In the first meeting ever between the two teams, the UC Davis Aggies and the Idaho State Bengals partook in a shootout that the Aggies eventually won by a score of 52-45.
This victory gives the Aggies an overall record of 3-4 with a 2-2 conference record, while the Bengals drop to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the Big Sky.
The Aggie offense was unstoppable, rushing for over 300 yards while junior quarterback Randy Wright threw 309 yards and three touchdowns.
“We wanted to come out and establish the run, and once you establish the run, then play actions and boots become effective,” said head coach Bob Biggs. “That’s our identity on offense, we want to run the ball and set up the play action.”
While Wright was taking care of the aerial attack, the Aggie ground game was equally as dominant, racking up over 300 yards.
The rushing attack was led by sophomore running back Colton Silveria, who had 120 yards rushing and a touchdown.
Redshirt freshman Courtney Williams and senior running back Marquis Nicolis had 105 and 84 rushing yards respectively.
“I thought all our running backs ran well. We have a lot of confidence in our running backs,” Biggs said.
Williams, who had three touchdowns throughout the game, sparked the Aggies with a 55-yard touchdown run in the middle of the first quarter to give the Aggies the first points of the game.
“There are certain plays we like Courtney in there for because he is a very explosive runner,” Biggs said. “Courtney happened to be in on that play and did exactly what we thought. If he gets to the edge, you can’t catch him. He’s very fast.”
Wright did a phenomenal job with the passing game, spreading the ball around to ten different receivers.
Sophomore running back Dalton Turay led the team with four receptions but one was a nine-yard touchdown pass from Wright to put the Aggies ahead by two possessions early in the fourth quarter.
Wright’s 42-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Anthony Soto before halftime also brought a lot of momentum to the team heading into the locker room.
At the end of the first two quarters, the Aggies held a 28-17 lead.
The Aggies defense had a hard time limiting Idaho State’s passing game that was ranked 4th out of 121 teams in the country. Bengals quarterback Kevin Yost threw for 374 yards and five touchdowns in the loss.
“We knew they were going to throw the ball and we didn’t get as much pressure as we thought we could get. I thought their quarterback did a marvelous job getting the ball up field and he bought time in the pocket and put the ball on the money,” Biggs said. “That was the one thing that was noticeable, we just couldn’t get enough pressure on their quarterback.”
The Aggie defense did a good job limiting the Idaho State ground game to only 55 yards. Junior safety Aarynn Jones and senior linebacker Jordan Glass both led the team with seven tackles apiece. The Aggie defense also accumulated six pass deflections throughout the game as well.
Next week the Aggies will continue on the road to face Northern Arizona, another team that plays in an indoor facility. Hopefully the Aggies can continue their offensive output playing under a dome next week as well.
JASON MIN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
