The 50th Causeway Classic was just that, a classic.

The University of California, Davis and Sacramento State battled deep into the night matching each other stride for stride, hit for hit and backup for backup, trying to prove who was the better football team in a 31-27 Davis triumph.

With six minutes left in the game and UC Davis leading 24-20, backup quarterback Blake Mori marched the Hornets down field on a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive that climaxed on a two-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jason Girley.

Girley’s second touchdown in his Sac State career put the Hornets up 27-24 with only 1:40 remaining in the contest.

“I thought we had the game in hand,” Mori said, who came into the game in the third quarter after starting quarterback Ryan Leadingham was taken to the hospital with a left arm injury. “That’s all you can ask for, just to put our defense in a position to win the game.”

Up against the clock and a Hornet defense looking for its first win in the Causeway since 1999, U.C. Davis’ own backup quarterback Jon Barragan calmly led the Aggies 76 yards to victory.

Running back Antar Mahasin punched in the final score of the game from the 1-yard line to bring his touchdown total to three, giving the Aggies the 31-27 win.

“I’m on cloud nine right now,” UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs said. “We didn’t script it with a backup quarterback and backup running back.”

Sac State Head Coach Steve Mooshagian gave credit to the Aggies.

“They found a way to get it done and just made one more play than we did,” Mooshagian said. “We got their very best shot and hung with them. We were in position and just didn’t make the play.”

After the game Sac State’s defense was distraught.

“To win championships the defense has to step up,” cornerback Ramon Payne said. “All we had to do was stop them with a limited amount of time and we couldn’t. It’s our fault.”

“We had them at first,” safety Zeph Payne said. “But the bottom line is they just wanted it more.”

At the beginning of the game the Hornets’ desire seemed to burn brightest. After forcing UC Davis to go three-and-out in their first drive Sac State took possession of the ball at the Aggie 41-yard line. On third- and-12 starting quarterback Ryan Leadingham threw to Kenan Smith for a 16-yard completion to keep the drive alive. Three plays later running back Tyronne Gross rushed for eight yards, hurdled an Aggie defender and converted the Hornets’ second third down of the game.

On the ensuing play Gross took the handoff, slashed outside right and then cutback at the hash mark to go in for the 5-yard touchdown.

After two more futile UC Davis possessions, Gross capped off an eight-play, 76-yard Hornet drive when he scampered 10 yards into the end zone with 1:49 left in the first quarter, putting Sac State up 14-0.

The Hornets were flying high in the first quarter but the Aggies found their stride in the second.

“The second quarter was a bit of a fog for us,” Mooshagian said. “I thought we had them right where we wanted them.”

The massive UC Davis offensive line pushed Sac State’s defensive line off the ball time after time, allowing Mahasin and projected starting running back O.J. Swanigan to run right down the throat of the Hornet “D.”

At the 6:21 mark of the second quarter Mahasin took the ball off right tackle and went almost untouched into the end zone to make the score 14-7.

After a Gross fumble UC Davis kicker Dusty Apocotos added a 27- yard field goal to finish first half scoring with Davis down 14-10.

Gross never seemed to find his rhythm after the fumble and finished the game with 62 yards rushing.

“It was easy stopping him,” Aggie free safety Ejiro Evero said. “Our game plan was to stop the run and that’s what we did.”

Early in the third quarter Leadingham rolled out left and was tripped up after throwing the ball.

Leadingham, who threw for 362 yards and six touchdowns last week against Idaho State University, stuck out his left arm to break his fall but instead fractured his wrist and ended his season.

“We’ve been practicing with Mori so it wasn’t really a change for us,” Amey said.

“(Mori) is just a good quarterback, we have a lot of confidence in him.”

UC Davis starting quarterback Ryan Flanigan did not play in the second half with a Staph infection in his throwing hand that forced him to the bench in favor of Aggie backup Barragan.

Mahasin carried the day for UC Davis finishing the game with 163 rushing yards, scoring his second touchdown with 1:46 left in the third quarter – giving UC Davis a 17-14 lead.

The fourth quarter saw four lead changes starting with Fred Amey’s only touchdown of the game, that put the Hornets back on top 20-17 after a missed extra point.

Mori committed Sac State’s second turnover in the fourth quarter with a fumble that UC Davis recovered on the Hornet 17 yard line. The Aggies took advantage of the short field with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Barragan to tight end Daniel Fells, puuting the Aggies back up 24-20 with 6:24 left in the game.

“This was a tough one for us,” Hornet offensive line coach Angus McClure said. “But now we have got a Big Sky championship to win.”