Opportunities lost

CHENEY — So much for the Idaho Vandals keeping this one close early, so they didn’t have to play from behind.

Idaho had a couple promising drives early, that resulted in nothing.

Meanwhile, Eastern Washington scored early and often and at will, jetting to a 31-0 halftime lead and coasting to a 38-14 victory over of the Vandals on Saturday in Big Sky Conference football before 10,023 at Roos Field.

“We got our butts kicked, and now it’s time to go back to work,” said Idaho coach Paul Petrino, who noted earlier in the week that not falling behind early was a key to this game.

Eastern (6-2, 4-1 Big Sky) may have posted the decisive victory over Idaho (3-5, 2-4), but the Eagles suffered a loss of their own when EWU coach Aaron Best announced after the game that star senior quarterback Gage Gubrud, who missed his third straight game with what the school is vaguely calling a “lower leg injury,” will have surgery soon, effectively ending his Eagle career.

EWU junior Eric Barriere, who became the starter when Gubrud was injured, proved to be quite a pain for the Vandals — though a different type of pain. Barriere, more of a running threat than Gubrud, was too quick for the Vandals on the read option. He had a career-high 396 yards of total offense. But he proved he can also throw, passing for 326 yards and three touchdowns.

Best looked on the bright side.

“Might give us more of a ceiling,” Best said, “because Eric Barriere is untapped — just like any guy that you haven’t really seen. He’s our guy. He’s got a lot to learn, and not a lot of time ... but if he can play like he did today, we’ve got a heckuva chance going forward.”

Idaho lost a fumble deep in Eastern territory on its first drive, when receiver Jeff Cotton was stripped of the ball by EWU cornerback D’londo Tucker, and Tucker recovered at the 17.

EWU scored six plays later when Barriere zipped 48 yards on a read option for a touchdown.

Idaho turned it over on downs on its second drive, when Isaiah Saunders was stuffed on fourth and 1 at the Vandals 47. On the play before, Idaho got a tough spot when the runner was marked a foot short. EWU made it 14-0 three plays later when Barriere found tight end Henderson Belk wide open on a seam route from the left for a 22-yard scoring play.

“We’ve been pretty good on our opening drives,” Petrino said. “We’ve only had three games where we didn’t score on our opening drive. We were doing a lot of good things, and then we fumbled. The next drive was decent, then we got stopped on fourth and 1, then we didn’t do a whole lot for a while.”

Best said EWU forcing an Idaho turnover on the first possession was “huge.

“You just took the wind out of their sails. You went from a seven-point swing against you to a seven-point swing in your favor.”

“When adversity hits, you can’t just let it kill you for the whole half,” Idaho quarterback Mason Petrino said.

Idaho sacked Barriere four times, but several other times he spun out of pressure and made big plays.

“It’s tough,” said Idaho linebacker Ty Graham, who led the Vandals with 12 tackles. “He can absolutely sling the ball, and he’s got great feet. He’s tough to bottle up, that’s for sure.”

“I thought he had too long to throw,” Petrino said of Barriere. “No one can cover forever. We’ve got to get a pass rush.”

And the Eagles’ receivers were too often wide open.

“They play a lot of Cover 4, so we were just trying to hit the windows,” Barriere said of Idaho. “I think our wideouts were just quicker, and better.”

And Eastern’s defensive backs were lining up Idaho’s throws to the outside, drooling over a possible pick-6.

And EWU’s pressure had Vandal QBs reeling, Idaho’s completions short.

Eastern’s third score was set up by a 36-yard pass on a reverse by lefty-throwing wide receiver Jayson Williams to Johnny Edwards IV — not that Eastern needed the trickery — to the Idaho 4.

Midway through the second quarter, Barriere escaped linebackers Graham and Kaden Elliss in the backfield, spun to the left and hit a wide-open Belk for 57 yards. That set up Roldan Alcobendas’ 30-yard field goal that made it 24-0 with 4:52 left in the half.

Eastern’s fourth TD drive of the half was “helped” by two pass-interference calls against Idaho. Dre’Sonte Dorton caught a 7-yard TD pass from Barriere — cutting in front of a Vandal defensive back who gave him enough room to run into the end zone and catch the ball.

Aside from the fumble, Cotton otherwise had a nice game with eight catches for 110 yards, including a 23-yard TD pass from Mason Petrino with 2:10 left in the game to close out the scoring.

After Idaho’s first two drives, the Vandals punted on their next six possessions.

In the third quarter, chunk plays from Mason Petrino to D.J. Lee, and Petrino to Cotton, and a run by Petrino, set up Petrino’s 4-yard TD pass to Cuttrell Haywood. It was Haywood’s fourth TD catch in the last two games.

Naturally, Eastern answered three plays later, when Barriere found Terence Grady wide open down the sideline between defenders. He slipped a tackle and waltzed into the end zone to complete the 64-yard scoring play.

Even when Idaho made a nice defensive play — safety Denzal Brantley smashed into Barriere after a long run in the second half and jarred the ball loose — Eastern was able to recover the ball.

Eastern seemed to put it in cruise control in the second half.

At the half, EWU led Idaho 364-129 in total yards. For the game, it was 546-363.

Eastern’s only miscue came on the opening kickoff, which struck the return man in the face mask at the goal line as he looked into the sun. A teammate caught the ball on the fly on his way out of bounds at the 7.

Notes: Idaho played without four regulars, including three players listed as starters — offensive guard Conner Vrba, linebacker Ed Hall, cornerback Dorian Clark and tackle Irving Schuster. Schuster is listed as a backup. ... Cade Coffey, a sophomore from Lakeland, averaged 46.9 yards on eight punts.

E. Washington 38, Idaho 14

Idaho 0 0 7 7 — 14

E. Wash. 14 17 7 0 — 38

First Quarter

EWU—Barriere 48 run (Alcobendas kick), 6:55.

EWU—Belk 22 pass from Barriere (Alcobendas kick), 3:16.

Second Quarter

EWU—Pierce 3 run (Alcobendas kick), 9:56.

EWU—FG Alcobendas 30, 4:52.

EWU—Sonte Dorton 7 pass from Barriere (Alcobendas kick), 0:11.

Third Quarter

IDHO—Haywood 4 pass from Petrino (Coffey kick), 6:33.

EWU—Grady 64 pass from Barriere (Alcobendas kick), 5:30.

Fourth Quarter

IDHO—Cotton 23 pass from Petrino (Coffey kick), 0:26.

IDHO EWU

First downs 19 25

Rushes-yards 36-159 38-171

Passing 204 375

Comp-Att-Int 23-37-0 31-44-0

Return Yards 65 29

Punts-Avg. 8-46.9 5-41.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-0

Penalty-Yards 5-61 1-10

Time of Possession 29:23 30:37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Idaho, M. Petrino 7-55, I. Saunders 12-36, T. Walker 7-36, R. Johnson 5-22, J. Cotton 1-11, C. Richardson 4-(minus 1). E. Washington, E. Barriere 12-70, A. Custer Jr. 5-44, S. McPherson 14-36, T. Pierce 4-15, T. Grady 1-8, D. Merritt 1-3.

PASSING—Idaho, M. Petrino 20-28-0-177, C. Richardson 3-9-0-27. E. Washington, E. Barriere 29-42-0-326, J. Williams 1-1-0-36, S. McPherson 1-1-0-13.

RECEIVING—Idaho, J. Cotton 8-110, D. Ungerer 6-33, C. Haywood 6-26, D. Lee 2-25, R. Johnson 1-10. E. Washington, H. Belk 3-78, T. Grady 2-72, N. Webster 7-62, A. Boston 9-49, J. Edwards IV 1-36, T. Limu-Jones 2-32, E. Barriere 1-13, J. Gilder 1-13, S. McPherson 2-12, D. Dorton 1-7, A. Custer Jr. 2-1.