Eastern Washington plays Portland State at Qwest Field

For the first time in 101 years of football, Eastern Washington will play a game in Seattle when it hosts Portland State at 1:05 p.m. Saturday at Qwest Field in the "Showdown on the Sound."

Eastern joins Washington State and Division II Central Washington as eastside colleges to schedule regular-season games at Qwest. Eastern hopes a major-market appearance in an NFL stadium adds prestige to its recruiting profile.

"We started talking about it last winter and I was all for it," said second-year coach Beau Baldwin. "It's exciting for the kids and it's good for recruiting. It gets us more exposure on the west side of the state."

This week the Eagles (5-3 overall, 4-2 and in fourth place in the Big Sky Conference) picked up added motivation to defeat Portland State (2-6, 1-4) for the first time in four seasons.

On Tuesday the NCAA reversed a postseason ban imposed against EWU in February due to infractions that occurred 2003-07 under former coach Paul Wulff, now at Washington State.

The Eagles, who opened the season 4-1 and were ranked No. 15 among Division I Football Championship Subdivision schools ("I still call it I-AA," Baldwin said), are now eligible for the 16-team FCS tournament with three regular-season games remaining. EWU has reached the playoffs six times, most recently in 2007.

"It gives our players hope," said Baldwin. "But we do have to take care of business to give us an opportunity to be selected."

The Eagles dropped two straight games earlier this month against the Big Sky's top teams: Weber State (a 31-13 home loss) and perennial power Montana (41-34 in Missoula). At Montana, though, the unbeaten Grizzles had to score in the final two minutes to pull out the win.

"We competed hard in hostile place, and it came down to a play here or there that made the difference," Baldwin said. "I felt good about the way our guys fought."

Eastern's key weapon is senior quarterback Matt Nichols, who last week rallied the Eagles for 21 points in the fourth quarter against Montana State, wiping out a 24-14 deficit in the final 13 minutes for a 35-24 win.

Nichols passed for 327 yards (26 of 41) and four touchdowns, two covering 20 and 38 yards to sophomore running back Taiwan Jones in the fourth quarter. Nichols, who has 15 career 300-yard games, was named one of four national FCS players of the week.

"We're balanced on offense," said Baldwin, 37, a Curtis High School graduate who served as EWU's offensive coordinator from 2003-06, spent 2007 as head coach at Central and was hired as Eastern's coach last year when Wulff left for WSU.

"We have an excellent quarterback and a young running back who is an emerging star, our biggest playmaker," Baldwin said. "On defense we're good at stopping the run and have good team speed. We pride ourselves on playing hard for 60 minutes."

Notes

• Eastern will play Washington at Husky Stadium in 2011 in the season opener for both. The Eagles faced a Pac-10 foe this season, losing at California 59-7 on Sept. 12.

• Tickets to Saturday's game are $15 and $30. Eastern estimates it has 16,000 alumni west of the Cascades. EWU athletic director Bill Chaves says advance ticket sales stand between 1,500 and 2,000, which he calls "pretty good." Chaves said he is hoping for a crowd of between 7,500 and 10,000. Eastern has not committed to future games at Qwest but plans to evaluate results after Saturday's contest.

• Eastern last played in this area on Oct. 30, 1982, when it won at the University at Puget Sound in Tacoma. Its biggest 2009 home crowd at 8,600-capacity Woodward Field in Cheney was 6,632 vs. Montana State last week.

• Because 58 of its 90 players come from west of the Cascades, EWU scheduled its Senior Day ceremonies to take place at Qwest. Two of Eastern's three captains are seniors from the south Sound: Aaron Boyce of Kentwood (a wide receiver sidelined by a knee injury) and Makai Borden, a linebacker from Puyallup.

• After a bye next week, EWU finishes its schedule at Southern Utah (Nov. 14) and at third-place Northern Arizona (Nov. 21). Northern Arizona (5-2) is ranked No. 21; Eastern finished this week's poll just outside the top 25, the top "also receiving votes" team.

• Portland State is coached by former television analyst and ex-NFL coach Jerry Glanville. In his third season at PSU, Glanville has a 9-21 record.

• The Vikings have lost their past two games, including a 34-31 home loss to UC Davis last Saturday. PSU has surrendered at least 31 points in its six losses. Opposing offenses average 413 yards against PSU. "Their record is not indicative of how good they are," Baldwin said.

• The PSU roster includes just one Seattle-area player — senior cornerback Tracy Ford, a former all-state honoree at Bellevue. He transferred to PSU after playing two seasons at Idaho.