Boxscore

Hillsboro, OR - Eighth-ranked Eastern Washington came to Hillsboro Stadium with a Big Sky Conference championship in its sights and played like it wanted the prize, beating Portland State, 50-17.

The Eagles improved to 6-1 in league play with one game left against last-place Idaho State. It came on the same day that Montana was knocked off by Weber State to fall to 5-2. Montana State won to improve to 5-1 and maintain its title hopes as well.

The Vikings dropped to 2-6 on the season, and 1-4 in Big Sky play, and for the first time this season played from behind the entire game. Worse yet, PSU lost starting quarterback Connor Kavanaugh to an injury in the first offensive series of the game.

Kavanaugh injured his left throwing hand. Doctors will evaluate the injury this week.

"The preliminary is that it is not good. We won't know until we get and MRI and X-rays," said Head Coach Nigel Burton.

The Eagles' Taiwan Jones took the game into his own hands in the first half and staked Eastern Washington to a big lead. Jones had 198 yards rushing in the half with 136 coming on two plays - touchdown runs of 71 and 65 yards in the second period.

After the second touchdown, the Eagles led 28-3 and the Vikings looked near dead. But Tygue Howland, subbing for the injured Kavanaugh threw the ball well and helped get the Vikings back into the game.

PSU finally found the endzone when running back Cory McCaffrey broke free for 33 yards and a score at the 2:23 mark of the half. That made it 28-10 at halftime.

PSU also got a 50-yard Zach Brown field goal in the half. Brown missed from 34 yards and then 54 yards on the final play of the first half.

The Vikings took the opening kickoff of the second half with a chance to close the gap. But after a three-and-out, the Eagles blocked a Thomas Duyndam punt. EWU's TJ Lee recovered in the endzone and the Vikings trailed 34-10.

Later in the third, Eastern Washington took advantage of an interception. Brandon Kaufman caught a 15-yard scoring pass from Bo Mitchell and, with a 44-10 lead, the Eagles had the game in the bag.

Willie Griffin added a one-yard touchdown run early in the fourth period but it made little difference in the outcome.

The Vikings moved the ball behind Howland totaling 452 yards, but two turnovers, the blocked punt, and 1-4 conversions on fourth down plays prevented any more points.

Howland completed 28-55 passes for 323 yards. Wide receiver Nick Hutter caught 10 passes for 121 yards to lead the Vikings. McCaffrey rushed for 100 yards on 28 carries.

PSU's defense didn't have the answer for Jones and the Eagles. Eastern had 367 yards at halftime and finished the game with 523 yards. Jones saw little action in the second half but had three touchdowns to go with his 199 yards.

"They did not a nice job of punching us in the mouth, literally, physically," said Burton. "But they also went after the strength of our defense - they went after our corners, which most teams don't find very successful doing."

GAME NOTES: McCaffrey has run for 100 or more yards in every Big Sky game this year. He has 862 yards on the season… JC Sherritt had 15 tackles for Eastern Washington… Manoa Latu led the Vikings with five tackles and one pass breakup… the Vikings have now lost nine straight games to nationally ranked teams… the Eagles have won five games in a row, while the Vikings have lost four straight… Portland State goes on the road next Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Sacramento State. The pregame show on Freedom 970 AM begins at 1 p.m.