The victory brings the Wildcats to a conference-leading 3-0 record.

"We're just a bad weather team," said coach Ron McBride, whose Wildcats also had a bad-weather win over Montana. "Montana State is a really fine football team. They put a lot of pressure on our run game but we were able to throw it into the wind."

Although the Bobcats had the conference's best passing defense heading into the game, Higgins had a solid performance, completing 28 of 35 passes with one interception and 349 yards. He had four touchdown passes, including two to Tim Toone and Marcus Mailei, both five-yard receptions, in the fourth quarter.

Weber State had a 14-9 lead heading into the third quarter and outscored the Bobcats 21-3 in the second half.

"Our defense was outstanding. We had two stops in the red zone and the defense didn't give them anything," McBride said. "Defense was what held us together."

Trevyn Smith started the scoring in the third quarter with a two-yard touchdown run. He finished with two touchdowns and 73 rushing yards on 21 carries. He also had 63 receiving yards on seven catches.

Toone had a season-high 11 catches for 130 yards.

The last time the Wildcats beat both Montana schools in the same season was in 1987.

mthach@sltrib.com