OGDEN — As the Stewart Stadium game clock ticked toward the conclusion of Saturday night’s Big Sky opener between Weber State and UC Davis, one thing was clear — the 2017 Wildcats are something special.
Led by a smothering defense, as well as a dynamic big-play offense, the Wildcats crushed the visiting Aggies 41-3.
“That was a good football game,” said Weber State head coach Jay Hill. “I was really proud of the guys in all three phases (of the game). It was a good showing on offense, defense and special teams.”
Hill may have sold his team a little short as the Wildcats made history.
Leading the way was quarterback Stefan Cantwell, who threw for 205 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Treshawn Garrett broke a 46-year-old school record with a 98-yard touchdown run, the longest play, scoring or otherwise, in school history. Return man Xequille Harry scored on an 84-yard punt return, the fourth best return ever made by a Wildcat.
The Weber State defense, for its part, held the Aggies to 373 yards of total offense, including just 13 yards on the ground. The Wildcats sacked UC Davis quarterback Jake Maier five times, intercepted him twice, thanks to Trey Hoskins and Keilan Benjamin, and recovered a fumble.
It was as complete a performance as anyone could ask for.
It didn’t seem that would be the case early on. The Aggies were considered one of the better teams in the Big Sky Conference heading into the contest, led by their star quarterback. Maier came into the game tops among all Big Sky quarterbacks in total offense, passing yards, passing touchdowns and pass efficiency. In the two weeks prior to the Weber State game, UC Davis and Maier had made short work of solid San Diego and Portland State squads.
“(UC Davis) is a very talented football team,” said Hill. “You could see that.”
They looked it early as the Aggies opened the game with a scoring drive, aided by a 60-yard Maier completion to Khris Vaughn. The drive was stymied by the Wildcats' defense, which forced a field goal, but it seemed likely to be the first of many scores for UC Davis.
It wasn’t.
On the next Aggie possession Hoskins picked off Maier, kicking off an elite defense performance by the Wildcats.
“It was huge to get out of that first drive with a field goal,” said Hill. “There were a couple of times afterward where we bent but didn’t break, and I was proud of that. We had some huge turnovers and some big sacks that got us out of drives. That was huge in this game.”
While the UC Davis attack was smothered, the Wildcat offense erupted for massive scoring plays. Garrett ran for his 98-yard score, wide receiver Rashid Shaheed hauled in a 67-yard touchdown as part of his three-catch 163-yard night and tight end Andrew Vollert caught two touchdown passes of 17 and 13 yards.
“It’s exciting, right?” said Cantwell. “Everybody can say it’s exciting when you have a (98-yard) run and (67-yard) touchdown pass or even a punt return. It just gives the game excitement, and we had a lot of that today. That opened up the game for us.”
“I thought they fought, they clawed and it wasn’t always pretty,” said Hill. “We beat a good football team tonight. To shut those guys down, to hold them to three points, that was a heck of a showing. To go out and play the way we did, I’m just very proud of our guys.”
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