Prior to Saturday night’s game against Arizona true freshman wide receiver Puka Nacua had played 46 total snaps for Washington.

By halftime, when the Huskies trailed 17-13 in Tucson, Nacua had one catch for 20 yards and was targeted twice. Over the final 30 minutes Nacua hauled in two more passes from UW junior quarterback Jacob Eason.

His second reception came on the first play from scrimmage to start the third quarter, a 28-yard completion. Nine plays later on the drive Eason threw his first of two TD passes against the Wildcats, a 3-yard score to walk-on redshirt freshman tight end Jack Westover.

It marked the first career reception for Westover and the second Husky player to make their first catch a touchdown in 2019. Nacua hauled in a 28-yard TD pass from Eason in week three against Hawaii for his first career catch.

The score gave UW the lead back early in the third quarter, 20-17, and the offense never looked back.

Two drives later after senior safety Myles Bryant forced his third career fumble with 5:43 remaining in the third quarter. Junior running back Salvon Ahmed capitalized on the turnover and capped off the short field drive with a 4-yard TD, his first of three scores on the night.

With under 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter Nacua recorded his third and final reception of the game. Nacua had one-on-one coverage against Wildcats freshman cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace and out-jumped the defender to haul down the pass from Eason.

It completed a 3rd and 6 for UW, but more importantly it was what happened after the catch that made such a statement.

Nacua broke away from Roland-Wallace and junior safety Jarrius Wallace to gain an additional few yards. Once the two defenders corralled Nacua at the Wildcats 10-yard line, the sideline audio picked up the freshman screaming with excitement.

Coming into the 2019 season Nacua was regarded as one of the best signings under Petersen, especially at the receiver position. Combined through the first six games of the season Nacua had played just 46 snaps total and 27 between week 4-6.

Against Arizona last night Nacua played 26 snaps, 16 more than his previous single game high of 10 against Eastern Washington in week one and week five against USC.

Three plays later following his third catch, Ahmed punched his second TD in from 3-yards out to push the Huskies lead to 41-10 in the fourth.

Ahmed scored his third and final touchdown of the game with under five minutes remaining to give UW the 51-27 victory on the road.

Eason finished his night completing 15 of 22 attempts for 243 yards and two TD with a QB rating of 191. The junior was more cerebral in the second half completing 8 of his final 10 passes for 178 yards.

UW allowed only one sack Saturday night against Arizona, the fewest since the Huskies kept Eason completely clean in week four at BYU. Both USC and Stanford recorded two sacks on Eason in week five and week six.