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PROVO — The BYU Cougars and Weber State Wildcats came ready to play hard Saturday as the in-state opponents battled for victory. In this battle, the Cougars came out victorious, beating Weber State 45-13.
The first quarter was lackluster as both offenses struggled to find their grooves.
During the first quarter, BYU rushed for only 17 yards, punted the ball three times and fumbled the ball once. The highlight of the first quarter was Cody Hoffman's 37-yard touchdown.
However, that touchdown was not what sparked the offense to help the Cougars be able to win the game.
On the second play of the second quarter, Michael Alisa ran the ball for 21 yards. That rush eventually led to BYU's second touchdown.
From that moment on, the offense seemed to come alive and played cleaner.
Alisa had several more good runs, including an 8-yard rush for a touchdown. He finished the night as the leading rusher with 54 yards and one touchdown.
BYU quarterback Riley Nelson addressed the slow start afterward and believed the team needs to continue to improve to avoid similar problems in the future.
"The slow start was what it was," Nelson said. "We need to address it because our other drives do not erase those miscues. We are walking away grateful but hungry to get better."
Wide receiver JD Falslev knows the team cannot have a slow start in future games but believes the team got better as the game went on.
"Against good teams we can't take a minute to start," Falslev said. "We have a lot of room to improve. The second half we did a good job with the ball though and that was evident with our score."
During the second quarter BYU scored two touchdowns, one by backup quarterback Taysom Hill and one by Alisa.
With the Cougars taking a 21-0 lead at halftime, the door was wide open for new stars to be made.
Nelson did not play in the second half and finished the game 18 of 29 for 244 yards.
During the third quarter, backup quarterback James Lark had his chance to shine.
Lark led the team to two touchdowns. One touchdown was a 2-yard pass to Friel. The other featured him keeping the ball and rushing 6 yards to make the score.
Lark finished 7 of 10 for 45 yards.
Nelson was happy with how Lark performed in the game.
"We saw what I expected to see from James Lark; nice, efficient quarterback play and the rushing touchdown was a nice surprise," Nelson said.
BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was also pleased with what Lark did.
"James has battled a long time," Mendenhall said. "He was poised and composed and was pretty methodical moving the ball. It was fun to see him play."
Meanwhile, Hill played QB for BYU throughout Saturday's contest.
Hill assisted on some plays early in the game, including a second-quarter rushing touchdown, and also played much of the fourth quarter.
He finished the game rushing for 38 yards and two TDs.
The secondary quarterbacks were not the only young players to get chances to play. During the fourth quarter, many young players had chances to live their dreams and play college football.
Wide receiver Cody Hoffman enjoyed seeing other guys take the field.
"Its always good to see them get out there because they work as hard as anybody at practice," Hoffman said. "So seeing them get a chance to play is great."
Mendenhall also enjoyed seeing the young players' hard work pay off.
"It was good for morale," Mendenhall said. "It was god for these guys. They work hard and it was good to get them to go play football."
Overall, BYU's offense had a chance to perform well and improve its play for future foes.
Mendenhall was pleased with how his team played but always knows there is room for improvement.
"I think we handled the game and the week maturely," Mendenhall said. "We were very workmanlike and methodical and we had a nice balance offensively between running and scoring. At halftime, I was hoping we would run the ball effectively. I think we picked up in second half but we can improve."
Ashley Anderson is a senior at BYU majoring in public relations with the hope of one day having a career in sports public relations.
