From one year to the next, the tables were turned.
 
Idaho used a huge first half performance to take apart a depleted Eastern Washington University defense to defeat the No. 11 Eagles 35-27 in a non-conference football game on Saturday (Sept. 21) at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho.
 
The Vandals took a 28-0 lead in the first half, accumulating an early 286-24 advantage in total offense. A year earlier, in a 38-14 Eagle romp in Cheney, Wash., Eastern led 31-0 at halftime en route to a third-straight victory over the Vandals. Idaho beat Eastern for the first time since 1999.
 
Now 1-3 on the season, Eastern rallied to score the first 13 points of the second half on a pair of rushing touchdowns by Eric Barriere. But Idaho countered with a touchdown of its own to take a 34-13 lead, and EWU couldn't recover onside kicks following its final two scores in the last 3:59 of the game.
 
"There were no moral victories in the second half," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best. "We had a 28-0 deficit and were up 27-7 in the second half to give ourselves a chance. The game came down to two onside kicks late. We were in it, but that's not the way we want to go about our business. Credit Idaho – they did a really good job in all three phases of the game."
 
Eastern's defense was missing three players who had started each of EWU's first three games, and were replaced by players with a combined two career starts. Idaho finished the game with 463 yards, while Eastern's offense, which had four punts and two turnovers in its first six possessions, finished with 460. Idaho rushed for 223 yards compared to 95 for the Eagles.
 
Junior quarterback Eric Barriere had just 74 yards at halftime, but finished 28-of-46 for 365 yards, with another 20 on the ground. He led EWU on a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive to start the second half, then a short 28-yard drive after an interception by senior safety Dehonta Hayes to cut the lead to 28-13.
 
Barriere later had a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jayson Williams and another of 30 yards to Dre' Sonte Dorton, giving him 13 TD passes on the season to go along with three on the ground. Dorton led Eagle receivers with seven catches for 133 yards, and Antoine Custer Jr. rushed for a team-leading 59 yards.
 
Hayes finished with a career-high 17 tackles to rank 19th on Eastern's all-time list. It was the fourth double-figure tackle performance of his career as he eclipsed his previous high of 13. Senior defensive end Jim Townsend also had a career-high with 12 with a sack and one other tackle for loss, as his previous top tackling performance was seven.
 
Last year's meeting against the Vandals was a league game, but this year's is not – part of the scheduling difficulties with the addition of UI to the league and the departure of North Dakota. The Eagles will play the Fighting Hawks on Sept. 28 in Cheney, and although that game counts in the league standings for EWU, North Dakota continues its transition to the Missouri Valley Football Conference beginning in 2019 and is ineligible for the BSC's automatic berth to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.
 
 
Records & Rankings . . .
 
* Idaho is now 2-2 on the season, having lost at Wyoming on Sept. 14 by a 21-16 score. The Vandals, who in 2018 finished 4-7 overall and 3-5 in their first Big Sky Conference campaign in 23 years, opened the year with a 79-7 loss at Penn State and a 41-31 home victory over Central Washington.
 
* Eastern is 1-3, and had fallen at Jacksonville State 49-45 on Sept. 14. Eastern entered the Idaho game ranked 11th in the STATS top 25 poll for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, and 11th in the American Football Coaches Association poll. It was the 44th-straight time Eastern had been ranked by STATS – 101 out of 102 overall, having had a previous streak of 57-straight snapped in 2017.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles open their Big Sky Conference schedule against a team ineligible for the league title when EWU hosts North Dakota on Hall of Fame Day on Sept. 28 at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., at 2:06 p.m. Pacific time. This week's game will be the 1,000th in school history dating back to 1901, encompassing 111 seasons.
 
* Because of scheduling difficulties with the addition of Idaho to the league and the departure of North Dakota, Saturday's game counts in the league standings for EWU but last week's game with the Vandals did not. North Dakota is a NCAA Football Championship independent this year as it continues its transition to the Missouri Valley Football Conference beginning in 2019. Thus, the Fighting Hawks are ineligible for the BSC's automatic berth to the FCS Subdivision Playoffs.
 
* Eastern has never lost to North Dakota, beating them four times by an average score of 41 to 12 in those meetings. The Fighting Hawks are 2-1 this season after a 27-23 home victory over Sam Houston State, which was ranked as high as 21st in the FCS national rankings. Prior to that, the UND lost to top-ranked North Dakota State 38-7 on Sept. 7 and beat Drake 47-7 on Aug. 31.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* The Eagles were out-gained in total offense 463-460, including a 223-95 advantage for Idaho in rushing. The Vandals also converted 10-of-16 third downs compared to just 3-of-12 for the Eagles.
 
* Eastern entered the Idaho game ranked seventh in the NCAA in total offense (504.0), seventh in passing (342.3), 47th in rushing (161.7) and 15th in scoring (39.3). Defensively, Eastern was 29th in rushing defense (134.0), but was also 105th in passing defense (302.7), 74th in total defense (436.7) and 100th in scoring defense (42.3) among 116 FCS schools. In addition, Eastern entered as the fifth-best team in the country in converting third downs (54.5 percent).
 
* Individually, Eastern's Eric Barriere entered the weekend leading FCS with 11 touchdown passes, and was also second in points responsible for (24.0 per game and 72 total), fourth in passing (342.3) and seventh in total offense (347.0). Running back Antoine Custer Jr., who was coming off a career-high 184 yards versus Jacksonville, ranked 21st nationally in rushing (85.0). Despite not catching a pass versus Jacksonville State, Eastern's Dre' Sonte Dorton was ranked 19th in receiving yards (98.3 per game), 52nd in receptions (5.3) and 11th with three touchdown catches. His 22.0 average per kickoff return was 32nd.
 
 
EWU Highlights . . .
 
* Senior defensive tackle Dylan Ledbetter blocked a pair of Idaho field goal attempts, one in each half. He now has six blocked kicks as an Eagle. He finished with six tackles.
 
* Senior linebacker Trevor Davis Jr. made the first start of his career as an injury replacement for Chris Ojoh and he finished with a career-high eight tackles. In addition, fellow senior linebacker Andrew Katzenberger had his second start, also filling in for injured starter Jack Sendelbach. And sophomore Ira Branch started his second game as an Eagle, replacing sophomore Darreon Moore who had started EWU's first three games. Katzenberger finished the game with eight tackles to equal his career high and Branch had three.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* The Vandals re-joined the Big Sky in football in 2018, and Eastern won 38-14 in Cheney in 2018 after leading 31-0 at halftime The last time the former league rivals had met in a Big Sky game was in 1995 when the Vandals prevailed 37-10 and the last time they met in Cheney was 1994. That 2018 game was the first meeting between the two schools since 2012 when Eastern won in Moscow 20-3.
 
* Eastern hosted Idaho at Albi Stadium in Spokane six times (1999, 1997, 1990, 1988, 1986, 1984) with a pair of wins, and have played in Cheney just four times (2018, 1994, 1992, 1942), and EWU is now 4-9 all-time in Moscow. The Eagles now trail in the all-time series 16-7, but have won three of the last four and four of the last seven. Eastern has allowed an average of just 7.3 points per game in the last three meetings after surrendering an average of 36.0 in the first 19 meetings.
 
* In the Jacksonville State game on Sept. 14, Eastern won the total offense battle and held the lead for all but 1:12 of the game – including leading for at least 10 points for 48:34. But the Gamecocks scored 21 points in the final 14:49 to overcome a 45-28 Eagle lead late in the third quarter. The Eagles had jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the first quarter.
 
* This week's game at Idaho was Eastern's 59th game inside a dome, and Eastern is now 30-29 all-time in domes, including a 4-9 record at the Kibbie Dome. Eastern is also 14-4 at Idaho State's Holt Arena, 10-7 at NAU's Walkup Skydome, 2-0 at North Dakota, 0-1 at North Dakota State, 0-1 at South Dakota, 0-6 at Northern Iowa and 0-1 at the Houston Astrodome.
 
 
Head Coach Aaron Best Comments . . .
 
On Game: "We didn't come out with enough energy to start the game, myself included. I'm the one who needs fingers pointed at. In the last quarter of the last game and the first two quarters against Idaho – three quarters in a row – we played with minimal energy. The effort is there, but the energy prior to the effort is lacking."
 
On Idaho's Early Lead: "I'm not going to worry about the bodies we don't have – at 28-0 they dictated tempo and kept Eric (Barriere) where they needed to. Credit their defensive game plan. And they ran the ball better than us and were more consistent with it. They were better on third down and we lost the turnover margin."
 
On Moving Forward: "We'll look at things and move forward. I'm extremely disappointed in myself and the outcome of this game, just based on the product we put on the field for that first half."