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SWX picks up game between No. 3 Montana, No. 21 EWU

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Battle in Missoula will test Eagles' resolve

by EWU Athletics

How his team responds is what Eastern Washington University head football coach Beau Baldwin is anxious to see this week as his Eagles play arguably their toughest game of the season with first place in the Big Sky Conference on the line.

Eastern travels to Missoula this Saturday (Oct. 17) to face the No. 3 ranked and unbeaten Montana Grizzlies in front of more than 25,000 fans at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Mont. Kickoff is 12:05 p.m. Pacific time.

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The Grizzlies are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the league thus far, while the Eagles suffered their first Big Sky setback a week ago when they lost to defending co-champion Weber State 31-13. The loss dropped the Eagles from 14th to 21st in this week's Sports Network NCAA Football Championship Subdivision poll. This is the eighth time in the last 14 meetings the two teams enter their meeting nationally ranked.

"We have to respond," Baldwin said matter-of-factly. "Whether you win or lose a ballgame, all that matters is how you respond the next week. That's the situation we're in. When you win, you can't look back and be happy with yourself -- you have to move forward. And when you lose you can't dwell on it. You take a hard look at yourself whenever things don't go the way you like, you learn from it and then you respond. That's our goal and our approach this week."

Eastern failed in its attempt for the school's first-ever 4-0 Big Sky start, but the Eagles could make the league race a dogfight with a win in Missoula. Weber State is also 3-1, and hosts 2-1 Sacramento State at the same time as the EWU-UM game. Also playing at the same time is 2-1 Montana State, which hosts South Dakota in a non-conference game. But Northern Arizona, also 2-1, plays at Portland State in a league game that starts an hour later at 1:05 p.m.

Regardless, Eastern is hoping for a better showing than it had against Weber State when the Eagles fell behind 25-7, including an exactly one-minute stretch at the end of the first half when EWU gave up 12 points. The Eagles had five turnovers to Weber State's one, but entering the game, EWU had had five less turnovers than its opponents (average of one per game). Now, the Eagles have 13 turnovers for the season compared to 14 for their opponents.

Eight of Eastern's 13 turnovers have come in the last two games after having only five in the first four games of the season.

"I can't necessarily say our effort wasn't there, but we had certain problems from a focus standpoint," said Baldwin of the Weber State loss. "We have to get back to where we were from a standpoint of being a team that was able to create a really good turnover margin to this point in the season. We were mentally strong, and we let that slip a little against Weber State. We need to take a hard look and figure out how to get that back."

The setback spoiled record-breaking performances by senior quarterback Matt Nichols and junior linebacker J.C. Sherritt. Nichols passed for 354 yards, and in the process broke the school record for career passing yards held by the quarterback he replaced, Erik Meyer. Nichols now has 10,315 in his career while Meyer had 10,261 from 2002-05.

Sherritt finished with a school-record 24 tackles, breaking the previous record of 23 set by Greg Belzer against Portland State on Sept. 12, 1998. Sherritt also had a 36-yard interception return for a touchdown.

A Taste of the Eagle-Grizzly Rivalry -- In a series full of drama, this year's meeting between Eastern and Montana will be the eighth time in the last 14 meetings that both teams have entered the game nationally ranked.

Montana leads the series 24-10-1 with a three-game winning streak dating back to EWU's 34-20 victory in Missoula in 2005. The Grizzlies have won five of the last six meetings, including victories the last three times Eastern hosted the Grizzlies at Woodward Field (31-28 in 2004, 33-17 in 2006 and 19-3 in 2008).

Since winning three-straight over Montana from 1990-92, Eastern has won just three times -- 40-35 in 1997, 30-21 in 2002 and 34-20 in 2005 -- in the last 16 meetings. Overall, Eastern is 4-12-1 in Missoula, 5-11 in home games and 1-1 in games played at neutral sites.

The Eagles shared the 2004 and 2005 Big Sky titles with Montana, but the Grizzlies have won or shared every league title since 1998. Eastern is the last Big Sky school other than Montana to win the outright title, with that coming in 1997 when the Eagles advanced to the semifinals of the FCS Playoffs.

Eastern has not defeated the Grizzlies at Woodward Field since 1991. The 2008 setback was EWU's sixth-straight loss to Montana in Cheney, however, the Eagles did defeat Montana at Albi Stadium in Spokane in 2002.

Eight recent games in the series that have been decided by margins of 10 points or less are the exclamation points in a rivalry that has seen the Grizzlies come out on top 24 times in 35 meetings. The winner has usually piled up points and yardage by the ton as evidenced by Eastern's 697 yards of total offense in 1986, 658 yards in 1997 in a 40-35 win, 564 in a 24-23 loss in 2007 and 541 yards by the Eagles in a 34-20 win in Missoula in 2005. In fact, in the last 23 meetings the winning team has averaged 33.3 points. In six of those 23 games the two teams have combined for at least 70 points, including a 41-31 Grizzly win at Spokane's Albi Stadium in 2000.

As for suspense, that one's covered too. In 2007, Eastern kicked a go-ahead field goal with 2:20 to play before top-ranked Montana kicked the game-winner with 26 seconds to play after converting a fourth-and-10 play. Eastern wide receiver Aaron Boyce had the fourth-best receiving effort in Big Sky Conference history with a school-record 17 catches to earn NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Offensive Player of the Week honors from The Sports Network. His 232 receiving yards was the second-most in school history, and Eagle quarterback Matt Nichols passed for a career-high 451 yards to rank third all-time at EWU.

In 2004, Montana blocked a 28-yard field goal attempt by the Eagles with 18 seconds remaining as the 23rd-ranked Eagles fell to the fifth-ranked Grizzlies 31-28 in a showdown for first place in front of a Woodward Field record crowd of 10,754. In 2002, Eastern beat the No. 1 ranked and unbeaten Grizzlies 30-21, ending Montana's record-tying winning streak in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision at 24 games. It was the first Big Sky Conference loss for UM head coach Joe Glenn, and snapped Montana's record winning streaks of 25 Big Sky games in a row and 13 league road games in a row. And in the process, the Eagle victory opened the door for Montana State and Idaho State to share the conference title with the Grizzlies.

Here are the eight matchups in the last 14 seasons when both squads have entered the game nationally ranked:

2009 - #3 Montana versus #21 Eastern Washington (in Missoula, Mont.)
2008 - #12 Montana 19, #23 Eastern Washington 3 (in Cheney, Wash.)
2005 - #12 Eastern Washington 34 at #2 Montana 20 (in Missoula, Mont.)
2004 - #5 Montana 31, #23 Eastern Washington 28 (in Cheney, Wash.)
2001 - #3 Montana 29, #15 Eastern Washington 26 (2 overtimes in Missoula, Mont.)
2000 - #9 Montana 41, #18 Eastern Washington 31 (in Spokane, Wash.)
1997 - #17 Eastern Washington 36, #2 Montana 35 (in Missoula, Mont.)
1996 - #1 Montana 34, #20 Eastern Washington 30 (in Cheney, Wash.)