After a season of many losses, Weber State University closed out the football season with a 40-14 win over rival Idaho State University.
The WSU offense was led by senior C.J. Tuckett, who turned in one of the best performances of his career in his final game. He set a school record with 289 rushing yards in the game. For much of the game, the ISU defense was unable to contain Tuckett, who racked up multiple big runs. Late in the game, WSU ran 21 straight rushing plays.
Interim Head Coach Jody Sears said he was impressed by Tuckett’s performance and happy to see the seniors on the team finish their careers with a win.
“It’s a great achievement for C.J., and I’m so happy for him, all of our seniors and for the whole team,” Sears said.
The Wildcats dominated ISU on the ground, rushing for a team total of 417 yards. The Bengals finished the game with one rushing yard.
Sears said the win was a good end to the season and a good end to a tough year for the Wildcats.
“It was a lot of fun today for Weber State,” Sears said. “Our kids really showed up and played hard and wanted to win so badly.”
WSU started the game out moving the ball quickly, running a no-huddle offense. The Wildcats drove down the field, and Tuckett scored the first points of the game, running in from the 4-yard line to cap a four-minute drive. The Wildcats elected to go for a two-point conversion to give them an early 8-0 lead.
Erik Walker came up with a big play for WSU on its second drive of the game. Mike Hoke threw a screen pass to Walker, who ran down the sideline to ISU’s 25-yard line. Hoke scored WSU’s second touchdown of the game on a quarterback sneak up the middle. Hoke was hit by two would-be tacklers, but pushed into the end zone. The Wildcats once again elected to go for two, making it 16-0.
Donovan Henley prevented a third WSU touchdown early in the second quarter. Hoke threw deep to Jordan Clemente on third down in the end zone. Clemente had his hands on the ball, but Henley was able to break the pass up to force the Wildcats to punt for the first time.
Clemente got the best of Henley on WSU’s next possession. The Wildcats were deep in ISU territory, and Hoke threw to the right side of the end zone. Clemente wrestled the ball away from Henley for the third WSU touchdown. Once again, the Wildcats successfully went for two.
After a missed Bengal field goal, the Wildcats took a 27-0 lead into halftime.
ISU struck first in the second half, getting its first touchdown of the game on an 81-yard pass to Rodrick Rumble.
Late in the third quarter, the Bengals started to show some signs of life following Rumble’s touchdown. The ISU defense forced the Wildcats to punt. After an unsuccessful drive, the Bengals punted and were able to down the ball at WSU’s 1-yard line, then forced another Wildcat punt.
ISU got the ball back near midfield and scored its second touchdown thanks to two big catches by Rumble, including a 30-yard touchdown pass.
With the Bengals threatening, Tuckett scored another touchdown on a 19-yard run to give WSU some breathing room.
After the touchdown, the Bengals were driving down the field with less than a minute remaining and were looking to score one more touchdown, but Kela Marciel intercepted Kevin Yost in the end zone to seal the win.
Tuckett said getting a big win over ISU and playing a career game was a great finish to the season.
“This game was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to finish my career,” Tuckett said. “I’m so happy for our seniors, and this is exactly how we wanted to finish our season.”
