Weber State football casts down Demons in 39-0 shutout of Northwestern State
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- Weber State running back Damon Bankston waltzes in for a touchdown against Northwestern State on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State’s Kemari Bailey, right, tackles a Northwestern State ball carrier on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State receiver Noah Kjar (89) hauls in a pass against Northwestern State on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State receiver Jacob Sharp, right, runs out of bounds past Northwestern State’s Caesar Magee (3) on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State running back Adrian Cormier (2) tries to stiff-arm Northwestern State’s William White (16) on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State defensive back Frankie Edwards, center right, brings down a Northwestern State player on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
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- Weber State defensive end Kemari Bailey, center right, takes down Northwestern State’s Chance Newman (17) on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Natchitoches, La.
Through the first 53 minutes of the 60-minute regulation football contest, Northwestern State netted 65 yards on 52 offensive plays and Weber State’s defense finished the game with 17 tackles for loss.
That about sums up the Wildcats’ trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana, in a 39-0 blanking of the Demons on Saturday night.
Senior defensive end Kemari Bailey led Weber State (2-2) with eight tackles. Six of those were for loss, and three of those were sacks of Northwestern State (0-4) quarterback JT Fayard.
“He had a tremendous game coming off the edge, bending the edge, applying pressure on the quarterback and making it difficult for them to drop back and throw,” WSU head coach Mickey Mental said in postgame radio comments.
Officially, the Wildcats outgained the Demons 433 to 157, but 56 of those yards for the home team came in the final minute thanks to Kolbe Burrell’s 48-yard run against WSU’s deep bench as time expired. Freshman Tamal Johnson chased him down to preserve the shutout.
WSU sophomore quarterback Richie Muñoz was 19 of 31 for 327 yards and three touchdowns.
“They put a ton of guys in the box, we saw it on film, and our receivers and quarterback stepped up tremendously in the first half,” Mental said. “We’ve got to do a better job of extending that in the second half but I thought they came out with an intent to start fast … took another step today, finding key one-on-ones against man coverage; we’re winning man coverage, and that’s got to continue.”
With Muñoz throwing for more than 300 yards in a shutout victory, it was possible to forget that Saturday’s game began inauspiciously for Weber State.
Northwestern State, on an 11-game losing streak, returned the game’s opening kickoff for apparent points when Myles Kitt-Denton ran it back 91 yards. But a holding penalty negated the touchdown.
Four plays later, WSU linebacker Garrett Beck forced a Demons fumble and safety Trevian Tribble recovered, giving the Wildcats a 23-yard field.
Weber State gained just 6 yards and Kyle Thompson missed a 34-yard field goal attempt, making him 1 of his last 4 field goal attempts to that point.
“We’ve got to get six on the board after we get a fumble like that,” Mental said. “That’s one of those things that eats at me.”
The Wildcats got the ball back quickly and freshman receiver Noah Kjar hauled in a 32-yard deep pass, then dashed up the sideline 23 yards on a run-pass option. It appeared he scored but he was marked out at the 1-yard line.
Muñoz, who took five sacks in the most concerning component of the ballgame, took pressure on second down and was hit as he threw, overthrowing open tight end Keayan Nead in the end zone. Then he was sacked on third down.
Thompson made a 29-yard field goal to get points on the board, then the senior handed kicking duties to junior Sloan Calder for the rest of the night.
“We’ll re-evaluate it just like we do after every game,” Mental said of the place-kicking job. “Sloan Calder did a really good job of coming in and making the most of his opportunities. That’s a credit to him for being ready.”
Despite the bad start, Weber State’s offense threw a knockout punch by scoring 31 points in the space of 16 minutes.
A Bailey sack pushed the home team back near the goal line and the Demons punted to the 50.
Two plays and 37 seconds later: Damon Bankston rushed for 15 yards and Muñoz threw a 35-yard score to Jacob Sharp behind the defense, making the score 10-0 with 19 seconds left in the first quarter.
The next time WSU had the ball, Muñoz connected with Sharp again for a 38-yard touchdown pass that Sharp himself negated with a high-stepping celebration flagged for a penalty before he crossed the goal line.
Bankston helped bail him out using a strong upfield cut on a pass play to get 11 yards on third down, then punched in WSU’s no-hesitation, fourth-and-1 play for a 7-yard touchdown run. That made it 17-0 with 10:47 to halftime.
Sharp caught eight passes for 119 yards.
Calder made a 28-yard field goal for a 20-0 advantage at the 5:28 mark.
After Calder made a breakaway-saving tackle on the ensuing kickoff, the Wildcats’ defense forced another three-and-out and WSU got the ball back at its own 19.
It took just three plays to start piling on. Kjar’s final catch, a 16-yarder, started the drive; he finished with three catches for 71 yards.
Muñoz stepped up in the pocket and threw on the move, slinging to Bankston in the open field for what became a 48-yard completion. Muñoz then finished the drive with a 17-yard rope to Jaden Thrower, slotting the ball over the defender for a touchdown. That gave WSU a 27-0 lead with 2:40 left, and that was the halftime score.
Weber State got the ball out of halftime and finished the barrage. Colter May plowed ahead for 15 yards on a short kickoff, then the Wildcats scored in five plays. Bankston ran for 17, 10 and then 2 yards to lure Northwestern State into play-action, which Muñoz delivered to Jayleen Record running free up the hash marks for a 33-yard touchdown.
Weber State led 34-0 with 12:14 left in the third quarter and the ballgame was essentially over. WSU gained 290 of its 433 yards in those 16 minutes.
Freshman punter Oscar Doyle helped set up a defensive score, booming a 52-yard punt with hang time that rolled to the Northwestern State 3-yard line.
Ben Beecher and Mayson Hitchens combined for a swarming, minus-2-yard tackle of Demons backup quarterback Quaterius Hawkins on first down. On the next play, the starter Fayard stumbled on his dropback and fell in the end zone for a safety, making it 36-0.
Doyle had three punts of 50 or more yards, including a 60-yarder, and four of his five punts were downed inside the Demons’ 20-yard line.
The blowout shutout was well-earned, though Weber State’s offense wasn’t perfect.
After the safety, Kjar returned the ensuing free-kick punt 41 yards to the Demons 21 and WSU looked ready to lay down the hammer. But after Bankston ran twice for 7 yards, Tajon Evans had a 14-yard touchdown from Muñoz that he bobbled, secured but then dropped on the tackle in the end zone.
The Demons stopped Bankston inches short on fourth-and-3, so the Wildcats had that 21-yard field result in zero points, and two goal-to-go series result in field goals.
The final goal-to-go miss came early in the fourth quarter. Freshman running back Davion Godley entered and gashed Northwestern State, ultimately running eight times for 47 yards and a team-high 5.9 yards per carry. Godley rushed the Wildcats to the Demons’ 8-yard line, then the 5, then the 3.
A third-down pass went to a well-defended Sharp, who couldn’t win a jump ball, and Calder kicked a 20-yard field goal for the final 39-0 margin with 10:53 left.
The rest of the game was shutout watch, with Bronson Childs recording two tackles for loss and Muñoz tossing his second career interception in 270 attempts.
Bailey recorded his sixth and final tackle for loss to keep the shutout on a fourth-and-2 at the WSU 33 with 3:01 left, and Johnson chased down Burrell on the final play.
Bankston finished with 56 yards on 10 carries, adding 59 yards on two receptions. Defensive end Brayden Wilson had five tackles and one sack. Childs had three tackles for loss and — aside from the Beecher/Hitchens shared TFL — Garrett Beck, Frankie Edwards, EJ Evett, Aizik Mahuka, Matt Herron and Noah Nahas each recorded one tackle for loss.
WSU forced Fayard into 13-of-24 passing for 68 yards. Outside of Burrell’s 48-yard run to end the game, Northwestern State rushed 13 times for 36 yards.
Weber State returns from its two southern road trips for a home game next week, hosting a competitive McNeese squad. The Cowboys are 3-2 after three home wins.
“They’re a fast and physical team, well-coached, they play hard and they’ll be a good opponent in Ogden,” Mental said.
