No. 3 Eastern Washington Earns 35-22 Big Sky Victory Over Cal Poly

Saturday, November 16

12:40 pm

5-6

Eastern Washington

9-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Eastern Washington

Cal Poly

No. 3 Eastern Washington Earns 35-22 Big Sky Victory Over Cal Poly

11/16/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

POSTGAME REACTION: TIM WALSH | SULLIVAN GROSZ
GAME HIGHLIGHTS: VIDEOBOARD | KSBY-TV

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Sophomore quarterback Vernon Adams passed for 224 yards and a pair of touchdowns before leaving the game early in the third quarter as No. 3 Eastern Washington defeated Cal Poly 35-22 in a Big Sky Conference football game Saturday afternoon in Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

Anthony Vitto replaced the injured Adams and connected on eight of 12 passes for 127 yards and another Eagle touchdown as Eastern Washington, the 2010 Football Championship Subdivision national champion, improved to 9-2 with its seventh straight win. The Eagles clinched at least a share of their seventh Big Sky title with a 7-0 record.

In its homecoming game, Cal Poly fell to 5-6 overall and 4-3 in conference.

"It was a stinger, but he'll be fine," Eastern Washington head coach Beau Baldwin said to the Spokane Spokesman-Review of Adams' injury. "He might have been able to play, but we just thought we would do the smart thing moving forward. Honestly, we didn't change a lot of what we were doing with Anthony. He went in there slinging it and he was just fine."

Trailing 35-3, Cal Poly rallied for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter on runs by Brandon Howe and Chris Brown and a 25-yard scoring pass from Brown to Cole Stanford.

The last score came with 3:07 remaining in the game. Eastern Washington recovered the onside kick and turned the ball over on downs with 52 seconds left, but Cal Poly drove to the Eastern Washington 17-yard line before time ran out.

Junior slotback Kristaan Ivory became the 16th Mustang to surpass 1,000 yards rushing in a season when he ran eight yards on first down with 11 minutes to go in the game. He finished with 88 yards on 14 carries to lift his season total to 1,028 yards.

Sophomore Dano Graves started the game at quarterback for Cal Poly and completed eight of 16 passes for 37 yards while also contributing 75 yards on 16 rushes. The Air Force transfer, however, was intercepted three times.

Brown, also a sophomore, replaced Graves as the signal caller for Cal Poly and led the Mustangs on three fourth-quarter scoring drives. He completed four of seven passes for 87 yards and ran five times for 63 additional yards.

Cal Poly opened the scoring with a 22-yard field goal by Bobby Zalud, one of 23 Mustang seniors honored in a pregame ceremony. The three-pointer capped a game-opening 44-yard, 12-play drive ignited by a 51-yard kickoff return by Chris Nicholls.

Eastern Washington countered with 35 unanswered points.

Quincy Forte ran 37 yards for a score six minutes into the second quarter and Cooper Kupp's 32-yard scoring pass from Adams gave the Eagles a 14-3 lead 74 seconds before halftime.

The Eagles added three more touchdowns in the third period for their 32-point cushion. Adams hit Kupp with a 24-yard scoring pass, Vitto connected with Shaquille Hill on a 54-yard touchdown pass and Mario Brown scampered 34 yards for a score and a 35-3 Eastern Washington lead with 3:37 to play in the period.

Brown entered the game at quarterback for Cal Poly and led the Mustangs on three scoring drives.

Howe ran two yards over right guard for the first Mustang touchdown of the game. Stanford caught a 25-yard pass from Brown for the second score and Brown capped Cal Poly's scoring with a five-yard run around right end.

Cal Poly, which had given up an average of just 12 points and 272 yards in its last five games, surrendered 35 points and 486 total yards to Eastern Washington. The Mustangs, however, collected more first downs, 22-18.

Cal Poly's 437 total yards include 313 on the ground and 124 through the air.

In addition to Ivory's 88 yards and Graves' 75 yards, Brown finished with 63 yards for Cal Poly. Ivory was Cal Poly's top receiver as well with six catches for 53 yards.

Forte led Eastern Washington's ground game with 63 yards on 14 carries. Brown added 45 yards on six trips. Kupp was the game's top receiver with eight catches for 139 yards and two scores. Cory Mitchell had five catches and Ashton Clark four. Kupp equaled the FCS record for most consecutive games with a touchdown catch with 11. He now shares the record with Randy Moss from Marshall in 1996, Cal Poly's Ramses Barden in 2008 and EWU's Brandon Kaufman in 2010.

Kupp also broke the FCS record for receiving yards by a freshman, and now has 1,231 yards for the season on 68 catches. The old record was 1,196 set by Sean Price of Appalachian State in 2012.

Cal Poly's defensive leaders were linebackers Cameron Ontko, and Johnny Millard and cornerback Bijon Samoodi, each with nine tackles. Karlton Dennis (pictured above) added his second interception of the year while Sullivan Grosz earned one sack, lifting his season total to 7.5 and career mark to 21 sacks, No. 6 all-time at Cal Poly.

Linebacker Ronnie Hamlin earned 10 tackles for Eastern Washington. Bo Schuetzle intercepted two Cal Poly passes and Ronald Baines had the other theft for the Eagles.

About 20 members of Cal Poly's unbeaten, untied 1953 football team (9-0) were honored at halftime.

Cal Poly football, presented by French Hospital Medical Center, wraps up its 2013 season next Saturday at Northern Colorado, with kickoff in Greeley, Colo., scheduled for 11:05 a.m. PST.