The 14th-ranked Eagles knocked off No. 3 McNeese State 44-15 in Lake Charles, La., in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs on Saturday.
“I didn't expect this,” said Eastern Washington coach Paul Wulff in a media press release. “We had a good game plan and our players ultimately executed it.”
The Cowboys, who earned the NCAA's No. 2 seed ahead of Montana this year, came to Missoula last season and fell to the Griz, 31-6, to open the FCS playoffs.
Montana won twice last year before falling in the semifinals to UMass. In 2005, neither the Griz or Eagles won their first round playoff game.
In '04, EWU and UM won first-round playoff games. The Eagles beat top-seed Southern Illinois before losing to Sam Houston State in the semis.
Eastern (9-3) draws two-time defending champion Appalachian State in this Saturday's quarterfinals.
Fans can watch the Eagles play the Mountaineers, starting at 10 a.m., on Altitude Sports & Entertainment. The network is picking up the live ESPN GamePlan coverage. Altitude is carried on cable packages in Utah, Colorado, and Montana. Altitude is also available on DirectTV channel 644, and Dish Network channel 410. KAYU-TV in Spokane will also show the game live.
Title(s) tilt
The Appalachian State-James Madison first-round game, that the Mountaineers won 28-27, pitted the winners of the past three FCS titles against each other.
App State beat UMass last fall and Northern Iowa in 2005. James Madison, of course, beat Montana 31-21 in Chattanooga in '04 for its first-ever Division I football title.
Close calls
The Mountaineers narrow win wasn't the only close call by an FCS tourney favorite.
Top-ranked and top-seeded Northern Iowa drove 71 yards in the game's final 71 seconds to beat New Hampshire 38-35 in Cedar Falls.
A 24-yard TD pass to Montari Leonard from Eric Sanders with seven seconds to play was the game winner.
“It was a wild game and a wild finish,” said UNI coach Mark Farley in a school press release. “Our offense executed our two-minute offense to perfection.”
State's rights
A pair of intrastate battles highlighted the other FCS first-round games as Delaware beat Delaware State 44-7 in a hard-to-believe first-ever meeting between the schools Friday.
“A lot has been said about us never playing in football,” Delaware coach K.C. Keeler told the American Press of Lake Charles, La. “So this is an historic matchup.”
The Blue Hens, the 2003 FCS champions, hosted the Hornets in Newark, Del., even though Delaware State claimed the MEAC title. Dover is just 45 miles away.
Southern Illinois beat Eastern Illinois in the other regionalized playoff opener. The Salukis win was historic, too. They have 11 victories in one season for the first time since 1983, the last time SIU won it all.
Uno mas, UMass
Massachusetts advanced one more round with a 49-35 victory over Fordham last Saturday.
“I'm happy to be in the second round,” UMass QB Liam Coen told the Boston Globe. “As long as we keep throwing and catching and running the ball well, we'll be all set.”
Coen, a junior, set the school's single-game passing record with 419 yards and had four touchdowns against the Patriot League champs.
The Minutemen beat another Patriot League team, Lafayette, in the first round of the 2006 playoffs. In the semis of that same year, UMass showed UM the door.
The seventh-ranked Minutemen (10-2) travel to Southern Illinois for a quarterfinal.
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