The biggest surprise in the Big Sky Conference Saturday night occurred at Hornet Stadium, where Sacramento State (3-6, 2-4 Big Sky) upset No. 17 Montana State (6-3, 4-1), 38-28.

Hornets head coach Steve Mooshagian and senior wide receiver Fred Amey called the win the biggest victory for the school’s program since both have been with the Hornets.

“Every year I looked at (Montana State) as the best team we played,” Amey said. “Tonight’s game was a challenge game for us. They probably took us a little lightly and we took the challenge and played our best game of the year.

“It was a big win for the whole program.”

Freshman running back Ryan Mole returned to the starting position and had a career night with 245 rushing yards on 35 carries including two lengthy scampers for scores. Junior running back Tyronne Gross missed the game because of an indefinite suspension for violating team rules.

“The linemen worked their butts off tonight and made a lot of holes for me to run through,” Mole said. “I just hit those holes hard and the results out there were great.”

Mole became the sixth Hornet runner to gain 200 yards rushing in a single game. He was also named Big Sky Co-Offensive player of the week.

“Mole’s a great running back and having him really helped the passing game,” Amey said. “The line really gelled for us and it made the whole offense go. We passed early to set up the run and then ran later to set up the run.”

The passing game also was effective as senior quarterback Ryan Leadingham completed 15 passes for a season-high 260 yards and two touchdowns. Eight of the completions were to Amey as he also had a season high with 165 yards and both of Leadingham’s touchdown tosses.

Amey had 100 yards receiving and both his touchdowns catches before the half. Mole had 224 of his yards and of both his touchdowns after halftime.

The Bobcats drove 80 yards in three plays to open the game resulting in a Travis Lulay 7-yard touchdown run.

The Hornets responded with 21 unanswered points in the next quarter and a half as a Traison Lewis fumble return for a touchdown was sandwiched by the Leadingham-Amey connections. Before leaving the game with a shoulder injury, Lewis had that fumble recovery and returned and an interception that set up a Hornet scoring chance.

The game broke open at the start of the third quarter as Mole ripped off an 87 – yard touchdown run in the opening minutes of the quarter. After another Lulay touchdown run — his third of four touchdown runs — Mole finished off another Hornet drive abruptly with a 50-yard touchdown run to begin the fourth quarter.

Despite giving up 516 passing yards to Lulay and allowing three Bobcat receivers to gain at least 100 yards, the defense denied Montana State in the final 13:11 of the game to preserve the win.

Sac State sacked Lulay four times giving them 31 on the season which is a school record since moving to Division I-AA.

“MSU played hard out there and no quit was in them,” Mooshagian said. “We came in wanting to play together as a team and we did that. We are learning to play together and win for each other.”

Mooshagian said he had a good feeling going into Saturday night and made good on a guarantee he made Nov. 1 when he predicted his team would upset one of the three ranked opponents the Hornets would finish up the season against.

The Hornets next will travel to Missoula, Mont., and face one of the three teams tied atop the Big Sky conference standings. Montana, Eastern Washington and Montana State are all now tied with 4-1 conference records.

“One of the things we wanted to do was knock out a ranked opponent in a significant part of the season,” Mooshagian said. “Many teams in our position could’ve not showed up and not played like we did today, but we did.

“In these next two weeks we’ll see if we can do the same thing.”

The Hornets will have their work cut out for them as the Grizzlies are 5-0 at home this season. Sac State is 0-5 on the road so far this season. They will be trying to get the first road win in the Mooshagian era at Sac State.