KANSAS CITY - Former Midwestern State standout Zack Eskridge passed for three touchdowns and rushed for two more in his first Arena Football League start to lead the Kansas City Command to a 57-41 win over the San Jose SaberCats Sunday afternoon at the Sprint Center.
 
Eskridge connected on 12-of-23 passes for 183 yards including a pair of scoring strikes to Bret Smith and another to Jackie Chambers - all in the second half - and rushed for 17 yards on six carries including a pair of 1-yard TD plunges before halftime.
 
The win snapped a two-game skid for the Command who improved to 3-10 on the season while San Jose fell to 9-5.
 
Eskridge, who was starting for the injured Matt Gutierrez, had appeared in three prior games accounting for two receptions for 16 yards, but the former Harlon Hill Finalist had yet to attempt a pass coming into Sunday's start.
 
Eskridge enjoyed three stellar seasons at MSU after transferring in from TCU prior to the 2008 campaign.
 
He earned D2Football.com honorable mention All-America status and was the Daktronics Super Region 4 Offensive Player of the Year after leading the Mustangs to an NCAA II postseason appearance and to their first Lone Star Conference championship in 2009 when he set school single season records for passing yards (3,295), passing touchdowns (29), completion percentage (71.3), pass efficiency rating (180.2), completions (236) and passing yards per game (274.6).
 
Eskridge completed his career as MSU's leader with 6,953 passing yards, 64 TD passes, 570 completions, a 65.7 completion percentage and a 152.9 pass efficiency rating.
 
Kansas City takes on the Chicago Rush Saturday at the Sprint Center. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.