The Eastern Washington University football team led 21-10 early, but the University of Montana outscored the Eagles 40-14 to hand EWU a 57-41 second-round loss in the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs on Saturday, Dec. 3 in Missoula, Mont., at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
 
Senior quarterback Eric Barriere ends his illustrious career third all-time in the FCS in total offense (15,394), third in passing yards (13,809) and tied for fourth in passing touchdowns (121), all of which are also Eastern Washington and Big Sky Conference career records. Tonight, he completed 47 of his 80 pass attempts with 530 passing yards and five passing touchdowns.
 
Talolo Limu-Jones had 215 receiving yards which ties an EWU program playoff record and is tied for 11^th all-time in EWU single game history. Barriere's 530 passing yards is also a playoff record and his five touchdown passes is tied for the third-most and it was the third-highest of his career.  
 
The Eagles end the season 10-3 overall, while the Grizzlies move on to the quarterfinals with a 10-2 record.
 
"I don't know if I do our players justice talking about how special they are. Hopefully for the last five, six, or seven years for the guys that are still playing that they've experienced what it's like on a day-to-day basis. It's fun coming to work, what we call work, it's been a lot of highs and few lows along the way. We've played, we've practiced, we've lifted, we've conditioned in the winter and summer at such a high, and caring, and commitment level. We've battled through a lot of stuff just like everyone does, but we do it better together. We've done it for a long, long time, well before myself as a head coach. It's a fabric of our DNA, and it's unfortunate the 2021 season ends in Missoula," said head coach Aaron Best. "We gave it our all, made enough plays early to create momentum. My heart goes out to our seniors, it's not the way we anticipated to go out. There's only one team smiling at the end of this thing, and unfortunately, it's not going to be us this year. There are a lot of people that left a lot of imprints on this department and on this campus, I'm going to soak it in and enjoy what we can of the bus ride home with the players who have donned this logo for many years and have done something special."
 
Montana scored on its opening drive on a 75-yard rushing touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
 
The Eagles instantly quieted the crowd of over 24,000 when Barriere found Talolo Limu-Jones for a 58-yard completion that set up first and 10 on the UM 19-yard line. On the next play, Barriere connected with Andrew Boston for 19-yards and the Eagles evened the score after a successful extra point attempt by Wyatt Hawkins.
 
Eastern took its first lead of the game after Barriere threw a 54-yard dart to Jakobie James right into his hands in the endzone for the score, taking a 14-7 lead after the extra point. Montana would settle for a 37-yard field goal with 29 seconds left in the first quarter and the Eagles led 14-10 after one.
 
Dennis Merritt kept the momentum going after a 57-yard rushing touchdown to the start the second quarter, capping a four-play 75-yard drive to go up 21-10. The Eagles were held scoreless after that, as the Grizzlies converted on a 44-yard field goal attempt and then took advantage of a blocked punt that turned into a five-yard rushing touchdown. Montana outscored EWU 10-0 to end the half, but the Eagles still held a 21-20 lead.
 
Montana gave the game its second lead change to start the second half with a 46-yard field goal and added to the advantage after an eight-yard rushing touchdown to lead 30-21.
 
Eastern Washington snapped its scoreless spell with 6:38 left to play in the third quarter when Barriere connected with Limu-Jones on a four-yard passing touchdown that capped a 10-play, 52-yard drive to pull back within two, 30-28.
 
From there, Montana scored on a 44-yard, five-yard and a 30-yard touchdown to build the 50-28 lead.
 
Barriere found Limu-Jones in the endzone for the second time with 4:57 left to play as EWU cut the lead to 50-35. Montana then answered back with an interception that was returned 55-yards for a touchdown. Eastern fought to the very end, as Barriere's final touchdown pass as an Eagle came with five seconds left on a 16-yard pass to James.
 
Merritt was the team's leading rusher with 80 yards on 15 carries plus a touchdown. Both Limu-Jones and Boston had over 100 receiving yards. Limu-Jones had 215 yards on 14 catches with two touchdowns, while Boston collected 141 on 14 receptions with one score.
 
Ty Graham had 13 tackles followed by Jack Sendelbach with seven. Wyatt Hawkins was a perfect 5-for-5 on extra point attempts.