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OGDEN — "Three peat."
That's the phrase that could be heard from players, coaches and fans as they celebrated Weber State's third consecutive Big Sky Title as they beat the Idaho State Bengals in dominating fashion on Saturday afternoon, 38-10.
“Three peat,” Weber State head coach Jay Hill said with a huge smile following the team's win. “Thats not happened in over 10 years in this conference, so that’s an awesome deal. To send these seniors out the way we are right now is awesome.
"Three straight championships, the winningest class in school history, there's just so many positives about today and the way they played outstanding.”
The outstanding play came from multiple players all day long. Quarterback Jake Constantine threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns, running back Josh Davis had 12 carries for 89 yards and one touchdown, and wide receiver Devon Cooley had three catches for 68 yards, including two touchdowns.
Everything was clicking offensively for the Wildcats.
“Jake is a great passer, always has been,” Hill said. “We haven’t always got our weapons the ball consistently, but tonight they did and obviously it was huge for the offense.”
The Wildcats got the scoring going early when Constantine found David Ames for a 69-yard touchdown pass. Trey Tuttle then opened up the second quarter with a 37-yard field goal to add to the Wildcats' early lead.
After forcing the Bengals to punt the ensuing drive, the Wildcats later faced a fourth-and-1 situation on their next drive. Constantine pitched the ball off Davis, who then pitched it back to Constantine, who found a wide open Cooley for a 38-yard touchdown pass to put the Wildcats up 17-0.
Davis would add to the Wildcats' lead with just under three minutes left in the second quarter when he escaped for a 24-yard rushing touchdown. Cooley would, once again, score with eight seconds left in the first half when Constantine found him for a 25-yard touchdown pass as he ran it down the edge of the sideline.
The Bengals allowed 31 unanswered points in the first half to all but guarantee the program's third-straight conference title.
THREE PEAT for the @weberstatefb Wildcats. They’ll learn tomorrow if they get a first round bye in the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/l4bazXHXBW
— Carra McManamon (@curramac22) November 24, 2019
Weber State senior linebacker Auston Tesch, who had five tackles in the Wildcats' win, said the team's loss last week was a huge wake up call for the team.
“I think definitely part of it was the wake up call last week,” Tesch said. “There’s definitely a lot of things that we learned from last week that we worked on last week with our technique and our rules, just staying disciplined. I think today we played a really disciplined game. We scouted them all week, we watched a lot of film so we knew what they were going to come into the game and do and I think we really capitalized on it.”
The Wildcats executed the game plan so well in the first half that the game plan of the second half was to simply win the football game, according to Hill; and that's just what the Wildcats did.
Idaho State would finally get on the board in the third quarter when David Allish kicked a 45-yard field goal, ending the Wildcats' shutout. But on Weber State's next drive, the Wildcats took nearly seven minutes off the clock that was capped off with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ty MacPherson from Constantine.
Idaho State would score its final points of the night with two minutes left in the game when Sagan Gronauer found Micahel Dean for a 49-yard touchdown pass.
Weber State will find out Sunday morning what their future holds in the FCS playoffs. The selection show is set for 10:30 a.m. MST. Carra McManamon is a native of Washington State and is attending the University of Utah. Contact her at cmcmanamon@deseretdigital.com or follow her on Twitter: @curramac22
