When it was all over, the cannon had been done for a while, the band was tired and it was acceptable to say, “Your team only scored 61 points.”

If you told a friend the score of Saturday?s football game, they would probably want to know how many points Pablo Gonzalez, of the men?s basketball team, contributed.

However, Saturday night at Fred Anderson Field, it was pure football. All 18 touchdowns of it.

Sac State and Cal State Northridge scored the most combined points ever in a Division I football game during the Hornets? 64-61 victory Saturday night at Fred Anderson Field.

The Hornets and Matadors combined for 125 points, setting the all-time Division I record in Sac State?s last home game of the season in front of a crowd of 7,912.

The old Division I-A record was set in 1980 when Oklahoma beat Colorado 82-42. The Division I-AA record that fell Saturday dates back to 1991, when Weber State and Eastern Washington combined to score 122 points.

“Our offense put 64 points on the board,” Sac State head coach John Volek said. “That was one of the best offensive games I?ve ever seen.”

Volek is not alone. Actually, it?s doubtful that anyone has ever seen more offense in one game.

The 61 points scored by Northridge were the most for a losing team in Division I history. Cal State Northridge head coach Jeff Kearin was surprised, to say the least, that his team scored nine touchdowns and lost.

“That?s (losing in this way) hard to do, but it?s part of the deal. There was not a lot of defense played tonight,” Kearin said. “For us, it?s bitter sweet, because we?ve been struggling on offense and we did some things today.”

Heading into the final game of the season, which is at Northern Arizona on Saturday, Sac State is still holding out hope for a spot in the Big Sky playoffs. The Hornets are now 6-4 overall and 4-3 in the Big Sky Conference. The Matadors dropped to 3-6 overall and 2-5 Big Sky Conference. With Saturday?s victory, Sac State ensured a second consecutive winning season.

“Montana is number one in the nation and no team has played them as close as we did,” Volek said about advancing into the Big Sky playoffs. “Two back-to-back winning records. It is very important. It can take our program to the upper echelon of the conference.”

Volek felt like he too was on the field, playing the game with the rest of the Hornets, after the game which lasted nearly four hours.

“What a game. I?ve never been in a game like that,” Volek said. “My back hurts, my knee hurts and my brain hurts. The kids were resilient.”

In the win, Sac State?s senior running back Charles Roberts moved into fifth place on the all-time college rushing list, upping his total to 6,366 career rushing yards. He needs 33 yards at Northern Arizona next week, his last game as a Hornet, to surpass Ron Dayne as Division I?s all-time leading rusher.

“It was my last home game. I knew that if I played hard, the records would come,” Roberts said about passing Ricky Williams on the rushing list, among other running backs. “It (passing Williams) feels good. It?s something that I had my eye on. I wanted to try and catch Dayne (Saturday) in front of the home crowd.”

In the game, Roberts gained 157 yards on 33 carries, pushing his season total to 1,437. He also ran in two touchdowns in the shoot-out.

“This (Saturday) will be my last home game as a Hornet if we don?t make the playoffs. It?s been a good four years,” Roberts said. “The record (Dayne?s mark) will just be icing on the cake for me.”

The Hornets? Ricky Ray, playing in his last game on the Sac State campus, completed 18 passes in 25 attempts, totaling 344 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran in three one-yard touchdowns, giving him nine rushing touchdowns for the season. The five rushing touchdowns for the Hornets tied a team record.

One of Ray?s favorite targets, senior Hornet receiver Scott Towne, suffered a concussion and a sprained knee, before being sent to a nearby hospital after the game. Before he left the game in the second quarter, Towne had already caught four passes from Ray for 130 yards and scored a touchdown.

“He started losing what was going on,” Volek said about Towne?s condition.

The game featured 1,146 yards, to go along with the 18 touchdowns, as both teams scored at least two touchdowns in every quarter. No drive for either team lasted even five minutes.

The teams were tied at 14 after the first quarter, as Towne caught a 17-yard touchdown and Roberts ran in from three yards for Sac State. Towne totaled 113 yards on his three first quarter receptions, as he also hauled in passes of 39 and 57 yards from Ray in the quarter.

The Matadors jumped ahead on the first play of the second quarter on a four-yard touchdown run by Julien Sells, but Sac State?s Seth Tago blocked the extra point. Ray gave the lead back to Sac State soon after as he scored on a one-yard fourth down plunge.

Like most of the momentum in the game, this wouldn?t last long. Northridge?s junior quarterback, Marcus Brady, hit Gil Rodriguez for a 40-yard score with just over one minute left in the half, putting his team up 26-21 as they missed the two-point conversion.

In the game, Brady passed for 493 yards and threw four touchdowns. He completed 32 of his 54 pass attempts and also scored on a 30-yard run.

After Rodriguez?s touchdown, Sac State came right back and senior Lamont Webb caught a 25-yard touchdown with eight seconds left in the half. The Hornets went into the break up 29-26.

After Ray ran in another score and the Matadors scored again, Webb showed off another asset of his game. He took a kickoff 90 yards in for a score, spinning off the last defenders near mid-field, and the Hornets took a 43-33 lead. Webb also caught five passes for 92 yards, to go along with his 206 return yards.

But in the game of football, scoring a touchdown means that you have to give the ball right back to the other team. Shortly after Webb?s touchdown, Brady threw a 23-yard touchdown to D.J. Hackett, closing the gap to three points.

Hackett caught 12 passes for 170 yards to lead the Matadors in both categories. His teammate, Drew Amerson, caught 11 for 152 and Jason Stone also broke the century mark on his five receptions.

“Their defense has played well,” Kearin said. “But we were able to take advantage of some things.”

It took the Hornets only 45 seconds to answer with another touchdown. This time, Gary Austin, Jr. was the weapon. Austin tipped a Ray pass to himself after it bounced off a defender, before he was able to control the ball and run the rest of the 39 yards for the score. Austin amassed 77 receiving yards on five catches in the game.

In the final quarter, Roberts scored again, putting Sac State up 57-40.

But in this game, no lead was safe. The Matadors? Stone caught a touchdown 46 seconds later, before Ray ran in his third touchdown of the game shortly after that.

Northridge would not give up though, as Sells ran in a touchdown to close the lead to 64-54 with just over five minutes remaining in the game. Its defense then held the Hornets and Northridge charged towards the Sac State goal again. But, Sac State sophomore Brandon Coleman, intercepted a ball on the one-yard line to end the Matadors? drive with 3:21 left. “That was a great play,” Kearin said. “A fabulous job by (Coleman).”

Coleman had a feeling that Brady might be throwing the ball his way.

“I knew that it was going to come to me. They kept on coming at me in the red zone,” Coleman said. “We knew to win the game, the defense was going to have to step up.”

The Matadors scored once more with one minute to go but it was not enough as the Hornets held on.

The Hornets hope to finish the season 7-4 as they travel to Northern Arizona for a Saturday game.

HORNET NOTES:

-Things to look for heading into Saturday?s game at Northern Arizona.

-Heading into the final game of their Hornet careers, senior receivers Towne and Webb are neck and neck for the all-time receiving yards mark at Sac State. They are currently one-two in the books. Webb leads with 1,683 yards, while Towne has 1,646. Towne?s condition for Saturday is unknown so far.

-Roberts needs 32 yards to become the all-time career-rushing leader in Division I history.

-If Ray passes for three touchdowns, he will become Sac State?s career leader with 35 passing touchdowns.

-With a win Saturday, Sac State will finish the year 7-4, their best record since 1992.