Besides wind, there was some thunder and lightning Saturday (Sept. 22) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash.
 
With Antoine Custer Jr., and the Eagle defense leading the way, the sixth-ranked Eastern Washington University football team beat Cal Poly 70-17 in the Big Sky Conference opener for both schools at "The Inferno" on Hall of Fame Day and Believe Day for Cancer Awareness at EWU.
 
The thunder was provided by fumble returns for touchdowns in the first half by Cole Karstetter (33 yards) and Jim Townsend (62 yards) following forced fumbles by Kurt Calhoun and Mitchell Johnson, respectively. The lightning was provided by the return of running back Antoine Custer Jr., who scored on touchdown runs of 62 and 43 yards to help EWU open a 42-17 lead.
 
With 30 carries for 441 yards on a windy day with sustained winds of 23 miles per hour, EWU set a new Big Sky record for average per rush with a mark of 14.7. That broke the old record of 11.1 set by Portland State versus UC Davis in 2013 (427 yards, 38 attempts). The total of 441 were the most for EWU since getting a school-record 456 versus Cal State Northridge on Sept. 25, 1999.
 
"There was some home cooking for us – we've played really well at home since the turf has been in place, and we're all about protecting the red," said Eagle head coach Aaron Best. "But any time you get two defensive touchdowns, especially one right before halftime, really slingshots yourself. Those are huge momentum boosters."
 
When the dust cleared after a 35-point second half, Eastern rolled up 657 total yards – ninth-most in school history -- and held Cal Poly to 399. The Mustangs and their option offense entered with an average of 230.0 rushing yards per game, but EWU out-gained them on the ground 441-378. The 70 points scored were the fourth-most in Eastern school history and most versus a NCAA Division I opponent.
 
The 53-point margin was EWU's largest in 31+ seasons as a member of the Big Sky Conference (239 games), and its third-largest in 34+ years a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (401 games).
 
 "It makes us feel better than the taste we had in our mouths a week ago at this time," said Best of last week's 59-24 loss at Washington State. "It's great to see a resilient team bounce back against a quality football team.
 
"We were on the better side of things today," he added. "I was excited to see our team and coaches rebound from our first loss in 2018 in this fashion."
 
Despite the loss to Washington State, the Eagles pretty much held steady in this week's FCS polls. Eastern dropped one spot to sixth in the American Football Coaches Association Top 25 poll and remains sixth in the STATS poll of sportswriters, broadcasters and sports information directors. Washington State, now 3-0, received 35 votes this week in the Coaches Poll to rank 32nd in FBS, plus received two votes in the Associated Press poll.
 
 
Records & Rankings . . .
 
* Now 3-1 in 2018, Eastern closed the 2017 season with a 7-4 record overall and was 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference in the first season under head coach Aaron Best. Last season was the 11th-straight season the Eagles have finished 5-3 or better in the Big Sky, with an 11th-straight winning season and 20th in the last 22 years. But winning a 10th Big Sky title and making a 13th appearance in the FCS Playoffs is the quest for the 2018 Eagles, who are hungry to make that happen.
 
* Now 1-3 on the season, Cal Poly picked up its first win in three tries this season in the 29-point victory over Brown on Sept. 14, in which running back Joe Protheroe rushed for 228 yards and three touchdowns. Against the Eagles, Prothroe led the way with 176 yards on 34 carries. The Mustangs were 1-10 a year ago and 1-7 in the league, and this year opened with a 49-3 road loss at North Dakota State and a 24-17 home setback to Weber State – both nationally-ranked and playoff teams from a year ago.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* Eastern got off the league season to a great start in front of a crowd of 9,156 – the 27th-straight sellout at Roos Field (crowd of 8,600 or more). The Eagles have been impressive – if not dominant – in the league in the last 11+ years, winning 80 percent of their games (71-18) and five titles. In that span, Eastern has had no league finish below 5-3 and five of them have included 7-1 or 8-0 records.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles go on the road to play at Montana State Saturday (Sept. 29) in Bozeman in a game televised live regionally by ROOT Sports. Eastern is 31-10 all-time versus the Bobcats with a six-game winning streak.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* Cal Poly dominated possession in the first quarter, but the Eagles got the upper hand on the scoreboard. In the first quarter, EWU led 14-3 in a half in which it had just six offensive plays and Cal Poly had 31, with a 13:37 to 1:23 advantage in time of possession. Eastern scored on a 38-yard fumble recovery by Cole Karstetter, and a 62-yard run by Antoine Custer Jr.. Eastern then scored again with eight seconds left in the half on a 62-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Jim Townsend to lead at halftime 35-10.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Eastern took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter with EWU's first fumble recovery for a touchdown in the last three years. Eastern senior linebacker Kurt Calhoun forced an errant Cal Poly pitch, and it was scooped up by senior rover Cole Karstetter for a 38-yard return. Later in the half, a sack and forced fumble by Mitchell Johnson  led to a 62-yard return by Jim Townsend. The last time EWU Had a fumble recovered by the defense for a touchdown was on Nov. 21, 2015, when Todd Raynes returned a fumble 35 yards for a score against Portland State.
 
 
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* In his first action in 2018, junior Antoine Custer Jr. averaged 16.6 yards per rush to finish with 133 yards on just eight carries, with touchdown runs of 62 and 43 yards. It was the fourth 100-yard rushing performance of his career, and he now has six plays in his career of 43 yards or more.
* Senior quarterback Gage Gubrud completed 21-of-27 passes for 217 yards with one touchdown pass, giving him 87 in his career to remain third in in school history. He had an 8-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Boston, and also rushed four times for 50 yards and a score.
* Senior Zach Eagle was his team's leading receiver with five catches for 61 yards, and junior Jayson Williams caught four for 64 yards.
* Senior running back Sam McPherson chipped in 84 yards on eight carries, and junior Dennis Merritt had 92 yards on two carries, including an 81-yard touchdown run to close out EWU's scoring.
* Senior linebacker Kurt Calhoun had 11 tackles with a forced fumble. It was the fourth time in his career he's had double figures in tackles.
* Junior defensive tackle Dylan Ledbetter had a career-high 10 tackles, eclipsing his previous high of eight set at Fordham in 2017.
* Redshirt freshman Mitchell Johnson and senior defensive tackle Jay-Tee Tiuli each had a sack.
* Sixth-year senior kicker Roldan Alcobendas converted all 10 of its extra point attempts. That gives him 234 kick scoring points in his career to move into second in school history past the 231 scored by Troy Griggs (1999-2001). He is just two from the school record of 236 set by Mike Jarrett (2008-11).
 
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Key Stats . . .
 
* With 441 yards and six touchdowns on the ground, the Eagles average 14.7 yards per rush compared to 4.4 for Cal Poly (38 yards on 86 carries). The Mustangs have an option attack not seen by the Eagle defense on a regular basis, and that has given EWU fits in the past. In fact, the last time the two teams met in Cheney in 2015, the Eagles needed overtime and a failed 2-point conversion by Cal Poly to prevail 42-41 in a game in which Eastern trailed by 15 in the fourth quarter. Cal Poly had 503 rushing yards in that game, including 121 on 30 carries by Protheroe. A year later in San Luis Obispo in a 42-21 Eastern victory, he had 116 of the team's 372 yards rushing as a team.
 
* The Eagles entered the game ranked third in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision with an average of 542.0 yards per game – 300.7 passing and 241.3 rushing. But the Mustangs countered with the 24th-best rushing offense in FCS, averaging 230.0 per game. Protheroe is 19th in rushing, averaging 115.0 per game. The Cal Poly defense was also formidable, allowing just 165.7 passing yards per game to rank 21st in FCS, while ranking 15th in team passing efficiency defense (100.05) and 55th in scoring defense (29.3).
 
 
Other Team Highlights . . .
 
* A trio of Eagles made the first start of their careers against the Mustangs, and 66 total players saw action. Senior offensive tackle Beau Byus made the first start of his career, and so did linebackers Chris Ojoh and Andrew Katzenberger on defense. Senior Nick Foerstel made the first start of his career versus Washington State on Sept. 15, and his second versus Cal Poly.
 
* The Eagles have now won its three games this season by an average of 34.3 points per game. Eastern won its first two games by a combined 50 points – 58-13 over Central Washington and 31-26 one week later at Northern Arizona. While Eastern was picked by both the coaches and media to win the league title, Cal Poly was picked to finish 10th and 11th, respectively.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern is 8-2 all-time versus Cal Poly – 5-0 at home -- with a six-game winning streak in the series. The Eagles have won 47 of their last 55 Big Sky games since a 0-2 start in 2011 (85 percent). Including four non-conference victories (one versus Cal Poly) and a playoff win, the Eagles are 52-8 (8 percent) since the 0-2 start in 2011.
 
* Eastern has now won all five Big Sky Conference match-ups since Cal Poly joined the league in 2012. In the previous five meetings, Eastern has averaged 41.2 points compared to 30.4 points for the Mustangs, however, those combined 71.6 points per game only scratches the surface. The Mustangs have averaged 371.6 rushing yards in those five meetings, representing 80 percent of the team's average total offense of 465.2 per game. Eastern, however, came out victorious in all five thanks to an offense that has generated an average of 491.4 yards of offense per game.
 
 
Head Coach Aaron Best Comments . . .
 
Rebounding from WSU Loss: "It was clear that wasn't our best performance in any capacity – offense, defense or special teams – everybody had a hand in the matter last week. That was unacceptable and it's not what Eagle Football is all about. The Cal Poly game was less about getting after people and more about re-stating the standard as far as what we've become over the last decade here at Eastern. The message was clear from Sunday on that we would be a more disciplined football team, and we demonstrated some of those moments. It's never going to be perfection, but when we can get as close to that as we can is always beneficial."
 
On Running Game: "Everybody was doing their job. We thought we had some situations where we could take advantage of some of their schemes against their schemes. Early on it was a little bit of a slugfest in terms of trying to get out of the way of ourselves a little bit. The first series wasn't who we are, but sometimes you have to get your feet wet before you get things going. But I was excited about our coaches and the game plan they put in. I'm proud of the players, coaches and everybody involved."
 
On Cal Poly: "That is a quality opponent and they are going to win enough Big Sky games to make people's lives miserable. Coach Walsh is such fine professional and has been around this league a long time. Joe Protheroe is a guy you love from a distance but you don't like him very much up close. He's a dynamic player that makes that offense run."