The Eagles have had home playoff games in December with better weather than they faced, but the result was much the same.
 
In blizzard-like conditions – unusual for September – the No. 21 Eastern Washington University football team forced six turnovers and rushed for 284 yards to open its Big Sky schedule wth a 35-20 victory over No. 25 North Dakota on Hall of Fame Day at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., on Saturday (Sept. 28).
 
Senior Antoine Custer Jr. rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns and true freshman Silas Perreiah added another 126 and a score. Eastern forced six turnovers while having none itself as EWU is now 51-0 since 2010 when winning the turnover battle. Three of the turnovers led to EWU touchdowns, including a key score in the fourth quarter after UND rallied to cut EWU's 21-point halftime lead to eight.
 
"We overcame some adversity, and not just the weather – we had some obstacles along the way," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best. "We came out with fire, and then we kind of hit that lull again. But a win is a win."
 
The temperature at kickoff was 35 degrees and snowing, with 20-mile-an-hour winds not unlike some of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoff games EWU has hosted since 2010. It was reportedly the first September snowfall in the Spokane area since 1926.
 
Eastern had a slight 377-269 edge in total offense in the miserable conditions, so defense came to the rescue for EWU. Junior Calin Criner had a pair of interceptions, and sophomore end Mitchell Johnson and junior Keith Moore – who made the first start of his career in his season debut – each had a forced fumble on a sack. Senior Dylan Ledbetter recovered a pair of fumbles.
 
Senior Jack Sendelbach missed EWU's previous game in a loss at Idaho, but returned to finish with 12 tackles versus UND for his fourth career game in double figures. Senior safety Dehonta Hayes had an interception and 10 stops – his fifth career performance with at least 10 tackles -- to up his team-leading season total to 48. Eastern had five sacks, while allowing just one, having entered the game surrendering 13 in EWU's first four games.
 
Custer scored all three of his touchdowns in the first half on a trio of short runs on his way to a 108-yard half. Eric Barriere scored on a 10-yard run with 4:17 left in the first half to give EWU a 28-7 lead at intermission, thanks to 220 rushing yards.
 
North Dakota scored twice to pull within 28-20, but Moore's forced fumble and recovery by senior Jim Townsend gave EWU the ball at the UND 18-yard line. Three plays later, Perreiah scored on a 2-yard run to give EWU a 35-20 lead and the with 7:39 left to provide the final margin.
 
Barriere, who averaged 42.5 passing attempts in EWU's first four games, attempted only 15 in the victory, completing six for 93 yards. He also rushed for 35 and a touchdown.
 
Eastern equaled a Roos Field/Woodward Field record with its 11th-consecutive home win, dating back 52 years when the stadium opened in 1967. It was Eastern's 1,000th game in school history dating back to 1901, encompassing 111 seasons. And it was, oddly enough, a league game for EWU against a Fighting Hawks team ineligible for the league title because of its move next year to the Missouri Valley Conference.
 
 
Records & Rankings . . .
 
* Eastern is 2-3, having lost its previous two games to FCS competition by a total of 12 points. Back-to-back losses had dropped the Eagles from fourth to 21st in the STATS top 25 poll for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, and EWU was also 21st in the American Football Coaches Association poll entering the UND game.  It was the 44th-straight time Eastern had been ranked by STATS – 102 out of 103 overall, having had a previous streak of 57-straight snapped in 2017.
 
* North Dakota is 2-2 with victories over nationally-ranked Sam Houston State and Drake, as well as a 38-7 loss versus defending FCS champion North Dakota State. The Fighting Hawks were ranked 25th by the coaches and received enough votes (57) to rank 34th by STATS in this week's FCS polls.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern takes on a resurgent Sacramento State team scoring points in bunches next Saturday (Oct. 5) at 6 p.m. at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento. The Hornets had a bye, and will enter the Eastern game with a 2-2 record, which includes overwhelming non-conference victories over Southern Oregon (77-19) and Northern Colorado (50-0). Sac State is coached by Troy Taylor, who spent the 2016 season as offensive coordinator at Eastern before moving on to the same position for two seasons at Utah. This is his first season at the helm, and the Hornets lost a pair of close games to FBS foes – 19-7 at Arizona State on Sept. 6 and 34-20 at Fresno State on Sept. 21.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern's 284 rushing yards were the most this season for EWU, with its previous highs 247 versus Lindenwood and 175 at Jacksonville State. Eastern had a high of 441 yards in the 2018 season versus Cal Poly.
 
* The Eagles had surrendered 13 sacks this season through four games, while North Dakota was third in FCS in sacks with an average of 4.0 per game (12 total). Eastern surrendered just one versus North Dakota, although EWU attempted only 15 passes on the day.
 
* The Fighting Hawks entering the game featuring the top passing defense in FCS, having allowed an average of just 111.7 passing yards through three games. In passing efficiency defense, North Dakota was fourth with a 97.7 mark while allowing opponents to complete just 50.7 percent of their passes with five touchdowns and four interceptions. Eastern, meanwhile, entered fourth in passing offense (348.0) with junior Eric Barriere leading FCS in that category with the same mark. He has 13 passing touchdowns and four interceptions – marks that remained the same after the UND game.
 
 
EWU Highlights . . .
 
* Nose tackle Keith Moore made the first start of his Eastern career, as did Dylan Ingram as a second tight end to begin the game. Sophomore Anfernee Gurney made his second start, but first since 2017, in the secondary for the Eagles. Moore finished with four tackles, including forced fumble on a sack for a loss of nine yards, and another tackle for loss of three yards. Gurley had a pair of tackles and broke-up a pass.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Having won all five of its regular season home games in 2018 and a trio of playoff games, Eastern has extended its current home winning streak to 11 in the 2019 season. The Eagles haven't lost at home since falling to Weber State 28-20 on Nov. 4, 2017. Eastern is now 54-10 (84.4 percent) overall at Roos Field since 2010. The stadium has been known as "Roos Field" since 2010 when a new red synthetic Sprinturf surface made its debut. At its current site, the school record is 11 consecutive home wins set between 9/16/78 and 9/27/80 (between losses was from 11/19/77 to 11/1/80). Overall, the school record is 21 set from 1935-40. Eastern has lost just six regular season games at "The Inferno" – 41-6 (87.2 percent), plus are 13-4 (76.5 percent) in playoff games. The only regular season losses at home for EWU since 2010 are to conference foes Montana State (2011), Portland State (2011 and 2015), Northern Arizona (2015) and Weber State (2017), as well as North Dakota State (2017).
 
* Because of scheduling difficulties with the addition of Idaho to the league and the departure of North Dakota, the game counted in the league standings for EWU but last week's game with Idaho 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. Last year's meeting against the Vandals was a league game as Idaho played its first season back in the league after a more than 20-year venture as a NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision member. But last week's meeting in Moscow was not a Big Sky counter, but instead was a non-conference meeting scheduled to help both teams fill their 12-game schedules.
 
* Eastern has never lost to North Dakota, beating them five times now. The first four wins were by an average score of 41 to 12.
 
* The Eagles have won 54 of their last 63 Big Sky games since a 0-2 start in 2011. Included is a current stretch of 44 victories in the last 51 games (including two at the end of the 2012 season). Including three wins at the end of the 2009 season, Eastern has a 64-12 record in league games since then. Including four non-conference victories (two versus MSU, and one each against Cal Poly and Northern Arizona) and two playoff wins (Montana and UC Davis), the Eagles are 60-9 since the 0-2 start in 2011 and 50-7 since the end of the 2012 campaign.
 
 
Head Coach Aaron Best Comments . . .
 
On Win: "It does feel good – I can't say this enough, a win is a win is a win is a win. It doesn't matter how pretty, it's still a win. It doesn't matter how ugly it is, it's still a win. It doesn't matter what kind of weather it's in, it's still a win. We passed for under 100 yards passing, it's still a win. We were at 25 percent converting third downs, but it's still a win. So it was a collective effort – six turnovers on defense help us out immensely."
 
On Custer and Perreiah: "You are talking about a freshman and a senior – guys who are on opposite ends of the spectrum and both of had over 100 yards. They ran tough and they held onto the football. The conditions today were breezy, snowy, rainy and slushy, and we came out with two players we gave the ball to consistently. They spelled one another and did a great job, not to mention those guys up front. Our offensive line and tight ends were a factor in our running game as well."
 
On Defense: "They wanted to establish the run and we kind of took them out of that and forced them to throw the ball a little bit. We got turnovers to give the ball back to our offense, and that put North Dakota's backs against the wall on defense. Our defense showed a ton of resiliency today – they played spirited and they played physical. Outside of a couple big plays, they played very, very, very good – Coach Ena got them going and we went back to work this week. We tuned things up a little bit and we need to continue that."
 
On Being 1-0 in Big Sky: "This is just one step – we haven't built the house – we're on the staircase. It's great to be 1-0 in the league against an opponent who was ranked."