Godley helps Weber State football finish Butler in 38-24 victory
Wildcats scuffle in second half but win wire to wire
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- Weber State running back Davion Godley, center, runs past Butler’s Will Mason (1) for a gain on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Davion Godley (25) and Marvin Session (18) celebrate after WSU scored a touchdown against Butler on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Bird Butler (15) makes a cut past Butler defensive back Steven Stephany (12) on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Davion Godley (25) lets out a yell after scoring a touchdown against Butler on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Bird Butler, top, leaps over Butler’s Mason Armstrong (2) during a punt return on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State receiver Jayleen Record (4) tries to shed the tackle of Butler’s Devaon Holman (3) on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State quarterback Jackson Gilkey (2) throws a pass against the pressure of Butler’s Trey Alsbrooks (33) on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State tight end Ammon Munyer, left, finishes a touchdown reception past Butler’s Mason Armstrong (2) on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Davion Godley (25) picks up yards against Butler on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
OGDEN — Davion Godley rushed for nearly 100 yards in the first quarter, finished with a career-high 193 yards on 19 carries, and helped Weber State football finish off Butler in a 38-24 victory Saturday night at Stewart Stadium.
The Wildcats (2-2) led wire to wire, but not without a fair share of missed opportunities and big plays from Butler (2-2) that kept the result in the balance for the entirety.
“Any time you can win, obviously it’s good,” WSU head coach Mickey Mental said. “Credit to our defense, I thought they played really well in the (second half) … to kind of keep us in the game when we were struggling offensively.”
After looking for a long stretch in the first quarter like they might run away in a laugher, the Wildcats found themselves in a battle late with their offense scuffling and their defense trying to make a lead hold up by denying Butler with a 0-for-14 effort on third downs.
It was one key fourth down that had Weber State sweating, though. On the final play of the third quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Gabe Passini rolled out on a fourth-and-3 from the Butler 42. After his receiving options cleared their routes, Passini tucked upfield and raced 33 yards up the gut into Weber territory, plus tacked on 15 yards when WSU cornerback Montae Pate committed a horse-collar-tackle penalty to chase him down.
Passini took another keeper the final 12 yards to the end zone in the fourth quarter’s first play, cutting Weber State’s lead to 30-24 with 14:55 left.
Passini rushed 23 times for 175 yards after taking over Butler’s lifeless offense late in the first quarter. The Bulldogs listed dual-threat Reagan Andrew as their starting QB this week but he missed his second-straight game, and Butler was largely ineffective with sophomore Jarrin Alley in charge.
“We were preparing for (Andrew), he can do a bit of both … we knew (Passini) was more of a run guy, we shouldn’t have been surprised by it,” defensive tackle Matt Herron said. “We’ve just got to be a little better with the assignments.”
Things felt questionable for Weber State as its offense continued to do almost nothing with the football for the entire second half, even when it had good field position. When Jackson Gilkey threw his second interception of the night (and ninth of the season) by attempting a deep liner to the end zone with 6:14 left, the Wildcats had gained just 29 yards and one first down on six second-half possessions.
Godley said Butler stacked the box after he ran over them in the first quarter, and Mental said he didn’t do enough to help the offense open up the field when it struggled in the second half.
If not for the one long fourth-down rush, though, Weber State’s defense strung the game out long enough for the offense to put it away. Butler gained 102 yards in the second half and netted only 12 yards in the final 14:55.
WSU’s defense forced a three-and-out after Gilkey’s long interception. And even though a penalty negated a big Bird Butler punt return, Godley was ready to put the game away.
With 5:13 left, Godley took WSU’s next play to the right edge and upfield for a 52-yard rush, nearly doubling his team’s offensive output for the half.
“You’ve just got to keep your composure,” Godley said about the offense spinning its wheels before his big run. “Just stick to the game, put your foot down, get whatever you can, and it will hit.”
Mental said his team made good on a playcall when it mattered most.
“Coach (Robert Conley) had a great suggestion, something we hadn’t run all game up to that point, and the guys executed it at a high level,” Mental said. “I think the big play just kind of put everybody at ease; we needed to find a big play to get our rhythm back.”
From there, it was redshirt freshman Chauncey Sylvester with his first career carries, going 6, 3 and 3 yards to finish the drive with a touchdown. Gilkey completed a slant to Marvin Session for a two-point conversion and WSU led 38-24 with 2:54 left.
Godley was left just shy of a 200-yard game but loved seeing Sylvester play.
“I wanted to see him play, see him score. He’s a great athlete … I wanted to see him punch it in,” Godley said. “I’d like that 200, though,” he laughed.
With Butler clearly needing to pass, the Bulldogs went back to Alley at quarterback and Weber teed up the pass rush. Josh Hardy recorded consecutive sacks on second and third downs, and freshman Chevy Robinson hurried Alley into a fourth-down incompletion with 1:55 left.
WSU drained the clock from there for victory.
Though a larger margin felt appropriate for the way the game played out (at one point, WSU had Butler outgained by a tally of 320-62), Weber State’s defense did enough to make up for the offense’s inability to cash in short fields.
“I don’t think the Pioneer (Football League) gets the credit they’re supposed to,” Mental said, referencing San Diego beating Southern Utah and Presbyterian topping a ranked Mercer. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight … we’ve just got to play cleaner. … We’ve got to limit some of the penalty yardage in critical situations that kept drives alive, and win the turnover margin.”
Aside from the fourth-quarter dominance, WSU’s defense bailed out two giveaways to keep Butler’s momentum from completely overtaking WSU in the second quarter.
Butler did score 17 points and gain 136 of its total 248 yards in the second quarter alone, making a 27-7 WSU lead nearly vanish. Passini ripped a 43-yard run and passed a 32-yard touchdown to Brady Preston on a two-play scoring drive to make it 27-14 with 4:01 left in the half.
Four plays later, Gilkey tried to hit Jayleen Record on a shallow cross for a third-and-5 attempt but threw the ball directly to Butler defensive lineman Danny Orgler, who hauled in the interception and barreled about 30 yards to the WSU 13-yard line.
With Butler at the WSU 11, Hardy batted down an otherwise sure touchdown pass on second down and the Wildcats forced a 28-yard Ryan Short field goal to keep a 27-17 lead with 2:00 left.
That’s when Bird Butler, the WSU player, made one of two ill-advised decisions that put the ball on the turf. He took the ensuing kickoff from 8 yards deep in the end zone and weaved out near the WSU 30, when he was stripped and Blair Schonhorst recovered for Butler the team.
That gave the Bulldogs a 25-yard field. WSU’s defense maintained the 27-17 halftime lead, however, when cornerback Ishaan Daniels chased down a throw to the left edge of the end zone with 18 seconds left, catching Alley’s pass and getting his left foot down for an interception.
“I’ll give those guys credit; 0 of 14 in a college football game on third down, that’s big time,” Mental said of his defense. “They’ve just got to clean a couple of those things up, limit some of those explosive ones, but they gave up, what, 248 yards? We don’t turn the ball over twice inside the 50 and make them drive — I think we’ve got to play better complementary football.”
The third quarter was much less eventful. The most notable plays included Butler, the WSU player, trying to hurdle a defender and fumbling on second down; WSU recovered, leading to Sloan Calder knocking through a 36-yard field goal, good for a 30-17 lead with 6:44 left in the third.
Calder made field goals of 29 and 26 yards in the first half.
Two other notable third-quarter plays were Butler punter Short shanking punts for 3 and 10 yards, though WSU ultimately had four possessions (minus the final kneeldown in the fourth quarter) begin at the Butler 35 or better and totaled just nine points in those four chances.
“It’s winning your one-on-one matchups,” Mental said about the missed opportunities. “We’ve got to execute at a higher level and I’ve got to put our guys in a better position … we’ve got to capitalize. I’ve got to do a better job first, it starts with me.”
WSU opened the game running the ball at will. Godley capped a quick, five-play drive with rushes of 33 and 15 yards, the latter making it 7-0 on the game’s opening possession.
Weber drove its second possession to the Butler 3 after a Godley rush of 25 and a Bird Butler rush of 15. But the drive stopped there when Gilkey underthrew a receiver at the goal line on fourth down.
Calder’s first field goal came after WSU did little with a 31-yard field. His second came after a seven-play drive stalled in part due to Weber’s first fumble of the season. A pulling guard collided with an attempted handoff on third down from the Butler 2; WSU recovered for Calder’s second field goal and a 13-0 lead after one quarter.
Butler answered with a 13-play touchdown drive of 75 yards, 45 of which came on Weber State penalties (two roughing the passer calls, one pass interference).
“We’ve just got to be smarter,” Herron said. “I had the one (roughing penalty) … if it’s close, I’ve got to stay on the safe side.”
Though Godley and the run game had the spotlight, Gilkey passed WSU down the field on the next two possessions.
Of four Gilkey completions, the final came on a 20-yard rope up the right sideline to AJ Jayroe. The sophomore and former Louisiana transfer, in his second year at WSU, made his first career reception count for a tight-window touchdown and a 20-7 lead.
The next time out, Gilkey threw over the middle to tight end Ammon Munyer for his first career TD, also a 20-yarder, for the 27-7 lead.
In those two drives, Gilkey threw 6 of 8 for 123 yards and two touchdowns. In all other possessions, Gilkey was 8 of 17 for 62 yards and two interceptions (going 14 of 25 for 185 yards overall).
Bird Butler rushed four times for 32 yards and Sylvester five times for 23 yards. A week after Gilkey ran for more than 100 yards at McNeese, the sophomore quarterback had six carries for minus 5 yards.
Session caught four passes for 63 yards and Record had four catches for 36 yards.
Defensively, Herron and Mayson Hitchens each recorded eight tackles. Hardy had his two sacks, and Pate tallied three pass breakups.
For Butler, Passini was 5 of 9 passing for 51 yards, adding to his 175 on the ground but missing a pair of TD-potential throws that would’ve hurt WSU. As a passer, Alley was 3 of 16 for 12 yards.
Now at 2-2, Weber State next begins Big Sky Conference play by going to No. 9 UC Davis (2-1). The Aggies beat Southern Utah 50-34 on Saturday and rushed for 357 yards.
BIG SKY SCORES
No. 4 Montana State 17, Mercyhurst 0
No. 5 Montana 63, Indiana State 20
No. 9 UC Davis 50, Southern Utah 34
No. 17 Northern Arizona 31, Incarnate Word 23
No. 24 Sacramento State 45, Central Arkansas 16
Idaho State 90, Lincoln-CA 0
San Jose State 31, Idaho 28
Eastern Washington 52, Western Illinois 31
Northern Colorado 26, Houston Christian 23 (OT)
Stephen F. Austin 35, Cal Poly 17
