For Sacramento State, the way its football team played for its homecoming game could not have gone any better.

For the first time since 2000, the Hornets won their annual Homecoming game, this time over Northern Arizona 38-24.

The win breaks the Hornets six game losing streak going back to the 2000 season (1-4 overall, 1-1 Big Sky) and it also leaves Sacramento in a five-way tie for second place in the conference.

“Great to get a win at the homecoming game and to finally beat NAU at home,” head coach Steve Mooshagian said. The Hornets had never beaten Northern Arizona at home before.

“I’m just glad it happened this week. It’s a great win for the program and much needed win. We moved on from the Causeway and now we are back in the race in the Big Sky.”

The Hornets played at a different level right from the start of this game.

On NAU’s first drive, linebacker Matt Logue intercepted quarterback Jason Murrietta and the short field led to a Juan Gamboa 36-yard field goal.

The Hornets captain made his second big play of the game when his fumble recovery inside the Sac State five stopped a potential score for NAU. Logue finished with those two takeaways as well as nine tackles.

“Great feeling to get this first W,” Logue said. “This is by far the best overall game that we’ve played. This game showed what type of character we have on this team and that we are not going to throw in the towel and give up this season.”

After trailing 10-3 at halftime, the Hornets turned the game in the first seven minutes of the 3rd quarter. Sac State used two more takeaways and turned them into 14 quick points after Chris Hurd threw touchdown passes to tight end Tommy Briggs and then wide receiver Ryan Coogler.

The Hornets then scored their third touchdown in three possessions when Ryan Mole took a Hurd pass and turned it into a 60-yard touchdown.

“I was most pleased with the way we came out at halftime,” Mooshagian said. “We dominated the third quarter and we were outscored 52-0 in the quarter coming into the game. We didn’t say anything about it. We just went out and did it.”

In his fifth game with Sacramento, Hurd finally played like a guy who has played at two Division I-A schools (Washington State and University of Texas at El Paso). He finished the day passing 12-for-21 for 247 yards and three touchdowns and also gained 54 yards rushing. His 39-yarder on the last play of the 3rd quarter set up his and the Hornets first rushing touchdown of the year on a 1-yard quarterback sneak.

The defense put the finishing touches on the game by getting their sixth takeaway and scored their first points of the season when safety Brent Webber returned an interception 32 yards for his second career touchdown.

The six takeaways by the defense and special teams are the most since their game at Weber State last season.

“Overall it was a great team win,” Hurd said. “We have to give credit to the defense and, finally, we as an offense finally had our breakout game. It was just waiting for us to explode.”

Along with Hurd, Ryan Mole was the big performer for the offense. He finished with 27 carries for 130 yards and 3 catches for 78 yards.

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Mitch McLaughlin can be reached at [email protected]