TUCSON, Ariz. (September 5, 2026) – Noble Young-Blackgoat returned a fourth quarter interception 36 yards for a touchdown to account for No. 22/20 Northern Arizona's lone score in a 35-7 loss to Arizona Saturday night at Casino Del Sol Stadium.
 
Arizona (1-0) rolled up 520 yards of total offense in the victory, while limiting NAU (1-1) to 193 yards of its own. The victory was the Wildcats' third consecutive in the series since the Lumberjacks upset the Wildcats in 2021.
 
"I'm disappointed in the outcome of the game and the overall play of our football team," said head coach Brian Wright. "We didn't play our best football tonight and a lot of credit, of course, goes to Arizona. I expected more out of our football team and we have a lot of work to do when we get back to Flagstaff."
 
Facing one of the top defensive units in the FBS a year ago, the Lumberjacks struggled to find traction for most of the evening. In particular, NAU was held to -7 net rushing yards on 21 carries and only 3.7 yards per carry.
 
Despite the final score though, the Lumberjacks forced three Wildcat turnovers, including Young-Blackgoat's pick-6 with 10:55 to go in the fourth quarter. Jahaad Fort and Matthew Cooks also forced, and recovered their own fumbles, in the first and fourth quarters, respectively.
 
"Great effort by our defense," Wright said. "We settled down defensively in the second half. They kept us in the ball game early in the second half, but disappointed we couldn't generate anything on the offensive side."
 
After Arizona averaged 9.0 yards per play in the first half, the Lumberjacks cut down the Wildcats' yards per play to 5.7 in the second half.
 
NAU faced an uphill battle in the final 30 minutes, trailing 21-0, despite despite driving into Arizona territory on three of its four first half drives.
 
Arizona scored on its opening possession of the game with Noah Fifita finding Tre Spivey in the back of the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown. NAU's first drive stalled at the Arizona 40-yard line, but the 'Jacks got the ball back when Fort punched the ball out of Giovanni Richardson's hand and subsequently recovered his own forced fumble.
 
NAU once again moved the ball into opponent territory before turning the ball over on downs, which led to Fifita's second touchdown pass, this time to Brandon Phelps from 21 yards out. After the Wildcats scored their third touchdown of the game, the Lumberjacks sustained their best drive of the half.
 
However, despite a big third down conversion to Jeter Purdy on third-and-17 and a 33-yard hook and lateral between Joey Stout and Darius Haskin, NAU came up empty following a missed 34-yard field goal right before halftime.
 
The Lumberjacks' defensive turnaround in the second half was evident by forcing a pair of Wildcat three-and-outs to start the second half before surrendering a 14-yard touchdown run by Antwan Roberts that made the game 28-0.
 
Young-Blackgoat's first career interception and touchdown prevented the shutout as the Flagstaff local picked off Sawyer Anderson and took it to the house.
 
Pennington completed his first eight attempts and finished the night with 180 passing yards on 15-of-26 passing. He found Stout often with the senior wide receiver logging a career-high six receptions for 39 yards.
 
Jaiden Letua and Shoes Brinkley shared the team-lead with eight tackles each, while Jayden Baer and JaSire Peterson recorded their first career sacks.
 
NAU returns to Findlay Toyota Field at the Walkup Skydome for its Family Weekend game against UIW next Saturday at 2 p.m. MST. Tickets are available for purchase here.
 
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