The last yard proved to be the toughest for Charles Roberts. He glided in from the 15, only to lose the ball at the one-yard line with three minutes to go and the Hornets down by two points.

The Idaho State Bengals jumped out to a 21-0 lead and handed the Hornets their second Big Sky Conference loss on Saturday night inside Holt Arena in Pocatello, ID, hanging on to a 41-39 victory.

“I’m disappointed in the way we got started,” head coach John Volek said. “But we played a full 60 minutes.”

To be as close as they were was an accomplishment for Sac State, following a disastrous start that saw the Hornets trailing by three touchdowns after 12 minutes.

Although the Bengals jumped out to a big lead, Volek kept his team in the game plan. “We stayed in our game plan,” Volek said. “They did a good job on Charles (Roberts). Everywhere he goes, he has a target on him.”

After rushing for 409 yards against Idaho State last season, Roberts rushed for 155 yards in 27 carries Saturday. But it was his last carry that the 5,638 in attendance will remember.

“I normally would have probably tried to avoid the contact, but I didn’t want to try and juke with my thigh (injury),” Roberts said. Roberts, who has lost five fumbles in the team’s first four games, is not panicking about his turnovers.

“I’m not worried about it,” Roberts said. “I can’t explain it.” The fumble was not the only opportunity missed for the Hornets as the clock wound down.

Senior Scott Towne, who caught three passes for 41 yards, dropped what probably would have been a game winning reception with less than 10 seconds left. Despite the missed chances, Volek did not want to blame the loss on any individual plays.

“You could put that on a lot of different things,” Volek said. “It’s hard for him (Towne), he knows what I think about him.”

Sac State’s Lamont Webb led the Hornets with six catches, 138 yards receiving and two touchdowns, including an 80 yard-touchdown from senior Ricky Ray in the first quarter. Ray completed 17 passes in 33 attempts for Sac State, totaling 259 yards through the air.

The Hornets will host Weber State on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Fred Anderson Field.