“I felt like [Wassink] had a little more confidence, a little more zip on the ball, spirals were a much tighter,” head coach Tim Lester said. “I felt like he was an active participant in the game; as he grows up it going to be ‘you have to insert yourself into this game’ and be more of an active participant as opposed to a manager, and I thought he did that.”
Wassink was also a driving force behind Western’s running game, rushing for 38 yards and two touchdowns, including a wild 22-yard effort which pulled Western within two points of Idaho early in the fourth quarter at 28-26, in which he was actually pushed into the end zone by an Idaho defender.