vs. 
#7 Eastern Washington Eagles (6-2, 5-1 BSC) vs. #16 Cal Poly SLO Mustangs (7-1, 5-1 BSC)
Saturday, Nov. 4, 2012 • 1:35 p.m. Pacific
Roos Field (8,600) • Cheney, Wash.
Radio: http://spokaneradio.com/player/kxlxam.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Webcast: http://b2tv.com/upcoming_events.asp?q=v&value=bigsky" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Live Stats: ewulive.statb.us (web) or ewustats.com (mobile phones)
Series: EWU leads 3-2.
Last Meeting: EWU won 53-51 (3 OT) in SLO, 2011.
http://goeags.com/sports/m-footbl/2012- ... t29CalPoly" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;It went from “big” to perhaps “bigger.”
Although both teams are coming off losses and it’s a non-conference tilt, this week’s marquee match-up between seventh-ranked Eastern Washington and 16th-ranked Cal Poly at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., will give the winner an inside track toward a berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. The loser, however, starts to sweat.
Eastern lost its No. 1 ranking in FCS after a frustrating 30-27 loss at Southern Utah on Oct. 27, then later that day, the Mustangs were upended at Sacramento State 35-29. Eastern fell to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big Sky with the loss, while Cal Poly suffered its first defeat of the season after seven-straight wins overall and five in the league.
“We just have to play sharper,” said Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin, whose team scored on five-straight possessions in the middle of the game, but was empty on its first four and last three. “We’ll be at home, and we just need to come out and start the game cleaner. We didn’t execute as well as we would have liked. That’s the challenge -- we are all up against that.”
As a result of last week’s losses by EWU and Cal Poly, 12th-ranked Northern Arizona controls its own destiny toward the Big Sky title, with league games remaining at Idaho State and home versus Southern Utah and Cal Poly. The Lumberjacks, who edged Northern Colorado 12-10 on the road last week, are now 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the league.
In last week’s loss, five key starters didn’t play because of injuries -- Zach Johnson (33 career starts), Andru Pulu (7), Jeff Minnerly (21), Zack Gehring (18) and Jordan Talley (9). Besides their 88 career starts, they have a combined total of 121 games played. Eastern has now lost a league game by three points, won a pair by three and came out on top in a pair of six-point victories, thus making the injuries a key factor in the fine line between victory and defeat in the Big Sky.
“It’s very close,” said Baldwin of the league race. “It’s been close all year and it will continue to be close all the way to the end. We have to find a way to do some things better during the week and respond to (the loss at Southern Utah).”
