MISSOULA, Mont. — For the second straight season, Sacramento State football finished winless on the road following its crushing 52-21 loss at Montana.

The Hornets are 0-11 in road games under second-year head coach Steve Mooshagian.

In the loss, All-American wide receiver Fred Amey set the Big Sky career mark in receiving yards as he now has 3,906 in his four years. Amey had eight catches for 106 yards and a touchdown. Amey also surpassed 1,000 yards for a season for the first time.

“The records really don’t mean much to me,” Amey said. “I’m just concerned with us trying to win games. I really never know my records but I guess it’s good to look at in the future to compare myself to the receivers that played in I-AA like the best receiver that ever played in Jerry Rice and see my name up there with him.”

For the second straight week the Hornets (3-7, 2-5 Big Sky) allowed the opposition to march down the field on the game’s opening drive and get an early 7-0 lead. The start of the game almost went in the way of the Hornets, though. A tough kickoff was nearly forced out of bounds inside the Grizzly 10-yard line, but Montana’s Levander Segars returned the kick 53 yards to Sac State’s 43.

“It all got started with that kickoff return,” Mooshagian said. “Everybody thought he would go out of bounds and Levander made a great run and it kind of set the tone.”

The Montana (8-2, 5-1) defense then did its part on the Hornets first play from scrimmage as the Grizzlies got their first of three Ryan Leadingham interceptions. The ensuing drive culminated in the second of Montana’s Justin Green’s three first-quarter touchdowns.

After another Leadingham turnover, Montana capitalized quickly on a trick play as receiver Jefferson Heidelberger threw a touchdown pass to quarterback Craig Ochs for another score. After the first quarter, Montana was ahead 28-0. The Grizzlies scored on all four of their drives that all started in Hornet territory.

“You can’t start a game off in the first quarter with turnovers and penalties like we did and get behind 28-0,” Mooshagian said. “In the other quarters we played competitively but the damage was done in the first quarter and you can’t do that against a fine football team like Montana.”

The Hornets got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter when Ryan Mole finished off an 11-play, 84-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run.

Leadingham and Amey connected on two 20-yard completions putting the Hornets in scoring range. The second completion broke the Big Sky record and his day put Amey fifth all-time in Division I-AA history in career yards.

Despite two Craig Ochs’ touchdown passes in the third quarter, the Hornets matched the Grizzlies 14 second half points with 14 of their own to make the final 52-21.

“Ochs made some throws that I think I still could’ve caught at 45 years old,” Mooshagian quipped. “Those were some NFL throws he was making. As an old NFL guy he convinced me that he could play at that next level.”

Freshman running back Mole continued to shine for the Hornets. Mole rushed for 177 yards on 23 carries, giving him his fourth 100-yard game of the season and second in two games.

“When you almost have a 200-yard rusher and a 100-yard receiver you don’t lose very often, but turnovers did us in,” Mooshagian said about the Hornets five turnovers.

“We didn’t come out flat, we just came out ready to play, but they took advantage of every one of our miscues,” Mooshagian said. “You can’t make the mistakes we made and expect to beat a team that plays as well as they do at home.”