Gubrud passes Eastern Washington into FCS quarters

(STATS) -- The goal for every Eastern Washington opponent is to keep the Eagles' high-powered offense off the field, not to let them run 100 offensive plays.

The No. 2-seeded team did just that Saturday as quarterback Gage Gubrud accounted for 517 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in a 31-14 win over Central Arkansas in the second round of the FCS playoffs.

Eastern Washington (11-1) will remain on the red turf of Roos Field in Cheney against Richmond (10-3), which rallied to beat No. 7 seed North Dakota, in next Saturday's quarterfinals.

"I was really proud of our players of finding a way to win," said EWU coach Beau Baldwin, whose team trailed 14-0 in the second quarter. "It seemed like a grind at times, but certain imperfections are going to happen because you are playing a great opponent and there are only 16 teams left in the tournament. But we found a way to keep responding."

Gubrud, a redshirt sophomore, was electrifying as he had a hand in all but 14 of Eastern Washington's offensive yards. He completed a school-record 47 passes in 64 attempts for 449 yards and two touchdowns to his favorite receiver, Cooper Kupp, and carried the ball 15 times for 68 yards and a touchdown.

The Eagles had to come from behind in their first-ever meeting with Central Arkansas as the Bears (10-3) went ahead 14-0 with two second-quarter touchdowns. But Gubrud put his team ahead by halftime with three scores in the final five minutes of the first half.

He scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 14-play, 95-yard drive and make it 14-7. After Tysen Prunty recovered a UCA fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Gubrud connected with Kupp for a 19-yard touchdown. After the Bears went three-and-out, EWU kept a drive alive with a fake field goal and Gubrud capped it with a 6-yard TD to Kupp with 14 seconds left in the half.

"I felt like early we had a lot of good things going for us," UCA coach Steve Campbell said. "But I felt the game kind of changed there somewhere in the second quarter. We were up 14-0 and felt like we really had a lot of momentum. But then they scored, we had the turnover and they scored, and then we gave up another one there before the half."

Kendrick Bourne led the EWU receivers with 13 receptions for 126 yards.

With 10 receptions, Kupp raised his season total to 101, marking his third season in the century club. He has 412 receptions, 6,156 receiving yards and 68 touchdown receptions in his career -- all-time records for both FCS and Division I.

Kupp's brother Ketner, a sophomore linebacker, had a team-high 11 tackles after starting in place of injured senior captain Miquiyah Zamora.

UCA's 244 offensive yards and 14 points were the fewest against Eastern Washington this season. The Eagles defense's six lowest point totals are in their last six games.

I'm so proud of how our defense stepped up -- we've grown as the year has gone along," Baldwin said. "I don't think people were believing me four or five weeks ago when they were talking about our shootouts with other teams. That wasn't really the reality. Our defense keeps playing great football."