C SPORTS Boise in the snow, advances to final

DesPres. With 55 seconds left in last year’s game, Boise still needed to go 80 yards to win. With 55 seconds left yesterday, the Broncos needed to go only 43 for another miracle finish. “I thought it was going to be a repeat of last year,” said Eastern guard Kevin Greve. “I was scared.”

“I was thinking, ‘Here we go again.’” Admitted Eastern coach Roy Kidd.

DesPres, who calls the signals despite speaking only broken English, launched Boise State’s final drive from its seven-yard line with 1:51 left. As the Eastern defenders slipped repeatedly on the icy field, DesPres completed four passes and Boise was suddenly fourth and two at the Eastern 35 with 19 seconds left. That’s when the game took a French twist. DesPres, a walk-on freshman from Montreal, was told by the English-speaking Criner to throw a curl-in pass. He misinterpreted the instructions and instead ran a quarterback sneak, coming up four inches short of a first down.

“I thought he had it, although our kids were saying he was short,” Kidd said.

“I about died,” Criner said. “I was hollering, ‘What happened?’ Did he call an audible or something?”

“He has trouble with the English language. He didn’t say, ‘Coach, I’m going to run a quarterback sneak.’”

DesPres, who completed nine of 14 passes, hit a 50-yarder to Kipp Bedard shortly after he replaced Tim Klena at quarterback. That lit Boise’s fire and a match under its crowd, which was a record number for a I-AA playoff game. On the play following the 50-yarder, Boise scored on a 15yard run by tailback Rodney Webster to cut Eastern’s lead to 17-10.

However, as the fourth quarter opened, the Colonels were on a march spearheaded by reserve tailback Ed Hairston. Hairston trudged through the snow for 55 yards in six carries on the march, as Greve, Chris Taylor and David Dihrkop served as snowplows in front of him.

Starter Terence Thompson then gave Hairston a breather, but on his second carry from the Boise State five, Thompson fumbled a high pitch from Chris Isaac and lost eight yards. So, Eastern had to settle for a 31-yard field goal by Jamie Lovett that gave the Colonels a 20-10 edge with 11:32 left in the game.

Eastern’s Gus Parks intercepted his second pass of the game with 101/2 minutes left, and when Lovett kicked his third field goal from 32 yards, there were only six and a half minutes left. Boise State was looking at a 23-10 problem. By the four-minute mark, Boise was looking at only a 23-17 deficit, and Eastern seemed to be looking at the problem. Both Eastern’s woes and the crowd’s noise intensified as Colonels punter Lanny Sanders kicked from his 46 with 2:30 left to play. He lined the ball, but a Boise deep man slipped, and the football rolled all the way to the Bronco’s seven.

DesPres completed three passes to advance the ball to Eastern’s 43, where a third-and-10 pass came up two yards short. The missed communications and the unsuccessful quarterback sneak followed, and Eastern was in position to win its second national championship in three years.

Eastern had quieted the crowd early in the game when Ranard McPhaul scored on a 38-yard reverse with 8:50 left in the first quarter. Tron Armstrong and Chris Taylor had crucial blocks. Later in the period, the Colonels were marching steadily when Thompson fumbled at the Bronco’s 40 and Boise’s John Rade recovered. Boise rebounded from that to score on a 30-yard field goal by Kendrick Camerud, one play after Byrd had dropped an easy interception in the end zone.

Split end Steve Bird (21) of Eastern and defensive back Kevrette Johnson of Boise Stae scrambled for a loose ball during yesterday’s NCAA Division I-AA semifinal playoff game. Eastern won 23-17 to advance to the title game against Idaho State.

Lovett got that back with a 44-yarder at 4:02 of the second quarter. Boise let two scoring chances get away in the last minute of the half. The Broncos moved to the Eastern 12, where parks intercepted a pass after Byrd popped up the ball with an intimidating hit on Bedard at the goal line. Then, Boise failed to recover a fumble by Isaac at his own 39 on the half’s final play that would have given Camerud time for a field-goal attempt. The ball popped three feet behind Bedard, who failed to see it and allowed Jon Sutkamp to come from 10 yards away to recover. Eastern, which will take a 11-1 record into the title game, got its final touchdown on its first possession of the second half. Alex Dominguez intercepted a pass by Klena at the Colonel 41, and Nick Yeast scored from the one.

1977