#27 Southern Utah Thunderbirds 6-4 (4-0 GWC) @ #5 Eastern Washington Eagles 7-2 (6-1 BSC)
Saturday, November 13 • 1:05 p.m. Pacific
Roos Field (8,600/Sprinturf) • Cheney, Wash.
Radio: http://www.espnnorthwest.com/patchin-wingmen/" 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;
Series History: EWU leads 3-1
Last Meeting: EWU won 41-28 in Cedar City in 2009
Interesting Tidbit: In the 4 game series, the winning team hasn't scored less than 41 points.
A pair of teams with five-game winning streaks square off this week at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., when future Big Sky Conference member Southern Utah visits for a non-conference game. Kickoff at the "Inferno" is 1:05 p.m. Pacific time in the first of two incredibly huge games for the Eagles.
Eastern is coming off a bye week, but on Oct. 30 won their fifth-straight game with a 50-17 thrashing of Portland State in Hillsboro, Ore. The Eagles are now 7-2 overall and are atop the Big Sky Conference standings with a 6-1 record -- a win away from a school's fifth league title (1992, 1997, 2004, 2005).
The Thunderbirds, who will join the Big Sky in the 2012-13 school year, are also on a roll after a 1-4 start. Southern Utah has won its last five games to improve to 6-4, including last week's 52-0 thumping of NCAA Division II Dixie State.
The lone common opponent for the Eagles and Thunderbirds has been Northern Arizona, a team SUU lost to 26-23 on Oct. 2 and EWU defeated Oct. 23 by a 21-14 score. Southern Utah won the Great West Conference title with a 4-0 mark, including a 20-7 victory over nationally-ranked Cal Poly.
The Eagles and Thunderbirds are just two of 13 FCS teams with a current streak of five-straight wins or better. A year ago in Cedar City, Utah, Eastern had 608 yards of total offense as it turned a 28-7 advantage in the third quarter into a 41-28 victory.
Southern Utah, which was 0-11 just three years ago, has out-scored opponents 189-65 during its winning streak. Eastern has out-scored its last five opponents 169-107.
"We're going to approach it like a playoff game," Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin said. "It has huge implications and we know they are a great team. They have played incredibly well this year. Last year we went down there and got off to a fast start, but it turned into a battle in the second half. We know what we are up against and we are going to have to work hard to be prepared for that."
"Southern Utah is extremely good and that is our focus -- you won't catch us talking about Idaho State," said Baldwin. "The bye came at a great time where we could get guys freshened up and rested, and our goal is to certainly play more football than these last two games."
BUT, look what happened to App St last week...#1 loses to an unranked GSU team...Not saying it's gonna happen...but it's certainly possible.
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