Last year in Flagstaff, Weber State grabbed a 17-point second-half lead against Northern Arizona and ended up losing - by 14 points.
Saturday night at Stewart Stadium, the Wildcats again took a 17-point second-half lead over NAU . . . but this time the 5th-ranked Lumberjacks didn't have a 31-point rally as Weber State held on for a 36-23 upset victory.The win evened the Wildcats' Big Sky record at 1-1 and moved them to 3-2 on the season, while NAU, the preseason league favorite, also dropped to 1-1 and 3-2.
The Wildcat hero was quarterback Steve Buck, who completed 28 of 46 passes for 436 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. The Weber State defense also came up big, continually thwarting the Lumberjacks' hearalded offense.
Northern Arizona helped by making one of the biggest bonehead decisions of the year on the coin toss and ended up having to kick off both halves. The Wildcats responded by scoring touchdowns on opening drives of both halves.
In the second half, that drive staked them to a 30-16 lead when Buck hit Bryan Rubin with a 12- yard shovel pass for a touchdown to cap a 73-yard drive. Later in the quarter, Scott Shields hit his fourth field goal of the night from 27 yards.
The Wildcat defense, which had given up 91 points the previous three games, stopped the 'Jacks on 4th and 1 at the WSU 39 and forced a punt on the next series with a sack on 3rd down.
NAU finally scored in the second half when Travis Brown hit Mike Lemos with a 10- yard pass with 5:45 left. Shields added his fifth field goal of the night with 2:45 left.
The Wildcats took a 23-16 lead into halftime, thanks to three Shields field goals, a 21-yard scoring pass from Buck to Taurus McGhee and a 4-yard TD run by Derek Poole.
The Wildcats started quickly, driving 75 yards in eight plays, with Buck completing five of six passes for 66 yards. Weber got a break on NAU's initial possession when the punter couldn't handle the snap, giving the Wildcats the ball at the 15. Shields made his first field goal from 23 yards.
That started a field-goal barrage, as Shields and NAU's Mike Goldstein traded three-pointers until the Wildcats led 16-9 midway through the fourth quarter. Shields' other makes were from 42 and 31 yards, while Goldstein's came from 42, 47 and 32 yards.
A 50-yard pass from Buck to Richard Clarke keyed and 80-yard Weber scoring drive that ended with Poole's TD run up the middle. Buck finished the first half with 15 of 22 completions for 235 yards.
GAME NOTES: The game was televised live on Fox Rocky Mountain Network, which accounted for the 8 p.m. start . . . Shields' five field goals broke the Weber State record held by three players, including Shields . . . The attendance was 10,261 . . . Shields, who came into the game third in the nation in punting, didn't get a chance to punt until early in the fourth quarter . . . This week the Wildcats go on the road to play Cal State Northridge.