Eastern travels to No. 2 Carroll

Eastern Oregon University head coach Tim Camp collected what he believed to be the brightest football minds available at the start of his tenure two seasons ago.

With the addition of defensive coordinator Lawrence Suiaunoa in the last off-season, the coaching staff is making Camp look really smart.

“The kids have bought into what we are teaching on and off the field. They believe now.”

The coaching staff and players will have their work cut out for them as they travel to No. 2 Carroll College with the top spot in the conference on the line.

The Saints rallied to beat Montana Western 17-10.

Second-string quarterback Dane Broadhead led the second-half rally with two touchdown passes.

“Good teams find ways to win,” Camp said. “That's what makes Carroll successful.

“We expect a great game when we go up there.”

It will be the clash of explosive offense against a suffocating defense.

The Saints’ defense ranks No. 1 in the NAIA in sacks and 17th in total defense per game, allowing 278 yards.

“Their front four is the best in the country,” Camp said. “The key for us will be keeping Chris (Ware) on his feet, and giving him time to throw.”

On the flip side, the EOU defense gains 505 yards per game — ranked sixth in NAIA.

Ware leads the No. 4 passing offense, amassing 345 yards per game.

So far Ware has been good at keeping the ball out of the other teams’ hands. He has three interceptions in 181 pass attempts, offset by 18 touchdown passes.

However, in the last meeting, Carroll won 28-7 on Nov. 8. 2008. The Mountaineers tallied just 110 yards of total offense. Ware went 7-for-17 for 74 yards with one interception.

“Chris has matured a lot since last season,” Camp said. “We don’t dwell on the past, we learn from it.

“We’ve got a lot of different options this season. Kevin (Sampson) and Joel (Haran) are helping take more of that pressure of Chris. There aren’t enough balls to go around in this offense.”

Case in point — Wallowa native Caleb Oveson grabbed his first touchdown of the season last week in the opening quarter.

Six receivers have at least 10 receptions and a touchdown. Senior Jordyn Jackson leads the team in receptions, 25, and touchdowns with seven.

“This is what Zach and I saw before the season started,” Camp said. “This offense is really dynamic.

“We didn’t have the full playbook in last season. People thought we had to run trick plays to score. No, we can run our stuff and have a lot of success.”

This game is featured as the NAIA Game of the Week.

The game will air on 104.7 FM KCMB with pre-game starting at 11:40 a.m. A live feed will also be available along with live stats on eousports.com.