Demond Williams Jr. racks up 373, 4 TDs as Washington rolls to 48-16 win over Eastern Washington

SEATTLE -- — Demond Williams Jr. racked up 373 yards and four touchdowns on 27-of-33 passing and Washington put together its best offensive showing of the season in a 48-16 win over Eastern Washington of the Championship Subdivision. “Going into this game, it was all about starting fast,” Williams said. “Once we got that out of the way, we were able to click throughout the first half and the rest of the game. That felt good.” Dezmen Roebuck led the Huskies (3-0) with a career-high nine catches for 121 yards. Rashid Williams added 86 yards on six receptions and caught a pair of touchdowns, including a one-handed highlight at the front pylon to put the hosts up by three possessions. “He’s a baller,” Demond Williams Jr. said. “… He does that on a daily basis, he makes those types of plays. For me, it’s just putting the ball in his vicinity and letting him be himself.” The Huskies — who scored five touchdowns between their first two games — found the end zone on four of their first five drives. All four scores came through the air, starting with a 17-yard screen pass to Chris Lawson for the sophomore’s first career touchdown on UW’s first possession. From there, Williams hit Rashid Williams in the end zone twice and Jordan Clay once and went into halftime with 260 passing yards. EWU refused to go away, pulling out multiple trick plays and odd formations to keep the UW defense off-balance. The FCS visitors worked down to the goal line on their first possession before settling for a 20-yard field goal, then got in the end zone in the second quarter on a Nate Bell 14-yard keeper that made it 14-10. Eastern Washington opened the second half with another field goal and threatened to close the gap further — putting together a 77-yard drive that included 48 yards of UW penalties and Jacob Lane and Xe’ree Alexander getting ejected for targeting and a punch, respectively — but a host of Huskies stopped Bell short on fourth-and-1 at the 5-yard line. Three plays later, Williams hit Baron Naone for a 75-yard gain, and Ansu Sanoe punched it in from a yard out. Naone finished with a pair of catches for 103 yards, becoming the first UW tight end to break 100 yards receiving since Cade Otton on Nov. 28, 2020. Flag day Washington racked up eight penalties for 101 yards, including five that gave EWU first downs. This comes two weeks after the season-opening Apple Cup, when the Huskies were flagged 12 times for 130 yards. “Just disappointed in the discipline penalties,” Washington head coach Jedd Fisch said. “We’ll have to continue to address them, because clearly it’s not where we need that to be.” The takeaway Eastern Washington: Bell did the bulk of the Eagles’ damage, finishing with 150 yards through the air and 50 on the ground on a team-high 17 carries. “He moved the sticks a few times kind of on his own.” EWU coach Aaron Best said. "He just gets it." Washington: The rushing attack is still far from stellar for the Huskies, who are without tailbacks Jordan Washington (neck), Quaid Carr (hand) and Jayden Limar (elbow) long-term. Freshman Brian Bonner ripped off a 55-yard carry in the second quarter, but aside from that, UW tailbacks combined for just 51 yards on 15 carries. “For the most part, we’ve gotten better,” Fisch said.” We’re not looking to lead the country in rushing by any means. We just want to get better each week, and on the same token, see that as we’re getting better in the run game, how good can we get in the pass game.” Up next Eastern Washington: hosts Cal Poly in a Big Sky matchup Saturday. Washington: opens up Big Ten play at home Saturday night against Minnesota. ------ Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here