CHENEY, Wash. — Following a close win over Weber State, the Eastern Washington Eagles will hit the road to face Dante Chachere and the Portland State Vikings.
"He is a hell of a quarterback. He plays the position as the consummate quarterback and does it well. They are playing in their rhythm and just got caught last weekend when they went down early to Idaho State and could not quite claw back in a tough place to play. We have our work cut out for us on the road against a physical Portland State team," EWU head coach Aaron Best said.
Last season, Chachere lit up the Eastern defense in the first half and finished with 342 all purpose yards, but in the second half, the Eags kept PSU out of the end zone and held the Vikings to just three points in a narrow 38-35 defeat.
This season, the Eags hope to flip the script and put their best foot forward right away, rather than playing from behind.
"We want to start fast and get the job done as quickly as possible to give our team the best chance to win," EWU redshirt sophomore quarterback Kekoa Visperas said.
"I said it in the postgame last year, I think we took them for granted in the first half and it showed. I think this year we want to start fast and it all begins with how we prepare and execute during practice the rest of this week leading into Saturday," EWU senior linebacker Jaren Banks said.
The Eags are still waiting to find out about the availability of running back Justice Jackson for Saturday's game. Should Jackson not be able to go, fans should be prepared for another healthy dose of the three headed monster at quarterback with Visperas, Jared Taylor and Michael Wortham.
"I was talking to Coach Chapin today and he said we had a good amount of personnels in there in our last game and it's crazy because I did not even know we had that many possible. It's really cool to have," Visperas said.
"It points to their progress, preparation and competitive nature. (Taylor and Wortham) just want reps, they have earned those reps and they are going to continue to get reps," Best said.
The Eags and Vikings will kick it off at 1 p.m. Saturday in Portland.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.