The playoffs haven't started yet, but they essentially did on Saturday (April 3).
 
Thanks to a dominating defensive performance with three new starters in the lineup, No. 9 Eastern Washington University jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first half and went on to beat No. 11 UC Davis 32-22 in a Big Sky Conference game at UC Davis Health Stadium in Davis, Calif.
 
Eastern out-gained the Aggies 563-397 in the game as senior All-America quarterback Eric Barriere passed for 392 yards and three touchdowns on his way to finishing with 435 yards of total offense. Senior wide receiver Talolo Limu-Jones had a career-high 154 yards receiving on 10 catches, including a key 77-yard TD in the third quarter. Sophomore Freddie Roberson added 86 yards on four receptions, and also scored on a 42-yard running play – just the third carry of his career – to give EWU a 29-15 lead in the fourth quarter.
 
Now 4-1 on the season, Eastern stayed in contention for a possible berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. The Eagles are now a perfect 9-0 all-time versus UC Davis, which ended its 2020-21 season with a 3-2 record.
 
"Our defense did a magnificent job all day long, and then the offense got going when it needed to," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best. "We were out of sync at times, but it's not easy when you expect to score seven points every drive. It was a fun game to watch and be a part of, and great for our team to enjoy a victory over a really, really good ballclub.
 
Both the Eagles and Aggies had entered the game ranked in the top 11 in FCS for both offense and scoring, and had combined for an average of nearly 80 points and more than 1,000 yards of offense per game. Eastern held UC Davis to just 21 offensive plays in the first half and just 6-of-14 on third down – and 0-of-2 on fourth down – in the game.
 
"We knew this was their last regular season game, so we knew they would throw the kitchen sink at us and they did," added Best. "We withstood all they could give us and we ended up on top by 10 points."
 
The Eagle defense was superb in the first half, allowing just 115 total yards and registering its first shutout in a half this season – and first in its last 18 games. The last shutout in a half came in the FCS Playoffs in 2018 versus Maine (12/15/18) when EWU held the Black Bears scoreless in the first half in the 50-19 victory.
 
Likewise, it was also the initial time the Aggies had been shut out in a half this season. They had scored in 14 of 16 quarters entering the game versus EWU, and ended up punting on six of their first eight possessions, with another ending on an Eagle goal-line stand at the 1-yard line.
 
Sophomore Ely Doyle, a transfer from Arizona State, made the first start of his EWU career and had a team-high eight tackles, while a pair of Eagle seniors made their first appearances this season in starting roles versus UCD. Linebacker Jack Sendelbach and safety Calin Criner – two of EWU's co-captains – finished with six and three tackles, respectively, in the game. Senior Ty Graham also had eight tackles and nickel back Marlon Jones Jr. had six, including the stop on the goal line stand.
 
Senior running back Tamarick Pierce added 84 yards rushing as the Eagles finished with 171 on the ground. Barriere completed 30-of-41 passes, and also rushed six times for 43 yards. He now has 10 career performances with at least 400 yards of total offense, and 18 with 300+. He also had his 12th performance with at least 300 passing yards.
 
In what is essentially another playoff game for the Eagles, Eastern ends the regular season by hosting Idaho on Saturday (April 10) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. Kickoff is 1:05 p.m. in a rematch of EWU's 28-21 loss on Feb. 27 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho. Barriere is 12-0 all-time at Roos Field where EWU has won 16-straight games.
 
Both the Eagles and Aggies were trying to keep pace with unbeaten Weber State in the race for the Big Sky's automatic playoff berth. The Wildcats scored 10 fourth-quarter points to edge Southern Utah 19-16 Saturday and improve to 4-0 in the league.
 
Entering Saturday's action, there were still four one-loss or better teams in the Big Sky – including EWU and UC Davis – so every game is critical to the post-season playoff hopes for those schools. The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs – just 16 teams this year with only five at-large berths -- are slated to begin on April 24 and conclude on May 16.
 
 
Records
 
* Eastern is now 4-1 and UC Davis closed its regular season at 3-2. Eastern was ranked ninth in this week's Stats Perform NCAA Football Championship Subdivision top-25 poll (ninth by the coaches) and UC Davis was 11th (15th by the coaches). Previously, the Eagles opened the season with a loss to Idaho 28-21, then beat Northern Arizona at home 45-13 and Idaho State on the road 46-42. Eastern's most recent game was a 62-10 romp past Cal Poly at home on March 27.
 
* Saturday's scheduled games also included No. 3 Weber State at SUU and Idaho at ISU, with Weber State edging Southern Utah 19-16. With the Idaho at ISU game left to complete, Weber State sits atop the league standings at 4-0, followed by Eastern Washington at 4-1 and UC Davis at 3-2. Idaho is 2-1 and Northern Arizona is 1-2, while the last three teams in the standings are Idaho State (1-3), Southern Utah (1-4) and Cal Poly (0-3).
 
* The April 10 schedule in the league features Idaho at EWU, NAU at SUU and ISU at WSU. On April 17th, a make-up day for games previous postponed because of Covid-19 protocols, Idaho is at NAU. Because they decided after its loss to Eastern to cancel the rest of its spring schedule, Cal Poly had games canceled at NAU, as well as home versus UC Davis and Weber State. The Big Sky is deciding if those games will be declared a "no contest" and not affect records, or if they will count as forfeits and give one more victory to the three teams impacted by the cancellations.
 
* The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs – just 16 teams this year with only five at-large berths -- are slated to begin on April 24 and conclude on May 16. Pairings will be revealed on a selection show aired on Sunday, April 18 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time on ESPNU. All rounds of the FCS playoffs will be broadcast on ESPN's family of networks, with the national championship game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, taking place on Sunday, May 16, at 11 a.m. Pacific time on ABC.
 
* UC Davis is 20-15 in its last 25 games under head coach Dan Hawkins, and four of those losses have been to the Eagles, who have won all nine of the games in the series which started in 2005.
 
* Two weeks ago on March 20 in Davis, Calif., the Aggies beat Cal Poly by 49 points (73-24). The next week, Eastern beat the Mustangs by 52 (62-10) in the second-straight road game for Cal Poly, which has elected not to play its final three games of the season (NAU, UC Davis and Weber State) because of a lack of available players.
 
 
Game Details & Turning Point
 
Eastern jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on early drives of 68 and 84 yards. A 27-yard field goal by Seth Harrison was followed by a 5-yard TD pass from Barriere to Anthony Stell Jr. as at that point in the game EWU amassed 152 yards on 22 plays compared to 25 yards on five plays for the Aggies.
 
Eventually, the Eagles would take a 16-0 lead on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Barriere to Limu-Jones with 2:37 left in the first half. Eastern had a 292-115 advantage in total offense in the first half, and an even more dominating edge in time of possession (21:16 to 8:44). Eastern ran 51 plays to just 21 for UC Davis.
 
A 45-yard kickoff return and a 44-yard touchdown pass opened the second half, and after a successful two-point try, the Aggies were within 16-8 barely a minute into the second half. But the offenses slowed to a crawl after that, and both teams punted on their next two possessions.
 
Eastern then struck on a 77-yard TD strike down the sideline from Barriere to Limu-Jones. After UC Davis cut the score to 22-15 late in the third quarter, Roberson had his 42-yard rush nine seconds into the final quarter.
 
The Aggies wouldn't go away, and scored again with 11:11 left. The Eagles followed with an 11-play, 69-yard drive that took 5:37 off the clock, and ended with a 22-yard field goal by Harrison. Eastern stopped the Aggies on downs at the EWU 8-yard line with 1:55 to play, then the Eagles ran out the clock after that.
 
 
Series Notes
 
* Including a pair of victories over UC Davis in the 2018 season, the Eagles have won all nine of the all-time meetings against the Aggies, including the notorious "Fog Bowl" in the first meeting in 2005. That 24-7 game at fog-shrouded Roos Field (then Woodward Field) featured near-zero visibility from the pressbox. Although a non-conference game, that day EWU clinched the Big Sky Conference co-championship with Montana and Montana State, and secured the automatic berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs (then known as I-AA). The Bobcats upset Montana 16-6 in Bozeman that same day, opening the door for the Eagles to garner its second-straight league title and playoff berth. The Eagles found out the outcome of the MSU-UM game in the second quarter, then rested many of its starters in the second half. In the other meetings, Eastern won in Cheney in 2007 by a 41-31 score, and then prevailed 31-28 in a Big Sky Conference game in 2012. In 2014, Eastern won at UC Davis 37-14, and romped 63-30 in 2016 in Cheney. The Eagles also had a come-from-behind 41-38 victory at UC Davis in 2017.
 
 
More Game Notes
 
* Sophomore Ely Doyle, a transfer from Arizona State, started his first game as an Eagle at UC Davis on April 3 and finished with at team-high eight tackles. Thus far in the 2020-21 season, 20 players have made the initial starts of their careers – 12 on defense and eight on offense. In addition, linebacker Jack Sendelbach and safety Calin Criner both made their season debuts against UC Davis after missing EWU's first four games of the spring season. Sendelbach and Criner are both senior co-captains for the Eagles, and started their 16th and 17th career games, respectively, at EWU. Sendelbach finished with six tackles and Criner had three versus the Aggies.
 
Current Starts on Defense (127 starts by 21 players): Calin Criner 17, Tre Weed 16, Jack Sendelbach 16, Mitchell Johnson 15, Darrien Sampson 8, Kedrick Johnson 8, Darreon Moore 7, Ty Graham 5, Joshua Jerome 5, Jacob Newsom 5, Brock Harrison 4, Anthany Smith 4, Keshaun King 4, Marlon Jones Jr. 3, Ira Branch 3, Caleb Davis 2, Ely Doyle 1, Cale Lindsay 1, Jusstis Warren 1, Debore'ae McClain 1, Justin Patterson 1.
 
Current Starts on Offense (160 starts by 18 players): Tristen Taylor 45, Eric Barriere 27, Andrew Boston 23, Johnny Edwards IV 12, Conner Crist 7, Talolo Limu-Jones 7, Freddie Roberson 7, Dylan Ingram 6, Wyatt Musser 5, Matt Shook 5, Tamarick Pierce 4, Wyatt Hansen 3, Dennis Merritt 2, Brad Godwin 2, Anthony Stell Jr. 2, Blake Gobel 1, Gunner Talkington 1, Efton Chism III 1.
 
* Against UC Davis, Eastern extended its streak of seasons with at least two road wins to 28.  A 48-5 win in 2019 at ISU extended EWU's current streak of 51 seasons with at least one road win and winning for the 11th-straight time over Idaho State. Those streaks were extended to 52 and 12, respectively, this year when the Eagles edged ISU 46-42 on March 13 in Pocatello.
 
* This week's game had a similar feel to the 2018 season when both the Eagles and Aggies were two of the premier teams in FCS. They met on Nov. 10, 2018, in Cheney, and EWU entered ranked as high as third (coaches; 5th by STATS) and UC Davis was ranked as high as fourth (STATS; 7th by the coaches). The result was an overwhelming 59-20 victory for EWU after falling behind 10-0. The two teams met again just a few weeks later in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs, and EWU needed a touchdown with 26 seconds left to prevail 34-29 on Dec. 8, 2018. The Eagles entered that game ranked fourth by STATS and third by the coaches, and UC Davis was seventh and 10th, respectively. After the narrow win, third-seeded Eastern went on to fall to top-seeded North Dakota State in the NCAA Division I Championship Game.
 
* Last week, Eastern scored 21 points in the opening six minutes and went on to out-gain Cal Poly 683-238 in total offense, and that was by far the least dramatic of the four league games played. The Aggies edged past Idaho State 31-27, scoring the winning touchdown with eight seconds remaining after a 10-play, 75-yard drive. Also on Saturday, third-ranked WSU won at home over Northern Arizona 28-23 on a Hail Mary pass to end the game, and Idaho edged Southern Utah 33-32 with a touchdown with seven seconds to play. Eastern set its school record for first-half points in leading 45-7 at intermission versus Cal Poly, and had a 447-102 advantage in offense in the first 30 minutes. The 45 points were four better than the school-record halftime total of 41 set in 1994 in the first game in the coaching career of Mike Kramer and the first-ever night game at Roos Field, which was a 61-7 victory over Cal Poly. Eastern finished with the 16th-most points in school history, and the 52-point differential equaled the fifth-best for EWU as a member of FCS. The yardage total (683) for EWU was the eighth-most all-time in school history. The 28 points in the opening 15 minutes were the second-most as a member of FCS behind the record of 29.
 
 
On the Horizon
 
In a rematch of a February game in which Eastern Washington University played the game without head coach Aaron Best on the sideline, EWU hosts Idaho on Saturday (April 10) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. Kickoff is 1:05 p.m. and the game is televised regionally in Eastern Washington on SWX and is also aired on Pluto TV Channel 1053 (http://pluto.tv & http://watchbigsky.com). Fans can also listen to the game on 700-AM ESPN, 105.3-FM, via the web at tunein.com and via mobile phone app, with pre-game coverage starting one hour prior to kickoff.
 
Eastern will try to continue a pair of home winning streaks this week against the Vandals. The Eagles have won their last 16 homes games at "The Inferno," and All-America quarterback Eric Barriere is a perfect 12-0 as a starter there. The Eagles beat Northern Arizona 45-13 on March 6 in the first game on the new red Astroturf surface installed at "The Inferno" last summer. Most recently, the Eagles had a 62-10 romp over Cal Poly on March 27. In EWU's last eight home games, EWU has won by an average score of 53-25. During the 16-game Roos Field winning streak EWU has won by an average score of 52-23, with all but three games decided by at least 21 points.
 
On Feb. 27 in the 2020-21 season opener for both teams, Eastern was finally able to begin its 112th season in school history after a delay of five months because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Eagles opened a 14-0 lead at Idaho, but the Vandals would take their only lead of the game with 54 seconds left and won 28-21. Eastern had 426 yards of total offense – including 339 by Eric Barriere – while holding the Vandals to 366 yards.
 
Two days prior to that game, Eastern confirmed that Best had tested positive for Covid-19 and would miss the season-opening game at Idaho.  He followed proper isolation protocols via CDC guidelines and the Spokane Regional Health District, and came out of isolation on Saturday, March 6 to coach versus Northern Arizona.
 
 Eastern has lost the previous two times EWU and UI have met in a Big Sky Conference games – 28-21 earlier this season and 35-27 in the 2019 season – both at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho. 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. Prior to that, 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.
 
Since the series started in 1942, Idaho has won 17 of the 24 games played between the two schools, with a pair of five-game winning streaks. The Eagles are 4-10 all-time in Moscow, including a 35-27 loss in 2019 when the Vandals opened a 28-0 lead at halftime. Until 2018, Eastern had never defeated the Vandals in Cheney, losing 28-7 in 1942, 38-21 in 1992 and 40-15 in 1994. Eastern is 2-4 all-time at Albi Stadium in Spokane (1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1997, 1999).
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Aaron Best
 
On First Half: "We won the first half decisively on the scoreboard and in time of possession. The game was won up front. We held them to 21 plays in the first half alone, and that's not what UC Davis is all about. They are up-tempo and they usually get 40-45 plays a half. We got them out of their rhythm a little bit. A lot had to do with the offensive execution, but even better was our defense in getting them off the field and punting a few more times than normal. It was methodical at times in the first half, but methodical is okay when you are putting up zeros on defense for 30 minutes of football."
 
On Second Half: "We actually put our defense in a bind in a couple of times in the second half, but the defense didn't waver. They stuck together and the coaches did a marvelous job with the game plan. This is the same UC Davis team that put 73 on the board two weeks ago, and we held them scoreless in the first half and to 22 overall. So I commend these student-athletes and coaches for going on the road and coming back with a win."
 
On Eric Barriere's 400 Yards of Offense: "We wanted to utilize Eric a little bit more in the run game, and we also wanted to get a little more creative on the exterior too. We knew this defense was stout, and there were a lot of similarities between the two teams. We knew we had to go on the road and face a well-coached, highly-talented team. We did what we were capable of doing and played well on offense and defense. We played a really good football team, and we just played better today."