In this year’s installment of the military appreciation game, Eastern Washington University’s football team started the game with a massive bang. Michael Wortham took the opening kickoff 86 yards to set up a go-ahead touchdown by Tuna Altahir from 14 yards out. Speaking of bang, the EWU ROTC and everyone’s favorite mascot, Swoop, sounded off loud with not one, but two M1A1 75mm Howitzers following the touchdown.

But looking at the box score does not tell the entire story of the game. The game featured great defensive play; Eastern Washington’s defense held Cal Poly to one offensive touchdown, forcing stops drive after drive. An interesting stat from the game is Cal Poly tallying up 3 safeties, resulting in 6 of their points. Safeties are uncommon, two are rare, but three are almost never heard of. The greatest number of safeties in a D1 football game is 4, which is held by Montana State, but getting 3 safeties is quite a feat and is rarely replicated on all levels of football.

The Eagles controlled the running game all day with Tuna Altahir running for 104 yards with two touchdowns, Justice Jackson ran for 77 yards and one touchdown. Kekoa Visperas threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns with a QBR of 113.18.

The Eagle’s defense held Cal Poly’s running game in check, holding Cal Poly to only 55 total rushing yards, with the longest of which being 14 yards. All of Cal Poly’s receivers were held to under 50 yards. The Eagle’s defense allowed 145 yards on 36 pass attempts. EWU forced 3 turnovers, one of which being an interception by junior corner Cage Schenck (his second this year).  

Eastern Washington University dominated on all 3 levels of the game and that led to the blowout victory. The Eagles started the game hot and carried the momentum throughout the entire game and never relinquished control. The defense kept Cal Poly out of the endzone for pretty much the entire game and this allowed the offense to control the tempo of the game.

The Eagles are now 4-5 with a chance to go 6-4 if they can overpower the 7-2 Montana State Bobcats and 3-6 NAU. EWU has improved from their 3-8 season last year, Eastern is trying to make their way back to the playoffs and this season was a step in the right direction. Eastern has shown massive potential and these next two games can set the Eagles up for success next year.