Losing prepared Northeast Louisiana for a welcome victory.
Northeast, which opened its inaugural NCAA Division I season with losses at Colorado, Auburn, Georgia and Nevada, got career-highs from Raymond Philyaw with three touchdown passes and 250 yards passing in a 62-37 victory Saturday night over Weber State."We've seen the other side of this kind of score all year. It was nice to see it from this side for once," said coach Ed Zaunbrecher.
Fullback Eric Foster also ran for three touchdowns and Stepfret Williams had a career-best 176 yards on six receptions for Northeast, a perennial Division I-AA power for years.
Weber State (3-2) has now lost two straight after winning eight consecutive games dating back to last season.
"We knew they'd be ready after their losses, but that didn't change how we prepared for them. We played a real good team tonight," said Weber quarterback Bryan Martin, who also threw three touchdown passes.
Philyaw and Williams got NLU going early with a 42-pass play bomb on the game's first play from scrimmage. He finished the evening with touchdown passes of 2 and 1 yards to Kevin Washington and 5 yards to Charles Randolph.
"We wanted to come out and get the big play to get started off right and we did," Williams said. "We needed this kind of win to show the fans that we can play and we still do know how to win."