Eastern Washington holds off Northern Colorado for win 31-22

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Oct. 10—On the final play of the first half Saturday, JoJo Maxey-Johnson ran under Brayten Silbor's last pass of the game and nearly intercepted it.

Instead, the ball fell harmlessly to the ground, and Eastern proceeded toward the locker room with a 22-point lead.

When Maxey-Johnson touched the football again — on two occasions — he did so under much more urgent circumstances.

His two interceptions ended each of Northern Colorado's final two drives, and they capped an important 31-22 victory for the Eastern Washington Eagles (2-5, 1-3 Big Sky), who remained unbeaten all-time against the Bears at Roos Field in Cheney.

"The second one, game ender," Maxey-Johnson said when asked which interception was his favorite. "I thought the first one was a game ender. But the second one, it really sealed the deal. It feels good to end the game on defense."

Last year, the redshirt junior cornerback also caught a game ender, also against the Bears, also at Roos Field. Maxey-Johnson now has three interceptions in his career — all of them against Northern Colorado.

He said it felt like last year was a premonition of what happened on Saturday.

"It felt like it was bound to happen," he said. "It was going to push forward into this game."

Maxey-Johnson's interceptions developed a significance that did not seem so likely at halftime, when the Eagles led 28-6.

In the first half, redshirt junior quarterback Nate Bell had little trouble zipping passes through Northern Colorado's secondary, which relied on playing man-to-man defense.

His primary target was redshirt senior Wesley Garrett, who set career-highs in receptions (eight) and receiving yards (138).

"They came out playing man, and that just wasn't a good idea for them," Garrett said. "In one-on-one coverage, we were winning — and that's what happened."

Bell's touchdown to Garrett came on a 53-yard pass on the Eagles' first drive. His next one came on the next drive, on a 19-yard pass to redshirt sophomore Drew Carlson.

It marked the second time this season Eastern scored touchdowns on its first two drives, and it staked the Eagles to a 14-0 lead.

Bell followed that with touchdown passes to redshirt sophomore Kevin Allen III and to sophomore Rylin Lang, whose first-career score came on a 10-yard reception with 21 seconds to go before halftime. Bell finished 25 of 37 for 334 passing yards and a career-high four passing touchdowns.

But even with a 28-6 lead, EWU head coach Aaron Best wasn't comfortable. The Bears (2-5, 1-3) had moved the ball too easily between the 20s. They had, by that point, gained 193 rushing yards on 23 carries, 87 of which came on five carries by fifth-year quarterback Kenny Lueth.

"I try to relish the wins, and I will, I'll get over it," Best said. "But there were so many controllables. It's not as exciting as it could have been, should have been or might have been. And we've got to learn that week in and week out, you can't play with fire and not expect to get burned at some point, and burned bad."

After halftime, with Lueth's right arm in a sling and Silbor having completed 2 of 9 passes, the Bears turned to third-string quarterback Keegan Patterson, a fifth-year player with previous stops at Indiana State, Northwest Mississippi Community College and USC.

Patterson completed 10 of 22 passes for 141 yards in the second half, guiding the Bears to an opening drive that ate up nearly 10 minutes of clock and took 17 plays. It ended in a one-yard touchdown run by Patterson, who then threw incomplete on a two-point conversion. The score was 28-12.

Over its next three drives, Eastern's offense ran 12 plays and gained three yards.

Over its next three drives, Northern Colorado's offense ran 22 plays, gained 106 yards and scored 10 more points to make the score 28-22.

With 7:43 left in the fourth quarter, the Bears took over with a chance to tie or take the lead. They got one first down but not two, were stopped on a third-and-14 and forced to punt.

What followed was Eastern's only scoring drive of the second half, a seven-play, 51-yard advance that ended in a 46-yard field goal by redshirt senior Soren McKee.

"Play of the game. Period. Bar none," Best said of the kick that gave Eastern a 31-22 lead. "There were some great plays. Rylin Lang's (catch) in the back of the end zone. Good throws by Nate. Some timely first downs after getting behind the sticks."

But then Best called out a number of mistakes, even naming players who made them: Offensive tackle Gavin Allen's chop block penalty that nullified a first down; linebacker Matt Eskridge II's unsportsmanlike conduct after Maxey-Johnson's second interception; Maxey-Johnson not going out of bounds on the final play; and Lang's fair catch on the opening kickoff that led to the Eagles starting the drive at their own 4-yard line.

"We didn't play team ball," Best said. "It's almost like we don't know how to handle ourselves, by ourselves."

Next up for the Eagles is a home game Saturday against sixth-ranked Montana State (5-1, 2-1), which is coming off a bye and, before that, a last-second loss at Idaho.

"We get a little bit of momentum going into Saturday (before) playing Montana State, and then we've got a bye and then we've got the (Montana Grizzlies)," Garrett said. "This (victory) was super important."

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