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POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State football team battled Weber State tough for 60 minutes before falling 34-28 on Saturday evening at Holt Arena in front of a crowd of 5,464. Weber State is now 7-4 and 6-2 in Big Sky play while ISU dropped to 2-9 and 1-7 in league.
The Bengals led 21-17 at halftime but the Wildcats scored 17 straight points in the second half. ISU added a late touchdown with 4:23 to play in the game.
Idaho State tallied 442 yards of total offense while Weber State finished with 544.
Tanner Gueller was 30-49 for a career-high 362 yards and three touchdown passes.
Mitch Gueller had a career-day catching 10 passes for 187 yards and one touchdown. Gueller's 187 yards was the eighth best single-game performance in ISU history.
KW Williams caught eight passes for 86 yards and one touchdown in his final game as a Bengal.
Defensively,
Jake Pettit led the way with a career-best 14 tackles.
Taison Manu had 10 tackles while
Hayden Stout and
Joe Martin each had eight tackles. Sophomore
Tate Razor had a career-game, finishing with seven tackles, three sacks and four tackles for loss.
Both teams exchanged scores in the first few possessions of the game. The Wildcats led 7-0 five minutes into the game and ISU countered with a
Jakori Ford nine-yard touchdown run three minutes later. After a Wildcat touchdown with 2:43 left in the quarter, ISU tied the game at 14 when Williams caught a 21-yard strike from Gueller with 11 minutes to play in the first half.
Weber kicked a field goal with 4:37 to play in the half to take a 17-14 lead but ISU answered on the first play of its next possession when Gueller connected with his brother Mitch on a 75-yard touchdown pass to give the Bengals the 21-17 lead.
Weber built a 34-21 lead before Gueller connected with
Michael Dean on a five-yard touchdown pass with 4:23 left in the game. Weber State recovered the onside kick to seal the win.
Idaho State had chances in the second-half to stay with Weber State but WSU capitalized on a fake punt to later score the go-ahead touchdown and then forced an ISU turnover on its ensuing possession.
Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes
"They had 544 yards of total offense and it seemed like 40 of it came on the fake punt. It wasn't really a fake punt. The punter pulled it down and saw the way we vacated the area and took off. It was a good move by them and a good call by their coaching staff. It was my fault. I pulled us out of safe and put us in punt return."
"It was a good effort by all of our guys today. Defensively we showed promise. We just gave up too many big plays, especially the one pass over the middle. It was nice to see Tanner come back and play so well at quarterback. Our receiving core did well. We have four severaly sprained left ankle at running back. That is why we didn't run the ball. It is up hill for us. Our young offensive front did a pretty good job in pass protection. Tanner wasn't running for his life and we see the growth that Mitch Gueller is going to bring to this program as the next monster at wide receiver. Sorry for the seniors that we came up short for them but we played extremely short handed across the board."
"I am proud of our guys. I think we fought down the stretch as hard as we could. It is indicative of where we are at defensively. We have a lot of growth ahead in the off season. A lot of that will happen in the weight room."
"He is a good young sophomore quarterback and this league is full of them."
"We wanted to grow and mature at wide receiver that is why KW went on the outside. KW went against one corner and Mitch went against another and Mitch had an outstanding ball game."
Post Game Notes
- Tanner Gueller had a career-high 362 yards passing and his brother, Mitch had 187 yards receiving on 10 receptions and one touchdown. The 187 yards was the eighth best single-game performance in ISU history.
- Jake Pettit had a career-high 14 tackles.
- KW Williams finished his career ranked third all-time in career receptions with 188. He finished second all-time in touchdown receptions with 28. Ed Bell (1967-69) holds the record with 30. Williams had 2,365 receiving yards, ranking him sixth all-time.
- Josh Cook finished his career with 1,706 receiving yards and 146 receptions.
- KW Williams finished the season with 11 touchdowns while freshman Michael Dean had seven.
- The linebacking trio of Mario Jenkins, Hayden Stout and Joe Martin finished as the top tacklers in 2016. Jenkins had 93, Martin 88, Stout 78 and Taison Manu also had 78.
