OGDEN — Before having a bye last week, Weber State scored 38 points two weeks ago in its win at UC Davis. Portland State put 45 points on the board last week in its win over Idaho State. However, on Saturday’s head-to-head matchup, neither team brought the offensive fireworks in the 14-10 win for Weber State.
“We knew going into this, that it was going to be a war,” said Weber State head coach Jay Hill, “We knew our defense going to have to play well and play well against the run, which I thought they did a really great job of.”
It took nearly an entire half for either team to find the scoreboard. Portland State finally broke the scoreless tie with 17 seconds left in the half on quarterback a one-yard dive into the end zone by quarterback Alex Kuresa. That 13-play, 91-yard scoring drive was set up after the Vikings blocked and recovered a 33-yard Weber State field goal attempt.
After the the halftime break, it was a whole new ballgame for the Wildcats.
“We just weren’t really clicking in the first half; hopefully we don’t have those issues anymore,” said quarterback Jadrian Clark. “I think it just the difference in this team and the guys we have to go into halftime and no body really doubted that we were going to win this game. It was huge to come out in the second half and make some plays and win this game.”
Finally, with 10:18 remaining in the third quarter, the Wildcats broke through. A 55-yard rush by Clark brought the Wildcats to the 10-yard line. A couple plays later, running back Emmanuel Pooler punched it in from three yards out to give the Wildcats their first score, tying the game 7-7.
The Vikings responded by completing their second scoring drive just over a minute into the fourth quarter. A 21-yard field goal by Jonathan Gonzalez gave Portland State a 10-7 edge.
Weber State answered and took the lead for the first time on the very next possession. Andrew Vollert reeled in a 12-yard strike from Clark to finish off a 12-play, 75-yard drive. The point after was good to make the score 14-10. The Vikings threatened the Weber State lead by bringing the ball into the red zone, but were ultimately denied on a turnover on downs.
For the first time since 2010, Weber State has won three straight football contests.
Portland State, which did not complete a single pass in its victory over Idaho State last week, managed to make a few connections through the air. Quarterback Alex Kuresa completed 14-of-25 for 181 yards. According to Josh Burton, who had a career high 16 total tackles, that was all according to Weber State’s gameplan.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Burton. “Watching film, you see things like that. I knew they ran the ball for like 500 yards or something like that last week, so that was our main focus, to stop the run. We were trying to force them into making the pass.”
The strategy paid off, and the Vikings with 136 yards on the ground were well short of the 531 rushing yards they racked up in their win over Idaho State.
“It was a physical battle,” stated Hill postgame. “Anytime you go against a Bruce Barnum (Portland State head coach) team you better be ready to be physical and I was proud of our guys and how they responded. That was a war and they’ll feel it tomorrow.”
Weber State will continue Big Sky Conference play next week against Montana State on October 15 at 1:30 p.m. at Stewart Stadium.