In a game filled with significant mistakes for the visitors, the No. 20 Wildcats still had two chances to win in the final two minutes. But two more mistakes doomed Weber State to a breathtakingly bitter, 17-16 loss at Lamar on Saturday night.

The first mistake: a 20-play, 95-yard drive of 8:55 ended with Damon Bankston a half-yard short of the goal line.

With a 17-16 score, two minutes left and the ball inside the Lamar 1, WSU head coach Mickey Mental skipped a field goal attempt, which would have been 18 yards on a close angle from the right hash, and gave his offense one more play. The ball went to Bankston off-tackle instead of plunging ahead with Muñoz under center.

“I trust my O-line, I trust my backs,” Mental said. “We gotta get a yard, at the end of the day. I trust my players to make plays and that’s why I went with Damon Bankston.

Michael Sudhalter, for WSU Athletics

“Credit Lamar for the stop. They played a tremendous game, but we’ve got to be better.”

It wasn’t over yet. Weber (1-2) exhausted its final two timeouts and stuffed three Lamar rush attempts for a total of 3 yards, forcing a punt. Clarence Butler fielded it at the Lamar 45 and, for the second time in the game, ran backward on a return. WSU’s final chance would start at the Lamar 49 with 44 seconds left.

Despite no timeouts, two incomplete passes and a Richie Muñoz scramble stopped inbounds, a Lamar injury helped stop the clock. On fourth-and-5, Muñoz found Jaden Thrower near the right sideline for 11 yards and a first down, out of bounds with the clock stopped at 0:13.

With a wide-open field, Muñoz scrambled left on the next play, gained 10 yards and stepped out of bounds with five seconds left at the Lamar 23.

Carrying a missed extra point and a blocked field goal to his name already, senior Kyle Thompson took the field with the field goal unit and a chance to win the game. His 40-yarder from the left hash veered slightly right, then hooked left and wide as time expired.

Michael Sudhalter, for WSU Athletics

Lamar (2-1) rushed the field in celebration.

“First and foremost, it’s on me to do a better job as head coach making sure those mistakes don’t pop up, put them in positions during the week so they can be successful,” Mental said. “That falls on me, and I’ll do a better job of making sure we start fast and correct all the details.”

Mental said he’d have to review film to see what went wrong on the missed PAT, missed field goal and blocked field goal plays.

In the end, the massive 20-play drive mostly equalized the possession disparity. Lamar ran 62 plays for 385 yards and tallied 32:21 in time of possession, while Weber totaled 66 plays for 331 yards and 27:33 of possession.

Muñoz finished 22 of 30 for 184 yards and a touchdown. Bankston rushed 23 times for 83 yards and Adrian Cormier added 41 yards on six carries. Jacob Sharp was the top target, hauling in seven passes for 81 yards.

Michael Sudhalter, for WSU Athletics

Sharp and Muñoz missed a scoring play on the long drive, with a 28-yard pass to the goal line falling to the turf off Sharp’s hands.

In the sweltering east-Texas heat, Lamar took the ball to open the game and used 14 plays to eat up more than seven minutes. Senior quarterback Robert Coleman seemed to surprise WSU’s defense with a designed run and two zone-read option keepers, totaling 45 yards on three carries. But defensive end Kemari Bailey hurried Coleman in the first of several hits he’d take through the game, and the Wildcats held Lamar to a 23-yard field goal.

On the second play of the second quarter, Butler fielded a punt near the WSU 20 and found his way through blocks for 48 yards to the Lamar 34. Weber State then had the first of three false starts committed on the first plays of possessions.

Despite that, Cormier burst through a pile on a third-and-10 rush to pick up 14 yards to the Lamar 20, where he was upended by Cardinals defensive back DeJuan Lewis. As Lewis made the tackle, he put his helmet on the ball to jar it loose and Lamar forced WSU’s first turnover of the season.

Lamar marched slowly until Coleman floated a high-arcing ball for 34 yards to Sevonne Rhea, who won a jump ball at the Weber 12. At that point, the Cardinals had 11 first downs to WSU’s one.

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WSU got another bruising hit on Coleman that forced him to the sideline to get a brace on his left knee, but junior JaKolby Longino took over and lined a 7-yard touchdown to Rhea to put Lamar up 10-0 with 7:20 left in the first half. At that point, the Cardinals had 33 offensive plays to WSU’s nine.

The Wildcats answered with a promising drive that pieced its way to the Lamar 28, but a negative play and an incomplete pass stalled it there. Thompson put through a 42-yarder for a 10-3 tally.

Two plays later, a Coleman pass glanced off his receiver’s hands over the middle; WSU sophomore cornerback Montae Pate corraled the ball and raced 31 yards for a touchdown. Just like that, it was 10-10 with 2:20 left in the half, and that was the game’s halftime score.

That seemed to be the spark Weber State needed. Muñoz connected with Sharp for pass plays of 14 and 32 yards on the ensuing nine-play drive, the second getting WSU to the Lamar 2. Muñoz threw an easy 2-yarder to fullback Colter May to finish the drive.

For the first time in his career and 106 attempts, however, Thompson missed the extra point and WSU led 16-10 at the 11:14 mark of the third quarter.

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Senior quarterback Coleman was out of the game at that point, taking too many hits from Bailey and company; they didn’t get home on any sacks but tallied five QB hurries, most with contact. So it was Longino’s show for Lamar in the second half.

Luckily for the Cardinals, they needed just one play from the junior lefty.

Four plays after taking the lead, Weber State’s defense made a rare but costly mistake, losing track of running back Damien Moore coming out of the backfield on a third-and-2 pass play. Moore caught a ball from Longino in the right flat with nobody around, raced 72 yards untouched and put Lamar up 17-16 with nine minutes left in the third.

WSU blew the good opportunity that followed after Lamar kicked short and Noah Kjar returned it 15 yards to the Lamar 43. Cormier made up for a flag for an ineligible man downfield with a 13-yard rush to get in scoring range, but Lamar stopped Bankston on a third-down run at its 27.

Thompson’s ensuing 44-yard field goal was blocked; defensive tackle Christian Booker got his hand on the ball going up the middle.

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The fourth quarter consisted of three missed scoring drives.

Lamar took a long drive deep into WSU territory thanks to another floating jump ball, this from Longino to Izaha Jones for 36 yards. Good open-field tackles from Trevian Tribble and others stopped the Cardinals at the Weber State 3-yard line. On a fourth-and-1 rush, WSU’s Steven Bryant blew up the attack through the middle, and Kaufusi Pakofe and Mayson Hitchens brought down Lamar back Khalan Griffin for no gain.

WSU had the ball with 10:50 left, and that’s where WSU’s 20-play drive of 8 minutes, 55 seconds began.

Lamar’s quarterbacks combined to throw 11 of 20 for 182 yards; Coleman and Longino went 3 for 3 for 142 yards on the two jump balls and the 72-yard touchdown, and were 8 of 17 for 40 yards otherwise.

After his 197-yard game last week, WSU limited Griffin to 91 yards on 21 carries. Coleman had five carries for 62 yards from the QB spot in the first half.

Michael Sudhalter, for WSU Athletics

Weber State got nine tackles from safety Angel King. Brayden Wilson had seven tackles and Jalon Rock had the team’s only tackle for loss.

The Wildcats regroup for a week full of travel, coming back to Utah before flying east again to Natchitoches, Louisiana, to face a Northwestern State team coming off an 87-10 loss to South Alabama.

“You’ve got to put your head down, whether you win or lose, and get right back to work — see the film, focus on the details … and come back stronger as a group,” Mental said. “I believe in these kids, they stuck together in the locker room.

“This one hurts, but we’ll come back stronger off this.”