It was overwhelming to say the least.
 
A 24-0 scoring run in the first half gave the Eastern Washington University football team the lead for good as the Eagles went on to a 66-38 victory over Northern Arizona Saturday (Nov. 2) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash.
 
The Eagles finished with 706 yards of total offense – the fifth most in school history -- as EWU extended its school-record 13-game home winning streak. Eastern's point total equaled its eighth-most all-time as the two teams combined for 104 points and 1,203 yards.
 
Eastern had 331 yards and 17 points in the first quarter alone; 129 and 21 points in the second period; 135 and 21 in the third; and 111 and seven tallies in the final stanza.
 
"We probably played our best game overall," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best. "There were some explosive plays – probably a few too many given up by our defense. But we were balanced in a lot of ways, and distributed the ball to various players well."
 
Junior quarterback Eric Barriere had his 11th career performance with at least 300 yards of total offense, finishing with 468 to rank as the third-most in his career. He had 367 through the air and 101 on the ground, as his pass total was also his third-best and gives him seven career performances of at least 300 passing yards. He had a trio of touchdown passes, and finished 30-of-46 with no interceptions for an impressive 183.5 passing efficiency rating.
 
"Eric (Barriere) orchestrated the offense almost flawlessly – we had zero turnovers and caused two so that is another win when we are on the plus side of turnover margin," added Best. "We're really proud of our bunch of players and coaches."
 
Senior running back Antoine Custer Jr. had the ninth 100-yard rushing performance of his career, achieving that mark in the first half alone. He finished with 139 and three touchdowns.
 
Junior Talolo Limu-Jones made the first start of his career and finished with eight catches for 147 yards – both career highs -- and a 75-yard touchdown from Barriere on EWU's first offensive play of the game. Senior Jayson Williams had six catches for 86 yards and a score, and senior tight end Jayce Gilder and junior wide receiver Johnny Edwards IV had career highs of five apiece. Eight players caught passes for EWU, including Barriere with a 20-yard catch from Edwards.
 
Eastern trailed 14-10 after each team had two possessions apiece, with 296 total yards by both teams at that juncture. But EWU would score three-straight touchdowns after that on runs by Custer to give EWU a 31-14 lead it would never relinquish.
 
Eastern didn't lead by any less than 10 the rest of the way, and had a 77-yard fumble recovery by Andrew Katzenberger in the third quarter that gave EWU a 59-31 lead. Senior linebacker Jack Sendelbach led the way for EWU's defense with 11 tackles, a forced fumble, pass broken up and quarterback hurry. It was the fifth game of his career in double figures in tackles.
 
Eastern has now won all four of its home games this season while losing all five on the road. The Lumberjacks are still winless on the road this season, and Eastern registered its first home victory over NAU since 2010.
 
 
Records & Rankings . . .
 
* Eastern is 4-5 overall and 3-2 Big Sky Conference play, with a 35-20 victory over North Dakota on Sept. 28 counting in the league standings for EWU. Prior to that, the Eagles had lost their previous two games to FCS competition by a total of 12 points, then fell at Sacramento State 48-27 on Oct. 5, beat Northern Colorado 54-21 on Oct. 12 and lost at Montana 34-17 on Oct. 26.
 
* The Lumberjacks are 0-5 away from home this year, and are also 4-5 overall. Northern Arizona is 4-0 at home after last week's 31-29 victory against Portland State. That game was won with a 38-yard field goal with four seconds left by Luis Aguilar after a seven-play, 54-yard drive in just 1:22.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern tries to extend a 10-game winning streak over Idaho State when the two teams play in Pocatello, Idaho, in a Big Sky Conference game between teams fighting to finish the season with winning records. Kickoff is 1:06 p.m. at Holt Arena. The Eagles have won the last 10 meetings versus Idaho State by an average score of 44-20, having not lost since ISU won 34-30 in Pocatello on 2005. However, Eastern has also not won on the road in nearly a year, going 0-5 this season away from the comfy confines of Roos Field. The Eagles have dominated the series against Idaho State, winning 28 of the 37 previous meetings with victories in 17 of the last 20. Eastern is 16-5 in meetings in Pocatello, with recent wins at Holt Arena in 2015 (45-28), 2013 (55-34), 2011 (45-14), 2009 (38-3) and 2007 (34-7).
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* The Eagles had its work cut against a Northern Arizona team leading the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in passing offense (373.3 yards per game), led by individual leader Case Cookus (349.6). Cookus finished with 356 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and NAU finished with 385 through the air and 497 total.
 
* Eastern countered with Eric Barriere, who entered ranked fourth in FCS in total offense per game (339.0) and fifth in passing (312.9). He passed for 367 and rushed for 101, as the Eagles finished with 394 through the air and a season-high 312 on the ground. Eastern was sixth in the FCS in total offense (481.0) and sixth in passing (318.5), while NAU was tenth in total offense (470.8).
 
* Collectively, the two teams entered averaging more than 70 points per game – NAU ranked 17th at 36.4 per game while EWU was 24th at 34.8. Defensively, both also allowed a collective total more than 70 points, with EWU allowing 35.7 and NAU 37.6.
 
 
EWU Highlights . . .
 
* Junior wide receiver Talolo Limu-Jones made the first start of his Eastern career and he made it a big one. On the first offensive play of the game for EWU, he caught a short pass from Eric Barriere and turned it into a 75-yard touchdown. Limu-Jones would finish the day with career highs of eight catches for 147 yards. He entered the game with 29 career catches for 553 yards and nine touchdowns – a TD for every 3.2 catches.
 
* Redshirt freshman cornerback Darrien Sampson also made the first start of his young career, having entered the game with seven games played. He finished with five tackles, a pass broken up and a quarterback hurry.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern now leads the all-time series against NAU 22-12, and are 9-4 all-time against NAU in Cheney, 2-1 in Spokane and 11-7 in Flagstaff. The Eagles have now won 10 of the last 13 meetings overall, but hadn't hosted the Lumberjacks since losing 52-30 on Nov. 7, 2015, at Roos Field. Thus, Eastern's last home win over NAU was nine years ago on Oct. 9, 2010, by a 21-14 score en route to EWU's NCAA Division I national title. The two schools did not play each other in 2012, 2013 and 2017 because of league expansion. Last year's 31-26 Eagle victory was a non-conference game in Flagstaff, and the two teams will play a second non-conference game in Cheney on Sept. 19, 2020.
 
* The Eagles have won 56 of their last 67 Big Sky games since a 0-2 start in 2011. Included are current stretches of 46 victories in the last 55 games (including two at the end of the 2012 season) and 24 of the last 29 (since 2016). Including three wins at the end of the 2009 season, Eastern has a 66-14 record in league games since then.  Including four non-conference victories (two versus MSU, and one each against Cal Poly and Northern Arizona), two playoff wins (Montana and UC Davis) and one loss (Idaho), the Eagles are 62-12 since the 0-2 start in 2011 and 52-9 since the end of the 2012 campaign.  At one point the Eagles had won 44 of 50 league games, and the only Big Sky school which has come close to that in the 56-year history of the league was Montana, which won 50 of 55 games from 1995-2002 and 46 of 51 from 2003-2009.
 
* The Eagles and Lumberjacks have had a shortage of close games this season. A 49-45 loss at Jacksonville State and 35-27 loss at Idaho are the only EWU games decided by less than 15 points. For Northern Arizona, none of their first seven games were decided by less than 13.
 
 
Head Coach Aaron Best Comments . . .
 
On Defense Early: "We started slow on defense – we deferred on the coin toss to put them out there at the start. The first few drives by NAU we were trying to find our footing a little bit, but we had a great answer on one play by our offense to get the score to 7-7. Then they scored again, so it was 21 points scored in three possessions – I didn't know at that point if there were enough light bulbs in the scoreboard to hold the capacity of what may happen. But we settled down after that."
 
On Barriere and Offense: "It comes down to being comfortable and feeling good health-wise mentally and physically. He's had two weeks of practice where he seems to bounce around and looks to be rejuvenated physically. This was a stat-stuffer to a certain degree, but we attacked the middle of the field, which we anticipated we would do this week. Eric put the ball where it needed to be put, and when we caught the ball we made people miss. I still thought we left some yards out there in yards after the catch when NAU got the best of us on one-on-one situations. But I was really proud – we scored 66 points and stayed perfect at home since 2017."
 
On Defense After First Two NAU Possessions: "Our defense played well in spurts, especially after the last two drives. They settled down and started making plays, and us got off the field on third down. I felt the momentum was finally truly shifting toward us. But we gave up a few too many big plays when we were up by 20, and I thought we could have buckled down and cleaned up some tackling."