Barriere helps Eastern Washington thump Northern Colorado

CHENEY, Wash. (AP) — Eric Barriere passed for 445 yards and five touchdowns, three of them to Talolo Limu-Jones, and Eastern Washington rolled to a 54-21 victory over Northern Colorado on Saturday.

The Eagles (3-4, 2-1 Big Sky Conference) set a record with their 12th straight win at Roos Field and beat the visiting Bears for the 12th straight time. Eastern’s last loss to Northern Colorado (1-6, 1-2) came in 1981, long before the Bears joined the Big Sky.

This one was over by halftime. Barriere’s 58-yard scoring strike to Limu-Jones and Seth Harrison’s 32-yard field goal gave the Eagles a 10-0 lead after one quarter. Eastern Washington used a 30-point second quarter to take a 40-0 lead into the half. In the quarter, Barriere had TD strikes of 19 yards to Jayce Gilder and 32 yards to Johnny Edwards IV. Harrison added three field goals and Joe Lang returned a fumble 34 yards for a score.

Barriere capped his day with two TD passes to Limu-Jones in the third quarter, covering 11 and 31 yards.

Milo Hall had three TD runs in the second half for the Bears.

Barriere completed 28 of 43 passes without an interception for EWU. Jayson Williams had eight catches for 115 yards, while Limu-Jones caught four for 96. Antoine Custer Jr. rushed 19 times for 68 of the Eagles’ 174 yards on the ground. EWU piled up 637 yards of offense.

Jacob Knipp was 28-of-46 passing for 251 yards for Northern Colorado. Hall ran for 76 yards on 20 carries.