This Saturday against the Cal Poly Mustangs, Sacramento State will try to do something no Steve Mooshagian coached team has ever done, and that is win on the road. After losing to California Saturday, the Hornets are 0-12 on the road under Mooshagian.

The losing streak dates back to the 2002 season when the John Volek led Hornets won at Eastern Washington by a 48-41 score. The Hornets will be looking to break that streak and to redeem themselves for their performance in last season’s finale at Hornet Stadium.

In that game, Cal Poly throttled Sac State by a 58-13 score. The win gave Cal Poly a 9-2 record for the 2004 season as it just missed making the Division I-AA playoffs. The top-16 teams are chosen for the I-AA playoffs.

Mooshagian thinks last year’s defeat will not have any effect on this year’s contest.”Last year was a different year and now we have a different team with a different attitude,” Mooshagian said. “That game we played last year doesn’t even concern me. When we line up Saturday they’re going to be different and so will we. They were a great football team last year, but this is a new season. Anything can happen on any given Saturday.”

One thing Mooshagian and company can take into this weekend’s game is how well they played against the 19th ranked Golden Bears. The Hornets defense held Cal scoreless for a 24-minute span in the first half as the score was 10-3 in favor of Cal at halftime.

“We learned we can line up and play with a team like Cal,” Mooshagian said. “There were a lot of positives from that game and the negatives can be fixed. What we really need to learn how to do is finish ballgames.”

Despite the defeat against Cal, many players had confidence in their play that wasn’t apparent last season.

“This game is a real confidence booster for us,” cornerback Brandon Smith said. “We played them (Cal) well and right now we feel like we can play with anybody. We don’t have any fear in an opposing team. If we can correct our mental breakdowns we should be able to put together an entire game.”

Wide receiver Ryan Coogler said he saw negatives and positives with the team’s play. “The positives we can take into this week is we know we can go out there out there and play with anybody,” Coogler said. “A negative is we do need to learn how to finish games. We had a chance in this game and we just let it slip away.”

Said linebacker Tyson Butler: “We just want to keep getting better and set the tempo on the field. We are just going to take it one week a time and we are going to prepare for Cal Poly just like we did for Cal.”

Cal Poly also opened its season last Saturday, losing on the road to Troy 27-10. The Mustangs fell behind by a 17-0 score in the first quarter and couldn’t get any closer than seven points against Troy.

Mitch McLaughlin can be reached at [email protected].