In the third year of the renewed rivalry between the Idaho Vandals and the Eastern Washington Eagles, the renamed “Che-Scow cup” will stay home in Moscow after the 38-28 win Saturday.
Idaho’s offense continued their success, tallying 487 yards of offense. Redshirt sophomore Jack Layne made his return after missing 7 weeks with a collarbone injury he suffered in the season opener against the Oregon Ducks.
Layne finished his day completing 17 of his 28 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.
“When you get hurt you really get a new perspective of how awesome this game is,” Layne said about his time injured and getting to be back this week. “Being in practice this week I really just focused on soaking in the moment and being grateful.”
Idaho dominated on the ground despite their recent injury problems at the running back position, totaling 252 yards of offense on the ground. Redshirt freshman Deshaun Buchanan lead the Vandals with 116 rushing yards on eight carries and two touchdowns.
“It’s been huge for our team to keep the run game rolling with Nate and Eli being out,” Buchanan said about his recent increased role. “We were talking about taking advantage of our opportunities, so I did my best to take advantage of it.”
The Vandal defense was unable to sack the quarterback during the game, was able to tally six tackles for loss on the day, with senior defensive lineman leading the way two tackles for loss.
Senior safety Tommy McCormick was flying around the field, as he posted a collegiate career high of 18 tackles on the day.
“I’m a little disappointed in some of the ones I missed, I could’ve had 20 if made a few more,” McCormick said about his performance. “But I’m happy with how I played out there. It was one of my best effort games.”
Both teams came out strong, scoring on both of their first two drives of the game, with Jack Layne collecting a pair of touchdowns to start the game. Eastern Washington scored a touchdown and kicked a field goal, making it 14-10 in the beginning of the 2nd quarter.
Both teams went on to make field goals to make the score 17-13 and went into halftime with an Idaho four-point lead.
The Eagles came out of the locker room hot, driving down the field and getting a 1st and goal at the 7-yard line. Then the Vandal defense stood tall, and made a heroic goal line stand at their own 1-yard line on 2 consecutive plays to force a turnover on downs.
“Fourth and ones and fourth downs, that’s a tough place to be for offenses against us.” Tommy McCormick said.
Idaho, backed up against their own one-yard line, on second down, handed the ball off to Deshaun Buchanan, and he broke off a run of 72 yards all the way to the Eastern Washington 26. Buchanan was able to finish the drive with 89 total yards and punched in a one-yard touchdown to take a 24-13 lead.
Going into the fourth quarter, Idaho was able to drive down and finished off another drive with a touchdown by true freshman Rocco Koch. Eastern responded, and then Deshaun Buchanan got his second touchdown of the day to finish off his career day and score the last Vandal points.
Eastern Washington was able to return a kickoff for a touchdown, but it wasn’t enough, and Idaho was able to take the win 38-28.
Idaho moves to 6-3 on the year, and 3-2 in conference play. The Vandals head into their bye week, and will take to the road to face Portland State on Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.
Bryce Norwood can be reached at [email protected]