D.J. Dyer saw his first action as an Eagle as a backup center. The injured players returning to action included a trio of starters -- wide receiver Cooper Kupp (shoulder), nose tackle Matthew Sommer (knee) and linebacker Alek Kacmarcik (concussion).

* Eastern entered the NAU game is the early FCS leader in passing offense, with an average of 428.7 yards per game. Gage Gubrud was the early FCS leader in total offense at 393.0 per game, passing touchdowns, passing yards and passing yards per game (346.0). Northern Arizona was right behind in fourth in passing offense (321.7), and hadn't thrown an interception in their first three games. Their quarterback, Case Cookus, entered the game leading FCS in passing efficiency (191.2) and total passing touchdowns (10), and was sixth in passing yards per game (309.3).

* The game at NAU was EWU's 57th all-time game in a dome, and EWU now has a current record of 29-28. Until losing last in the final seconds at Northern Arizona in 2014, Eastern had won nine of its last 10 games in domes. Eastern is 14-4 all-time at Idaho State's Holt Arena, 10-7 at Northern Arizona's Walkup Skydome, 4-8 at Idaho's Kibbie Dome, 0-6 at Northern Iowa's UNI-Dome, 1-0 at North Dakota's Alerus Center, 0-1 at the Fargodome and 0-1 at South Dakota's DakotaDome. Eastern also lost to Houston in 1992 at the Houston Astrodome.

* Eastern leads the all-time series against NAU 20-12, including a 10-7 mark in Flagstaff. Despite losing the previous two, the Eagles have won eight of the last 11 meetings overall, and had a five-game winning streak snapped in 2014. Eastern is 8-4 all-time against NAU in Cheney, 2-1 in Spokane and 10-7 in Flagstaff.
 
 
Head Coach Beau Baldwin Comments . . .
 
On Playing 53 Players of 60 on Trip in First Quarter (57 total): "We want to see all the players who made the trip to see action. That's why we've built this depth, and we trust all these players. It will pay dividends down the road. Not just with them getting reps and us getting better, but also taking reps off starters during a long season. And an 11-game season is a long season, and if you are fortunate to earn more, it keeps extending. You have to have a lot of players in that locker room who are ready to go. Our coaches did a really good job of mixing those players in early."
 
On Cooper Kupp & Gage Gubrud: "It's always nice having No. 10 out there – there is no doubt about it. And Gage has still only had four starts, and he's played three road games and one home game against the No. 10 team in the country. He is going to go through some pains, but I like how he's progressing and I like where he is."
 
On Defense: "The defense got some stops against a great offense at Northern Arizona. They have a great quarterback, and I hate to see a player get injured like he did. I wish the best for Case and his return. They have great skill guys and do a good job up front. So it was great for our defense to win the turnover battle, because they don't turn the ball over very much. To win the turnover battle was a big goal for us and our guys went and got it."