This Saturday, the Weber State University football team will play its final home game of the season when it hosts the University of Northern Colorado.

The Wildcats are coming off a narrow loss to the University of Montana last week, in which they fell 24-21.WSU took an early lead against the Grizzlies, but UM fought back after halftime to take the win. Head Coach Jody Sears said the team played well against the Grizzlies, and that he hopes the players will build on that coming into the final home game.

“I think collectively, as a team, the Montana game was the best game we have played all season,” Sears said. “I was extremely proud of our team with our effort and energy that we showed all season.”

Wildcat linebacker and defensive captain Anthony Morales said that this season, the team has been close to winning multiple games, coming up just short.

“When we needed a stop,” Morales said, “we didn’t get one, and when we needed a score, we didn’t get one. That’s kind of been the story of the season. We’ve been right there, but haven’t got it done.”

Last week, Morales was one of the strongest Wildcats, setting a career high with 23 tackles in the loss to the Grizzlies.

UNC is coming into the game with an overall record of 3-6 and is 2-4 in conference play. The Bears won two of their last three games, knocking off Idaho State University and Portland State University. Sears said UNC is playing good football at the moment, and that he expects a good game.

“Northern Colorado comes in playing good football the last few weeks, so it will be another good test for us,” Sears said. “We have to be ready to play.”

UNC quarterback Seth Lobato is fourth in the league in passing and sixth in the conference in total offense. Junior running back Tromaine Dennis is eighth in rushing yards.

WSU has never lost to UNC and is a perfect 6-0 in the all-time series. The two teams have met every year since 2006, when UNC joined the Big Sky Conference. The Wildcats have won the six games by an average of 12 points per game. WSU is also 3-0 against the Bears in Ogden.

Sears said the Wildcats will need better execution against UNC than they had last week.

“We still made some mistakes, and we have to work on cleaning those up,” he said. “We weren’t able to make some stops when we needed to. We just have to keep working.”

Saturday’s game will be Senior Day for 13 Wildcats, who will be honored before the start of the game. Ged Carrington, Trifon Gochis, Jarret Gooden, Mike Hoke, David James, Brian Jankowski, Lanny Papanikolas, Kris Parham, Trevor Pletcher, Adam Sagapolutele-White, Antwain Stutson, Tytan Timoteo and C.J. Tuckett have combined to play in 311 total games in their time at WSU.

Following the game against UNC, the Wildcats will travel north to face rival ISU in the final game of the season.