After a great defensive effort by the Hornets at homecoming, the team came up short, losing 17-3. The Hornets now face a Montana State team that is currently ranked No. 12 in Division 1-AA rankings.

“We’re not in this to come close, we’re in this to win,” coach Marshall Sperbeck said. “We have to do a better job closing things out, and part of that is on me.”

The Hornets did well against a Montana team that was expected to win big.

“We’re out there busting our humps, we are in a lot of these games,” senior defensive lineman James Henderson said. “People that did come to the game know that we dominated their offensive line, and can see that we’re really not that bad.”

Sac State drew the largest crowd in Hornet Stadium for some time at just over 10,000.

Montana State is currently 4-2 and comes off a 35-13 road loss to Eastern Washington. The Bobcats only managed 22 rushing yards and gave up 475 total yards to the high-octane Eagles who are also 4-2.

“In the last game, I made some calls I think our offense wasn’t quite ready for yet,” Sperbeck said. “We could easily be 4-2 right now, or 3-3. Some things just haven’t gone our way. Eventually that luck will turn for us.”

Montana State runs a lot of one runningback spread offense and throws the ball between 30 and 35 times a game. That passing attack is led by Bobcat quarterback Jack Rolovich, who averages just over 200 yards passing per game.

“We’ve got to bring our A game against Montana State,” Henderson said. “We travel well as a team. We can’t let the weather conditions up there affect us.”

The Hornets are looking to pick up the second Big Sky win of the season and pull to 2-3 in the conference.

“We just have to play like we did last week,” defensive lineman Bill Sherman said. “I think the defense got some respect.”

Gametime is at 12:05 p.m. on Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.

Galen Kusic can be reached at [email protected]