The Sacramento State football team had all facets of its game working Saturday against the University of Northern Colorado as the Hornets defeated the visiting Bears 42-7.

The homecoming win for the Hornets serves as the team’s third win of the season and improves Sac State’s record to 3-3 overall and 2-2 in Big Sky Conference play. For Northern Colorado, the loss serves as its fourth of the season as the Bears’ record now stands at 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big Sky.

It was a slow-moving first half as fans were treated to an early 14-0 lead by the Hornets. Sac State dominated the first quarter, scoring twice on a 1-yard run by running back Bryan Hilliard and a 1-yard play-action pass to running back Stephen Tezanos-Pinto from quarterback Jeff Fleming.

The Bears would not make a move until 27 seconds left in the second quarter as wide receiver Patrick Walker scored on a 9-yard pass from Northern Colorado quarterback Matt Baca.

That would be all the offensive output by the Bears for the rest of game as the Hornet special teams and defensive units controlled Northern Colorado. Sac State blocked a punt for a 3-yard score and forced a fumble by Baca for a 5-yard recovery for the team’s fourth touchdown of the game.

The Hornets led 28-7 at the end of the third quarter. It took justsix minutes into the fourth quarter for Sac State to tack on another touchdown to bring the score to 35-7.Two minutes later, the Hornets would get the ball back from a stymied Bears offense and score on an 80-yard pass from Fleming to Morris Norrise on a play that took all of 12 seconds. That brought the score to 42-7 and that is how it would end before a crowd of 9,011.

Fleming threw for 184 yards and two touchdowns, while completing 13 of 20 passes with one interception.

Fleming said the win for the team was huge coming off two tough loses to the University of Montana and to Montana State University.

“It feels really good. We needed a boost to our confidence and who we are as a team,” Fleming said. “To be so close and come up short twice like that, it really felt good to be on the receiving end of the win today.”

The defense registered five sacks for a net loss of 35 yards, three of which came from defensive end Zack Nash.

Nash said the defense was aligned for superior efficiency early on in the game.

“It was the coach’s calls. The coaches set us up for maximum potential,” Nash said.

Head coach Marshall Sperbeck said he believed the team’s effort outweighed any miscues they may have had.

“There are a few things we need to clean up, like with every week,” Sperbeck said. “Outside a few mistakes here and there, I thought we played pretty well.”

Sac State will have a bye week before taking on Eastern Washington University on Oct. 23 in Cheney, Wash.

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]