5 turnovers doom Cal Poly in narrow loss to Eastern Washington

In a battle of 1-5 teams who were winless in conference play, Cal Poly fell to Big Sky foe Eastern Washington 17-10 on Saturday at Alex G. Spanos Stadium in a game that saw the two teams turn the ball over eight times.

For Cal Poly (1-6, 0-4), it was the defense who kept them the contest, forcing three takeaways — two picks and a fumble recovery.

The problem was Eastern Washington (2-5, 1-3) came away with five takeaways of its own.

“We did as good a job as we had done all year and we held them to 17 points,” Coach Beau Baldwin said. “We forced turnovers. There weren’t as many explosives.”

“We had a ton of young guys out there playing so couldn’t be more proud of what that defense did tonight,” he added.

In recent weeks, the defense gave up big yardage to opposing offenses, but on Saturday, the Mustangs’ defense was solid and held the Eagles to 188 rushing yards and 170 net passing yards.

The Mustangs offense, which ranked No. 1 in the Big Sky in passing yards, however, struggled to find momentum after an initial spark in a game that saw three quarterbacks get playing time.

After the first drive, Baldwin opted to replace starting quarterback Spencer Brasch in favor of a two-quarterback system, alternating between Bo Kelly and Kahliq Paulette, neither of which has had much experience at the collegiate level.

On his first snap, though, Paulette got the Mustangs on the board with a dynamic 59-yard run up the middle, avoiding Eastern Washington defenders on the way to the end zone.

For the rest of the game, Baldwin used Kelly as more of a passer, while calling running plays for Paulette.

Kelly finished 11-21 for 102 yards and three interceptions. Paulette threw four times and completed half his attempts for 14 yards. But he rushed five times for 113 yards and a touchdown in his first stint under center.

On the other side, quarterback Gunnar Talkington completed 21 of 29 passes for 170 yards for the Eagles. He threw two touchdowns, 32 yards to Efton Chism in the first quarter and 20 yards to Freddie Roberson in the fourth quarter.

Jaden Ohlsen added a field goal at the end of the second quarter for Cal Poly, and the teams went into the locker room tied 10-10.

In the second half, the Mustangs and Eagles both struggled to secure the ball. All of the eight turnovers came in the final two quarters.

Eventually, Eastern Washington was able to put together a complete drive, scoring a 20-yard touchdown with 8:54 left that proved to be the game-winner.

True freshman defensive back Jay’Vion Cole was the star of the game for Cal Poly. He had two interceptions and blocked a field goal, along with a pass breakup and three solo tackles.

Cole said he was “overall confident the way (he) performed. Just some things we need to fix.”

With the defensive side of the ball coming alive for the Mustangs, the team will look to get the offense back on track with Brasch, or with the dual quarterback system in Kelly and Paulette at the helm moving forward.

“We played in three one-score games in the last three weeks, so we’re gonna get over that hump,” Baldwin.

The Mustangs face UC Davis next week on the road in the annual Battle for the Golden Horseshoe.

This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 9:54 PM.