Arizona took the early lead with a field goal on the first possession of the game while holding the Lumberjacks to a three-and-out. But after that they didn’t score again until Northern Arizona had a TD followed up by a field goal after a Noah Fifita interception. And when they did score, it was another field goal—going into the break down 10-6. After making some adjustments defensively at half-time and the players coming to the realization that you shouldn’t think that any of these games are going to be easy they responded, especially on the defensive side and held the Lumberjacks scoreless the rest of the way while picking up a safety and two TD’s to win it 22-10.
Wildcat head coach Brent Brennan had this to say: “I was really happy with the response, especially coming out of halftime down 10-6. Some good team football. I give credit to Northern Arizona, I thought their players played their butts off and their coaches did a great job.” Regarding his Junior Wide Receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who the prior week picked up over 300 yards and 4 TD’s on just 10 catches, he said; “They did push the coverage to him at times. They did a good job, they doubled him some, they bracketed him some.” And as a result he was held to just two receptions for 11 yards. In spite of that and the interception, Sophomore QB Noah Fifita still connected with five other receivers multiple times for 173 yards and a TD to Junior WR Jeremiah Patterson. Senior RB Quali Conley and Freshman Kedrick Reescano combined for most of the ground game, collectively picking up 183 of the 188 total yards on 23 carries with Reescano getting into the end zone for their one rushing TD.
For Northern Arizona it was difficult to get a lot going in either the air or on the ground with the Wildcats recording three sacks and nine tackles for loss. Sophomore QB Ty Pennington connected on 14-of-24 for 84 yards without a TD or an interception. On the ground it was Pennington and Freshman RB Seth Cromwell doing most of the work, collectively rushing 24 times for 80 of the 89 total yards on the ground. Although Arizona led in 1st downs, 18-to-13 and total yards 361-to-198, they not only couldn’t convert on third down—zero-for-10—but also continued to hurt themselves throughout the game with 10 penalties for 95 yards.
This game was probably a shock the players needed prior to starting their conference schedule against a lot better opponents. As the AP wrote for ESPN in The Takeaway for this game regarding Arizona: “A week after scoring on 10 drives and putting up the eighth-most yards in school history, the Wildcats had fewer yards in the first half (147) than on their first two drives in the Week 1 win over New Mexico. [Up next] Kansas State on Friday night in a non-conference game scheduled before the Wildcats left the Pac-12 for the Big-12.”