Weber playing Northridge sounds like a Region 1 high school football matchup.
So it was fitting that Weber State and Cal State Northridge looked like high schoolers Saturday night. The Wildcats weren't particularly good, but the Matadors were worse, as Weber improved to 2-0 on the year with a 27-12 victory."It wasn't pretty, but it's been a long time since a Weber State team has opened the season 2-0," Wildcat coach Dave Arslanian said.
Weber's defense, aided by the Matadors inept offensive attack, was the difference. The Wildcats were pitching a shutout until Northridge scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns after the outcome had been decided.
"I'm extremely happy with the play of the defense, but I'm disappointed in the play of the offense," Arslanian said. "We need to clean some things up (on offense), but we'll clean it up."
While the Northridge offense was mostly ineffective, Weber's was nothing to write home about. Of the Wildcats' four touchdowns, the defense scored one on an interception return and set up two others with a fumble recovery and a interception returned deep into Northridge territory. Only one Wildcat score came on a drive of more than 27 yards.
Weber quarterback Rob Westervelt struggled, completing just 15 of 40 passes for 144 yards and an interception. Fortunately for the Wildcats, the Northridge tag-team quarterbacks of Clayton Millis and J.J. O'Laughlin completed only 11-30 for 89 yards in the first three quarters.
Weber actually had more total yards rushing (183) than passing (144) for the first time since, well, nobody could remember the last time the Wildcats had more rushing than passing yards.
Neither offense looked sharp early in the game. The Wildcats didn't get a first down until their fourth possession. Weber finally got going late in the first quarter with its only sustained scoring drive of the night. Von Robinson capped an 11-play, 70-yard drive with a three-yard run with 1:07 to play in the quarter.
Two plays later Weber's Rob Hitchcock picked off a Northridge pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown giving the Wildcats a 14-0 lead advantage.