To the Woodshed: Idaho's Woods runs over, through Eastern in 44-36 victory

By MARK NELKE

Sports writer

CHENEY — The Idaho Vandals discovered just before the game that Eastern Washington was starting a different quarterback than the one the Vandals had prepared all week for.

Idaho then spent most of the game trying to contain junior Jared Taylor, who gashed the Vandals to the tune of 121 net rushing yards, on a combination of scrambles and designed quarterback runs.

Eventually Idaho, ranked fourth in the FCS, stopped the Eagles enough times in the second half, scored 23 consecutive points and leaned on a ground-heavy game to win 44-36 in Big Sky Conference play over No. 19 EWU before 8,347 at Roos Field.

“Yeah, it was frustrating,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “Some of them were quarterback-designed (runs), but they had a few … where he scrambled. We did a better job of spying at the end.”

Taylor started in place of sophomore Kekoa Visperas, who sat out with what Eastern coach Aaron Best called an “upper body” injury sustained in last week’s game at UC Davis. Eck said the Eagles realized mid-week that Visperas might not be able to play Saturday.

That meant Idaho received a heavy dose of running from Taylor and fellow quarterback Michael Wortham, rather than more of a passing attack from the dual-threat Visperas.

“We didn’t know anything about this Taylor kid,” Eck said. “I thought they would run the ball a little bit more, but he’s pretty mobile too. In the second half, we wanted to make those quarterbacks beat us throwing.”

Meanwhile, Idaho (4-1, 2-0 Big Sky) rushed for 363 yards, including a 183-yard, five-touchdown performance from sophomore Anthony Woods. He scored on runs of 2, 17, 4, 7 and 60 yards, and was especially big on the game’s final drive, when the Vandals chewed the final 6:37 off the clock after Eastern had made it a one-score game.

“I just try to make plays every chance I get,” said Woods, only the second Vandal to score five or more touchdowns in a game.

Many of his yards came on cut-backs, taking advantage of the defense’s pursuit.

“That’s just my vision,” Woods said. “I would cut back, because I would see them over-flowing.”

“Anthony Woods, that’s as fine a game as you’ll see a college football player have,” Eck said. “Our offensive line played great. Shout out to Ayden (Knapik), Charlie (Vliem), Zo (Nate Azzopardi), Abe (Christensen), Tigana (Cisse) and Eli (Sanchez).”

Nick Romano, a fifth-year senior from Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, also showed some power up the middle with 129 yards on 18 carries.

“Nick Romano ran his tail off; I’m so proud of him,” Eck said. “In this era you don’t see a lot of guys do what he did. Last year he was the fifth-string tailback and didn’t get a lot of carries, but played hard on special teams, didn’t pout, didn’t transfer. And now he has a 100-yard game in a big conference game on the road.”

This on a day when Gevani McCoy threw just 18 times, completing 8 for 128 yards and one interception, in the first quarter. His big-play receivers, Hayden Hatten and Jermaine Jackson, caught just three passes each, for 41 and 43 yards, respectively.

“We did a good job in the pass defense arena,” Best said. “But we didn’t do enough to test their pass game enough.”

But Idaho didn’t need to go to the air much on a breezy Saturday afternoon.

“Make no excuses, they ran the ball essentially at will against us,” Best said. “You shut 1 (Jackson), 4 (McCoy) and 80 (Hatten) down all of a sudden 5 (Woods) shows up. I told him (Woods) after the game, that was a helluva game, a helluva effort. It felt like every time he touched the ball he was bound to score.”

Down its starting QB, Eastern (2-3, 1-1) put up a good fight throughout.

After Idaho took the opening kickoff and scored when Woods took a direct snap and ran it in from 2 yards out, the Eagles answered when Wortham, lined up at halfback, took a lateral from Taylor and hit a wide-open Anthony Snell Jr. on a 29-yard scoring play.

Early in the second quarter, Idaho seemed to lose running back Justice Jackson on a screen pass to the left, and Jackson scored easily from 34 yards out.

Idaho tied it at 14 when McCoy rolled right and found an open tight end Alex Moore in the end zone from 11 yards out.

Wortham, who played some snaps at quarterback, ran out of two tackles in the backfield and zipped 35 yards for a touchdown.

Idaho tied it at 21 just before the half when Woods swept left end from 17 yards out.

Eastern took the second-half kickoff and scored on Taylor’s 4-yard keeper for a 28-21 lead.

Then, the game turned Idaho’s way.

With EWU trying to keep the momentum, Jackson returned the Eagles’ kickoff 84 yards to the Eastern 7. Two plays later, Woods tied it from 4 yards out.

“They keep giving me opportunities, one of these are going to pop,” Jackson said. “They (the Eagles) were talking crazy on the sideline; I’ve got to make something happen after that.”

“Jermaine’s kickoff return brought us a little energy,” Eck said. “The first series of the second half was not good defensively; I don’t think they threw a pass, and they went right down and scored. That play got our energy level up.”

Idaho then stopped Taylor for no gain on fourth and one at its 34. The Vandals turned that into a 38-yard field goal by Ricardo Chavez and a 31-28 lead.

Idaho forced a three-and-out, and Woods ran around left end for 7 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter, and it was 37-28.

The Vandals then caught a break when Woods had to chase down an errant snap and fall on it at the Idaho 6 — a loss of 28 credited to Woods’ rushing total. But an Eastern player was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play. So instead of fourth down and 36, the Vandals got an automatic first down at the 21.

Four plays later, on third and one at the 40, Woods broke loose up the middle and dashed 60 yards for a 44-28 lead with 8:49 left.

Eastern responded with Taylor’s 17-yard TD run, and the two-point conversion cut it to 44-36 with 6:37 remaining.

But the Eagles never got the ball back.

After an incomplete pass, Idaho ran the ball 11 straight times — eight times by Romano, three by Woods. The Vandals picked up five first downs, including a 4-yard gain by Woods on fourth and 2 at the EWU 41.

When Romano powered 5 yards up the middle on third and 4 from the Eagle 15, it was kneel down time.

“They ran it, we knew they were going to run it, and we couldn’t stop it,” Best said.

Idaho made some defensive adjustments in the second half on Taylor, including the use of a “spy.” Eck also said the Vandals tackled better after intermission.

“I think their mindset was, we were going to run the ball, knowing how the first half went,” Taylor said. “They probably knew we felt good about how things were going (in the first half). We didn’t change much; our mindset was we were going to try to beat them face-up.”

In the second half, the Vandals adjusted.

“Pocket control,” said Keyshawn James-Newby, who had a big sack in the third quarter. “We just kept stepping up; you just have to wait for that time when the secondary is doing its job, and we’re sitting back there just waiting for our chance.”

It was also Idaho’s first win in Cheney since 1994, and first over the Eagles on the road since 1999, when the Vandals won at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.

“I thought Eastern played their tail off,” Eck said. “They probably played harder than us in the first half, so credit to them. We made some simple adjustments on defense; we didn’t need a ton of stops, we just needed a few stops.”

Idaho travels to Cal Poly on Saturday.

After a bye this week, Eastern visits Idaho State on Oct. 14.

Idaho 7 14 10 13 — 44

EWU 7 14 7 8 — 36

First quarter

Idaho — Woods 2 run (Chavez kick), 12:09

EWU — Stell Jr. 29 pass from Wortham (McKee kick), 7:28

Second quarter

EWU — Jackson 34 pass from Taylor (McKee kick), 12:48

Idaho — Moore 11 pass from McCoy (Chavez kick), 7:12

EWU — Wortham 35 run (McKee kick), 1:59

Idaho — Woods 17 run (Chavez kick), :33

Third quarter

EWU — Taylor 4 run (McKee kick), 8:47

Idaho — Woods 4 run (Chavez kick), 7:49

Idaho — FG Ghavez 38, 4:26

Fourth quarter

Idaho — Woods 7 run (kick failed), 14:55

Idaho — Woods 60 run (Chavez kick), 8:49

EWU — Taylor 17 run (Ulm pass from Taylor), 6:37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Idaho, Woods 24-183, Romano 18-129, Jackson 1-31, McCoy 4-22. EWU, Taylor 22-121, Wortham 5-54, Altahir 10-48, Jackson 4-9.

PASSING — Idaho, McCoy 8-18-1-128. EWU, Taylor 10-23-1-92, Wortham 3-5-0-34.

RECEIVING — Idaho, Jackson 3-43, Hatten 3-41, Traynor 1-33, Moore 1-11. EWU, Chism III 5-31, James 3-17, Jackson 1-34, Stell Jr. 1-29.