In a game reminiscent of last week’s loss to Northern Arizona, Portland State used a tough defense to jump out to an early lead and hold Sacramento State scoreless en route to a 31-0 victory Saturday night at Hornet stadium.

It was the second week in a row the Hornets have been shutout, both coming against Big Sky Conference opponents.

Portland State (1-1, 3-2), coming off a big conference loss of its own, a 41-21 loss to Eastern Washington, was able to rebound this week and take care of Sac State (0-2, 1-4).

“We dominated the game with defense tonight, and early in the game we played well in almost every aspect (of the game),” Portland State head coach Tim Walsh said.

After a victory in its home opener and an impressive first half against archrival UC Davis, Sacramento State has looked like the team that struggled mightily in the last half of the 2003 season.

The Hornets won that home opener over Southern Utah 23-17 and they held a 23-22 lead right before the half. Since that moment, the team has struggled on all phases of its game. Davis would return a kickoff 98 yards to set up the go ahead touchdown right before the half in the Causeway, starting a 93-0 scoring streak against the Hornets.

“I know you can say we got shut out for the second week in a row, and yep we did,” head coach Steve Mooshagian said. “I thought we did play much better in the second half.

“We had a better time of possession by a large amount, but it was unbelievable the drives we had in the second half and to come away with no points.”

The Hornets were 8 for 20 on third down conversions in Saturday’s game, but every time in the last two games they got into scoring range a penalty or a missed opportunity would cost the Hornets any chance of getting points.

“You know we’re losing some one-on-one match ups,” Mooshagian said. “It’s not schematic, we have all the protection answers we need and all the things we need to do to stop it, we’re just losing some of those match ups.”

The Portland State defense also helped in preserving its second shutout in five games this season. It would sack Hornet quarterbacks Ryan Leadingham and Brad Tredway a combined seven times and force them to complete only 15 of 38 pass attempts.

“Nobody likes to lose,” said Portland State’s senior defensive end Chuck Jones of the difference between last week and this week. “It was our motivation to go out here and put pressure on the quarterback because that’s our job.”

The Vikings were led by senior quarterback Joe Wiser’s 153 yards and two touchdowns, and wide receivers Shaun Bodiford and Brenden Ferrigno. Bodiford had five receptions for 88 yards and one touchdown, while sophomore Brenden Ferrigno caught a touchdown.

Heading into this week’s home game versus Weber State, the Hornets will try to break a 10-quarter scoring drought. That adds up to five straight halves without a point.

“I think we are definitely frustrated,” Mooshagian said about the scoreless streak.

“I did see some bright spots, however. We had some chances and didn’t take advantage of them. What’s frustrating to me is we continue to play nine-man, 10-man football,” Mooshagian said. “We have a simple breakdown here and there and even though we’ve simplified things for them we haven’t got it done. Plain and simple we are not good enough right now. We aren’t winning these match ups.”

The Hornets will face a Weber State opponent that is also looking for its first Big Sky victory of the season. So far in 2004, Weber is 0-5 overall and 0-2 in conference play. It lost to three of Sac State’s common opponents: falling to Southern Utah — which was the lone win so far for the Hornets, 34-31; to Davis, 31-28; and to Northern Arizona, 55-27.

Weber State will be led by running back Nick Chournos who averages 102.3 rushing yards per game and has five rushing touchdowns.

Also coming in will be Big Sky’s conference sack leader Shane Barkdull.

Mooshagian does see some positives for his team this week and for the rest of the season in Big Sky play.

“The league is still crazy,” Mooshagian said. “We have Weber, Idaho State and Montana State still on the schedule and they’re having struggles too. We are all going through the same thing with injuries and inexperience. That’s kind of the whole league right now.

“I think we match up well this week. I’ve watched Weber a ton on tape. Personnel wise, we match up very similar with them. Experience wise, we are both going through the same frustrations and talent wise I think we match up well with them.

“We will be a lot better, I’ll guarantee you that. You can’t make a lot of guarantees, but we will play a lot better, that I can promise you.”

Last season, the Hornets ended their dismal 2-9 season with a road loss at Weber 26-14. They will try to get their second win on the season this Saturday Night at Hornet Stadium. The last five wins and nine of the last 12 have come at home.