Sacramento State football lost its home opener Saturday night to the Eastern Washington Eagles 56-30.

The loss leaves the hornet 0-3 on the season, and 0-1 in conference play.

Eastern Washington began its offensive dominance of the Hornets on the first drive of the game, marching the ball 88 yards down field in 10 plays for a touchdown by running back Taiwan Jones.

By the end of the first half, the Eagles held a 35-9 lead over Sac State.

The Hornets opened up the second half with a 14-play drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown by freshman running back Sam McCowan, but were never able to catch Eastern Washington.

Sac State head coach Marshall Sperbeck believed that his team definitely didn’t play well against the Eagles. Though he was happy with the performance in the third quarter, overall he realized that there is still much work to be done.

“We were basically getting our butts kicked out there,” Sperbeck said. “In the third quarter I was able to tell them that I was proud of their fight and that they were hanging in there, but the bottom line is we have to get better. We can point blame all we want, but we have to get better as a team, as players and as coaches.”

McCowan agreed with Sperbeck in the idea of getting better. He believed that his team could have beaten the Eagles, if they were better prepared.

“I think there’s room for us to get better as a team. I, personally, can get better in every way – by knowing my assignments and working hard on the field to make things happen. They didn’t beat us tonight, we beat ourselves. We must become a consistent team,” McCowan said.