SLIDESHOW: Weber State vs. Northern Arizona football
OGDEN — It took a little while, but Weber State eventually adapted to the snowy conditions at Stewart Stadium on Saturday and left the field with an important victory.
The No. 19-ranked Wildcats benefitted from great special teams play and a tough defensive effort that kept the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks out of the end zone, and eventually sealed the 27-9 win with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.
All of this in the near-blizzard conditions that affected the play-calling. However, one side was looking forward to playing in the inclement weather that hit the field a few hours before the start of the game.
“I told the team in the locker room that I prayed for snow,” said WSU coach Ron McBride. “I was disappointed when I got up this morning and there wasn’t snow.”
The win clinches at least a tie for second-place in the Big Sky Conference for WSU (6-4, 6-2 Big Sky), and keeps the Wildcats’ playoff hopes alive, while NAU (5-5, 4-3 Big Sky) is out of the postseason race. Eastern Washington and Montana State, both with 5-2 records in the Big Sky, could also tie the Wildcats with a 6-2 league mark if they both win next week. No. 18-ranked EWU plays at Northern Arizona while Montana State plays host to No. 2-ranked Montana (7-0), who has clinched the Big Sky title.
The Big Sky has routinely sent at least two teams to the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs, although there has been talk throughout the world of FCS football this season that getting a second Big Sky team into the 16-team playoff field might not happen because of the many potential playoff teams this season.
But that is something the Wildcats would rather worry about later, especially with next week’s game against Cal Poly still looming.
“We’ve got one more game to make our statement,” said WSU wide receiver Tim Toone. “We can play when we want to, we’ve just got to show that we want to.”
Toone made a statement of his own by igniting the Wildcats with a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown that gave WSU a 13-9 lead midway through the third quarter.
The touchdown was Toone’s second off a punt return this season, including a 95-yard touchdown against Sacramento State last month, and his third career scoring return which ties the school record set by Jim Edwards (1969-1970) and also tied by Randle Anderson (1970-1971)
“They kicked it, I caught it and made one move and it opened up again,” said Toone, who is the only Wildcat in history to have two punt returns for 90 yards or more. “I was running and everyone was blocking.”
Cameron Higgins and Mike Hoke took turns tossing touchdowns to Tyrell Francisco in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach for NAU, which relied on three field goals from Matt Meyers as its only scoring.
Meyers’ third field goal of the game gave NAU a 9-6 lead early in the third quarter. The Lumberjacks should have scored a touchdown on the drive, which began on WSU’s four-yard line following a bad snap over WSU punter Mike Snoy’s head, but NAU receiver Davieun Curry-Chapman dropped a pass in the end zone when he was wide open on third down.
So NAU settled for the field goal, which was the theme of the game up to that point.
“Both teams were having to do that,” said NAU head coach Jerome Souers. “Both teams in the first half were getting deep into red zone territory and weren’t able to convert. Just the field conditions didn’t allow great blocking and the advantage was to the defense in a condensed field.”
Holding NAU to a field goal was a big momentum-gainer for WSU’s defense, which held NAU’s offense to 235 yards while WSU finished with 322. NAU’s Alex Henderson ran for 111 yards, but Michael Herrick completed just 6-of-25 passes for 66 yards.
“We just figured if we could stop their run they couldn’t pass on us because of the conditions and our corners and secondary doing a good job today,” said WSU safety Jordan Brown. “We just did what we could to stop them.”
Linebacker Nick Webb led WSU with 10 tackles while defensive lineman Kevin Linehan had three tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
WSU most attacked NAU on the ground in the first three quarters with Bo Bolen and Trevyn Smith sharing the load. Bolen led WSU with 92 yards while Smith, who is overcoming an ankle injury, had 84. Higgins only attempted 21 passes, his fewest number of throws in a game all season, and completed 14 for 146 yards.
Higgins was picked off once in the end zone, by NAU’s Taylor Julio who first tipped the ball and then caught it, but Higgins appeared comfortable in the pocket all game.
“You know you’re not really going to get a rush because it’s hard for the D-linemen to get a footing so it’s easy to read the defense and see what they were going to do,” said Higgins, who completed 7-of-8 passes in the second half.
Snoy connected on field goals of 35 and 34 yards in the first quarter to finish early WSU drives, and while the weather affected the low-offensive yardage totals McBride was happy with the way WSU moved the ball.
“We’d had probably four really good days of the offense just concentrating on what they need to get done,” McBride said. “It all pays off. The better you concentrate, the better chance you’ve got on Saturdays.”
Even, as WSU showed, on snowy Saturdays.
No. 22 Weber State 27 Northern Arizona 9
At Stewart Stadium
Northern Arizona 0 6 3 0 – 9
Weber State 6 0 7 14 – 27
First quarter
Weber State–Snoy 35 field goal, 6:22.
Weber State–Snoy 34 field goal, 2:17.
Second quarter
NAU–Myers 28 field goal, 11:41.
NAU–Myers 24 field goal, 5:55.
Third quarter
NAU–Myers 23 field goal, 11:59.
Weber State–Toone 90 punt return (Snoy kick), 6:50.
Fourth quarter
Weber State–Francisco 15 pass from C. Higgins (Snoy kick), 14:07.
Weber State–Francisco 19 pass from Hoke (Snoy kick), 3:51.
A–4,321.
NAU WSU
First downs 10 15
Rushes-yards 36-169 41-157
Passing 66 165
Comp-Att-Int 6-25-0 15-22-1
Return yards 0 90
Punts-avg. 5-30.4 4-34.0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 2-30 7-70
Time of possession 25:41 34:19
Individual statistics
Rushing–Northern Arizona, Henderson 30-111, Dixon 5-57, Herrick 1-1. Weber St., Bolen 21-92, Smith 17-84, Hoke 2-5, Team 1-(minus 24).
Passing–Northern Arizona, Herrick 6-25-0-66. Weber St., C.Higgins 14-21-1-146, Hoke 1-1-0-19.
Reveiving–N. Arizona, Curry-Chapman 2-25, Henderson 2-20, Meadows 1-15, Berry 1-6. Weber St., Toone 8-91, Francisco 2-34, Phillips 2-21, Collins 1-10, Eldridge 1-7, Bolen 1-2.
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