OGDEN, Utah – The Idaho State Bengals snapped a 40 year losing streak in Ogden, taking down the Weber State wildcats 43-35 to bring the newly re-minted Train Bell Trophy back home to Pocatello.
The Bengals used 485 yards of total offense including 348 yards in the air to secure the victory over the Wildcats.
Idaho State improves to 5-5 (3-3) .500 in November for the first time since the 2018 season.
Postgame Remarks
How it Happened - by Glenn Alford
Idaho State won its first FB game against Weber State in Ogden in 40 years, riding Kobe Tracy's arm and legs to a 43-35 win.
The Bengals never trailed, taking advantage of a bad snap on an attempted Weber punt to turn a 28-yard possession into the first of two Tracy-Raiden Brown TD passes just 2:42 into the game.
ISU had three 15-point leads and the game never seemed as close as the final eight-point margin. Gabe Panikowski is 14/14 on field goals after his 31-yarder made it 9-0, but surprisingly missed two extra points. More ISU scoring quickly followed. Donald Austin took about four seconds to turn a Tracy swing pass into a 31-yard score, and Keoua Kauhi, who rushed for 84 yards on only seven carries, bulled for 20 of them and a TD and ISU led 22-14 at halftime.
Weber was penalized 105 yards and 30 of them were on ISU's first second-half possession that ended with a 19-yard Tracy-Tsion Nunnally TD pass, 29-14. Tracy put ISU on the board again with 11 minutes left on a second TD pass to Brown, who made this game his coming out party with five catches for 86 yards, 36-21.
After Weber cut it to 36-28, ISU marched to Weber's 11 with four minutes left, setting up a made Panikowski field goal but the Wildcats were obligingly offsides. Three plays later, Tracy sneaked one yard for the clinching TD, 43-28 with 3:17 left. Weber scored one last time with 40 seconds left, but their onsides kick went out of bounds and ISU's attention went to the Railroad Bell, which Josh Alford claimed in the end zone.
Tracy racked up an impressive 187.7 QB rating by hitting 27/37 passes for 342 yards and the four scores. Kauhi led a ground attack that gained 137 yards for 485 total yards, and an also impressive 11/16 third down conversions. Jeff Weimer caught 8/89 passes and converted his share of those third downs. The offensive line allowed no QB sacks and has given up only seven total in 10 games. ISU had no turnovers.
Nathan Reynolds' 10 tackles led the defense, Tylor Bohannon had seven, Logan George made two tackles for loss, and Kris Sanchez, Zack Conner and Darrell Gipson had one each.
After ending the 2023 season with a 3-8 record, this year's Bengals have evened their record at 5-5, 3-3 in the Big Sky and are on a two-game win streak as the resurgence under head coach Cody Hawkins continues. The remaining two games are next Saturday at E. Washington, and Nov. 23 hosting Idaho.
Bengal Bites
· The Bengals win over the Wildcats is the first for the Bengals in 10 years and the first in Ogden in 40 years.
· Raiden Brown scored his first two touchdowns of the season.
· The Wildcats outgained the Bengals 506-485 but the Bengals won the battle I the air with 348 yards.
· Keoua Kauhi led the Bengal rushers with 84 yards on 7 carries. The Bengals combined for 159 rushing yards.
· Kobe Tracy had an excellent game with 348 passing yards, four touchdowns, zero sacks and zero interceptions.
· The Bengals were helped with 10 Weber State penalties for 105 yards.
· Nathan Reynolds had double-digit tackles with 10 for the game.
· ISU had no sacks but four tackles for a loss of 20 yards.
Next Up
The Bengals head to Cheney, Washington to take on the Eastern Washington Eagles.
