Two straight wins ?” another first for Sacramento State football coach Steve Mooshagian.

After winning his first homecoming game and beating Big Sky foe Northern Arizona for the first time at home in school history last week, Mooshagian and his Hornets defeated Azusa Pacific 41-19 on Saturday night at Hornet Stadium.

“We’ve been taking those little obstacles out one at a time,” Mooshagian said. “We got this two in a row one out of there and now the next step is to win a Big Sky game on the road.

“Weber State will pose a great challenge for us next weekend.”

Sacramento State (2-4, 1-1 Big Sky) beat the 15th best NAIA program in the country by simply outscoring them, in the first half particularly. For the first time this season, the Hornets led at halftime, by a 27-12 margin. The 27 points, all scored in the second quarter, are the most points a Hornet team has scored in a quarter since the school moved to Division I-AA

Sophomore running back Ryan Mole was a big reason for the offensive outburst in the first half. The sophomore gained 189 of his season-high 204 yards in the half and added two touchdown runs.

“It was a lot of fun out there tonight,” Mole said. “The line has been blocking a lot better than earlier. It feels great to be able to get into the end zone a couple times tonight. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that.”

It was Mole’s second best game in his career at Sac State. He had 245 yards rushing and two scores in last year’s upset win over Montana State. It’s the only other game in his short career that Mole has gone over 200 yards and scored two touchdowns.

“Once he broke in the secondary, you saw how special a back like Moley is with the cuts and moves that he makes,” Hornets quarterback Chris Hurd said. “With Mole, you know how good he is.”

The offensive line that Mole credited was not only responsible for the 257 total rushing yards, but for giving Hurd time to throw and that he did.

Hurd threw for three touchdowns and 198 yards and was only sacked once by the Azusa defense. He spread the ball around to seven different receivers and got receivers Torrell Baker and Matt Yaklich both their first career touchdown catches.

“Once we all come together and play as we are capable of playing I don’t think there’s a team this conference that can keep up with us,” Hurd said. “We just have to come out and execute and tonight we did.”

Despite the big margin of victory, midway through the second quarter the game was still up for grabs. With the Hornets down three in the quarter, Mooshagian elected to go for a fourth down play at the Azusa three-yard line. On the play, Hurd connected with tight end Tommy Briggs for the score, putting Sac State up 13-10. On the ensuing point after try however, Juan Gamboa’s kick was blocked and returned for a two-point score for Azusa.

The Hornets would not allow another score until late in the fourth quarter, running off 21 unanswered points.

“We wanted to be aggressive and on that fourth down call, I felt we really needed to change the momentum of the game and with that score we did,” Mooshagian said.

Briggs’ touchdown gave the Hornets their first lead of the game.

Mooshagian said his team got the wake-up call they were looking for after Azusa stole the momentum right back with the block kick and return, which turned a four point deficit to one point.

“Our defense said enough is enough and we got the ball right back after that score and we close the half out great on offense,” Mooshagian said.

The Hornets travel to Ogden, Utah, to face Weber State (2-4, 1-2) next Saturday at 12:05 p.m. pacific time. The game can be heard on 1380 KTKZ and via simulcast on www.hornetsports.com.