Bengals Fall 48-17 at No. 3 Eastern Washington

CHENEY, Wash.- The Idaho State football team lost 48-17 to No. 3 Eastern Washington on Saturday evening at Roos Field in front of a crowd of 9,302.

Eastern Washington broke open a close first half where it led 20-10 at halftime by outscoring the  Bengals 28-7 in the  final 30 minutes.  

Eastern had 557 yards of offense and ISU was held to 292. The Bengals had 159 rushing, led by James Madison's 86 yards on 24 carries. Michael Dean had eight carries for 43 yards and Trae Pilster carried the ball 15 times for 32 yards and one touchdown.

In his first collegiate start, Pilster completed 16 passes on 37 attempts for one touchdown and one interception. Josh Cook caught eight passes for 86 yards and Mitch Gueller caught three passes for 21 yards and one touchdown.

Taison Manu led the ISU defense with seven tackles while Nikko Hayes, Brandon Monroe and Mario Jenkins each had six. Joe Martin recovered a fumble and had an interception. It was the fifth straight game a linebacker has had an interception.

Chance Salutregui and Hayden Stout also came up with fumble recoveries for the defense.

The Bengals jumped on the scoreboard first when they took advantage of an Eastern turnover on its second possession of the game. Eagle quarterback Gage Gubrud fumbled on the second play of the drive and Salutregui recovered the ball on the Eastern Washington 29 yard line.

Zak Johnson put the Bengals on the scoreboard when he connected on a 36-yard field goal with 7:38 left in quarter. The Eagles scored on its ensuing possession to lead 7-3. EWU led 20-3 in the second quarter but the Bengals drove 73 yards on 12 plays and cut the Eastern lead to 20-10 at the break when Pilster found Gueller in the end zone for a seven yard touchdown reception with eight seconds left in the first half.

The Eagles, Cooper Kupp opened the third quarter with a three-yard touchdown run and the Bengals followed with a 13 play, 65 yard drive that was capped off with a Pilster one-yard touchdown run on fourth down.

Eastern Washington opened up its lead when Kupp returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown with 6:32 left in the third quarter. EWU added two fourth quarter touchdowns to make the score 48-17.

Idaho State ends the 2016 season on Saturday, Nov. 19, vs. Weber State. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m.


NOTES
- Today's game captains were KW Williams, Hayden Stout, Drew Sharkey and Taison Manu.
- Chance Salutregui recovered his first career fumble in the first quarter. He finished with five tackles and one tackle for loss.
- Idaho State was 3-4 on fourth down conversions. ISU is 16-28 on fourth down conversions this year.
- Joe Martin recovered his first career fumble late in the first quarter.
- James Madison had a career night with 24 carries for 86 yards. His previous high was six carries vs. SUU this year and 43 yards vs. Simon Fraser in the season opener.
- In Trae Pilster's first career start he was 16-37 with one touchdown and one interception. He carried the ball 15 times for 32 yards with a long run of 12 yards.  He also tallied his first career rushing touchdown with a one-yard run.
- Mitch Gueller caught his second career touchdown pass on a seven-yard reception from Pilster.
- KW Williams has caught a pass in 30 straight games.
- Hayden Stout recovered his second career fumble. His first came against Montana in 2015.
- Brandon Monroe had a career-high six tackles.  
- Josh Cook tied his career-high in receptions with eight. His previous high was eight vs. Eastern Washington in 2013.  

Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes
"I didn't want to see a punt return. Sean [Cheney] punted the ball pretty nicely and we were down there....and that's the detriment. When you out-kick your coverage, like I did when I got married, our guard and our tackle got out-flanked. When they get out-flanked or pinned, and that thing starts expanding to the boundary, all of a sudden a good punt returner is gone."

"That kid, [Cooper Kupp] punt return is probably the best thing that he does because he runs so hard inside of every play. The ability to run hard inside of every play is absolutely the recipe you need as a punt returner, because at the end of the play is where you're making the play, not necessarily at the very start."

"I thought for the night, we did a pretty good job of containing him. I don't think they played especially sharp. They came off of two tough games at Montana and at Cal Poly. Offensively they weren't where they wanted to be, but they found some rhythm a little bit with the sprint draw which is a big play for them out the back door. Then all of a sudden it was run, catch, pass, throw, run, catch...577 yards of mayhem."

"Defensively, we got good pressure on the quarterback. We forced him into some mistakes, and I know we can continue to improve and play better."

"They were just sloppy. They won't play like that. You're going to have a night like that when you're playing an opponent you don't really know how to gauge, and obviously they didn't know how to gauge us especially early when we had some opportunities."

"I thought our offensive line played pretty well. We protected him [Trae] pretty well. A lot of his runs at quarterback were self-imposed because he's not going through his progressions or playing the position. But he's doing everything we ask because he's the only guy that we have that can do it.

"I don't know if he'll be the starter next week, but what a job by Trae Pilster to keep us in range. He avoided the big mistake for the most part and then he kept trying and trying. The more he tried, it seemed like the harder it got for him. This is the No. 3 team in the nation. It's not a great way to have your first start. I love the kid and I wish him the very best. Hopefully if he can play next week, he'll learn from this experience and play a lot better."

"He's a tough guy. He's pretty elusive; that's why we really liked him at wide receiver is that he's able to do some things away from the ball or with the ball in his hands that are pretty admirable. The one thing at quarterback is that he is a good run-pass guy. He ran for several first downs tonight. He extended drives."

"We played without our top two tailbacks who are both back in Pocatello right now. We played without a lot of guys on offense and I just think our offensive coaches did a wonderful job. Defensively we came up with interceptions and fumble recoveries and played pretty hard. We didn't play hard enough, well enough, long enough against a really, really good offensive team, and that's kind of the tale to tell."

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