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OGDEN — In a clash between the Big Sky’s leading offense and leading defense, it was Jay Hill’s group that won the day.
After taking an early 14-0 lead, the hosting Wildcats limited Eastern Washington to just 247 yards, two conversions on their 17 third-down attempts and intercepted two fourth-quarter passes to hold on to a 14-6 victory in front of an announced crowd of 8,211 at Stewart Stadium on Saturday.
“As far as the yards go, this was the best game we played as a whole,” said free safety Jawain Harrison Jr., who recorded the first of Eric Barriere’s costly fourth-quarter interceptions. “We knew that they had a very good passing attack. … So we just had to bow up this week and take on the opportunity to play a good team.”
For a second straight week, Eastern Washington (5-2; 3-1), which came into Saturday’s game averaging 570 yards per game, was led by backup quarterback Barriere, this time to painful results. Barriere, a sophomore who a week earlier finished 13-of-21 for 233 yards and a touchdown against Southern Utah, completed just 19 of his 42 passes for 185 yards, and was sacked four times.
The Eagles’ running game proved no better. The Wildcat defense, which entered Saturday with a goal to hold Eastern Washington to under 100 rushing yards, limited their visitors to 62 yards on the ground with an average of 1.7 yards per carry.
For the game, the Wildcats also kept Eastern Washington out of the end zone despite allowing four drives inside their 30-yard line.
“To hold a team that was averaging 560 yards to 247, that’s huge, obviously,” said Hill, whose teams have limited the high-powered EWU offense to 14, 20 and 6 points in their last three meetings. “I think they (the Wildcat defense) flourish under the challenge. When you have a team coming in that’s averaging that many yards a game and that many points a game, it gives them an opportunity to step up and they did it.”
Playing at home for the first time since September 22, Weber State got an early lift and avoided their first losing streak since 2016.
After forcing a three-and-out on Eastern Washington’s opening series, Josh Davis fielded a punt and raced 75 yards for a touchdown, putting Weber ahead 7-0 after less than two minutes of game clock. Later in the quarter, Jake Constantine uncorked a 38-yard moonball to Rashid Shaheed to extend Weber’s lead to 14, its largest of the game.
The Eagles’ only points in the first half came after Harrison Jr. delivered a bone-shaking hit on Andrew Boston (five receptions, 47 yards) to prevent a touchdown, leading to Roldan Alcobendas’ 31-yard field goal with 5:12 remaining in the half.
In what was a theme for the day, Weber State’s defense came up big early and often. In the first half, the visiting Eagles were limited to just 83 yards and Barriere was sacked three times, leading to five three-and-outs for the offense on their eight drives. They also converted just one of their nine third down attempts.
Adam Rodriguez and Noah Vaea each recorded a sack, as did Keilan Benjamin and Kawika Tupola. Linebacker Landon Stice added six tackles, including one for loss, and clinched the game with his interception at midfield with 1:50 remaining.
“I put a whole bunch of pressure on guys like Jonah (Williams) and Adam Rodriguez before every game like ‘I’m expecting two sacks from you, minimum. If you get two sacks, we’ll win this game,” Harrison said afterward, beaming with confidence. “I just put a whole bunch of pressure on them as a d-line, and with the front-seven with LeGrand (Toia) and Stice to make plays, keep everything in front of you as far as the run, and with passing downs—go get that quarterback. If you go get the quarterback and put pressure in his face, we got good enough DBs that’ll go get the ball.”
With 1:42 remaining in the third quarter, Alcobendas converted his second field goal, from 27 yards out, to bring the Eagles within 14-6 and the game to its final score.
WSU (4-2; 2-1) will host Montana State next Saturday at 4 p.m. Dillon Anderson is studying literary journalism as a student at the University of Utah. You can follow him on Twitter @dillondanderson.
