The Weber State Wildcats kicked off Big Sky Conference play and suffered a heartbreak of a loss against UC Davis on Sept. 25. The Aggies found themselves in the end zone with less than 30 seconds on the clock, securing a 17–14 victory at Stewart Stadium.
Quarterback Kylan Weisser headed into this matchup with his first career start for the Wildcats.
Neither the ‘Cats nor the Aggies saw any points in the first quarter.
In rushing yards, Weisser collected 29 yards, Josh Davis had 38 yards and Dontae McMillan had 11 yards. Weber State held UCD to 20 rushing yards in the first quarter.
The first score of the game came seconds after the start of the second quarter when Weisser found Davis in the end zone after an 8-yard pass. Kyle Thompson kicked for the extra point, and the Wildcats led 7–0.
Weisser went 8 for 16 in the second quarter for passing with 92 yards. Ty MacPherson led the second quarter with 57 receiving yards.
“There were a lot of missed assignments that we had; there were a lot of things we could’ve done better,” said Weisser. “For myself, it was the completion percentage. There were a lot of balls left on the field that I wanted back.”
The Aggies found the end zone in the final minutes of the half after Weisser threw an interception to Jordan Perryman at the Weber State 26-yard line, leading to a 3-yard touchdown from Ulonzo Gilliam Jr.
The third quarter brought more scoring opportunities for the two teams. Weisser found Randal Grimes and got the ‘Cats to the 11-yard line where McMillan then rushed to the end zone, pushing Weber State to 14–7 with 10:04 left in the quarter.
The Aggies’ starting quarterback, Hunter Rodrigues, appeared to struggle under the Wildcats’ defense for the majority of the game.
With just under seven minutes in the third quarter, Rodrigues felt pressure coming from McKade Mitton and tried to throw the ball out of play, but instead, it went straight to the hands of Weber State’s Braxton Gunther.
In Rodrigues’ pursuit to escape, Okiki Olorunfunmi came too close to the QB for the officials’ liking, and the flag was thrown.
It was a turning point for the Wildcats, and the cheers coming from the Wildcat faithful soon turned into boos as the officials called roughing the passer on the Wildcats.
The call reversed Gunther’s interception, and the Aggies were back with the ball. After a few incomplete passing attempts and some successful rushing attempts, UCD added an additional 3 points to the board after Isaiah Gomez’s successful 23-yard field goal. As the clock wound down in the third quarter, the score was 14–10.
The fourth quarter brought Rodrigues to his limit, and after a hit from Doug Schiess, the Aggies brought back up QB Miles Hasting into play. Hastings went 7 for 9 and collected 50 passing yards. Rodrigues closed out his time on the field with 99 yards for the night.
Trent Tompkins scored the game-winning touchdown for the Aggies in the final seconds of the game, which ended in a UCD win of 17–14.
“We definitely need to do better,” said Jared Schiess. “There’s little things we need to figure out and capitalize on. We need to make this about us and our team.”
Gunther led the ‘Cats with eight tackles, Jared Schiess was close behind with six tackles and Preston Smith had five tackles.
The Wildcats will hit the road to take on Cal Poly on Oct. 2 before their bye week leading into Homecoming.
