The Sacramento State football team played Eastern Washington University at Hornet Stadium on Saturday in front of 10,705 enthusiastic fans and alumni in the annual homecoming game.

Tailgaters from all over swarmed the parking lots in front of Hornet Stadium, and senior criminal justice major Jeremy Gagnebin was excited to be part of the homecoming festivities.

“This is probably the most people I have ever seen here in my entire life,” Gagnebin said. “People have been here since 11 o’clock (a.m.) enjoying homecoming. It’s all about beers, burgers and bratwurst.”

The tailgate officially began at 3 p.m. and everyone had their own tents and campers set up all over the parking lot. The tables and chairs were folded out and the grills were lit up. Within minutes, parking spaces were turned into party spaces.

Each aisle of the parking lot featured different groups of people from parents, to alumni, to students, to fans.

The festival, which was put on by the Sacramento State Alumni Association, featured many fun activities such as the bounce house, Herky photo booth and live music by the band Retroactive.

There was also face painting, a U.S. Army climbing wall, a Marine pull-up competition and the “minute to win it” competition.

Junior psychology major Colton Bryan was one of the winners of the “minute to win it” competition.

“I had to stack five Oreos on my head, suck up a bunch of M&M’s and put them in a bowl, pick up a bunch of tissues and bob my head a bunch of times and get a really big headache,” Bryan said. “It was worth it even though it hurt and the $50 prize to the bookstore helps with school funds.”

Moving away from the game section of the parking lot, the center aisle of tailgaters featured family and friends supporting each player with a banner of them above their tents.

Senior running back Jake Croxdale’s family was there to support him like they do every week.

Croxdale’s aunt Jean Croxdale was happy to come cheer on her nephew and all the Hornets.

“We’re fans. We come up for every home game,” Jean Croxdale said. “We even went up to Oregon for the Oregon State game. It was wild.”

Debbie Pfaff, mother of senior offensive linemen Dustin Pfaff, made one of the more interesting creations of the day.

She made Jell-O shots inside of big plastic fake syringes. Inside the syringes were Jell-O, lemon-flavored vodka and lime-flavored vodka.

“They took two days to make,” Debbie Pfaff said. “I made 150 and there are about 20 left (30 minutes into the tailgating). They are a big hit.”

At around 4 p.m., one of the most exciting scenes of the day was the game day tradition Hornet walk. The walk is when the Hornet football team walks through the tailgating scene to the stadium.

The walk was led by a rather exuberant police officer, who cleared the way for everyone. Following him was the Sacramento State cheer team, dance team and band, which pumped up the crowd. The football team then walked through focused and serious and the surrounding crowd was cheering from start to finish.

The walk gives fans a chance to show the players and coaches how much they really care and sophomore wide receiver Morris Norrise noticed.

“It was great,” Norrise said. “I felt that was the biggest tailgate since I’ve been at Sac State.”

A few players talked about what it means to them to play in front of Sac State alumni.

Senior running back Bryan Hilliard was excited to play for everyone supporting the Hornets on homecoming.

“Who wouldn’t want to play in this game?” Hilliard said. “It’s exciting playing in front of former Hornets and family. Some probably traveled from far away and to give them that one game they can watch, we try to put a show on for them.”

Junior offensive linemen Clay DePauw said it is nice to be able to play in front everyone who came to watch.

“This game gives us a chance to show the alumni and families what we have been doing this year,” DePauw said. “We can show everyone where we are at as a team.”

At around 6 p.m., kickoff approached and the Hornets were ready to go.

Senior quarterback Jeff Fleming was inactive for the game with a calf injury and head coach Marshall Sperbeck turned to the quarterback duo of sophomore Tommy Edwards and freshman Garrett Safron.

The game started out as a back and forth scoring contest and was 14-13 at halftime.

Coming out of the half, the Hornets looked like a whole new team on defense after intercepting senior quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell and shutting out Eastern Washington University in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Hornets were up 28-13 and were looking like a lock to win but collapsed and let the Eagles come back in the game and force overtime 35-35.

The Eagles had the ball first in overtime and scored and went up 42-35. The Hornets had a quick play to get inside the 10-yard line but faltered after four downs and lost the homecoming game.

Even though the Hornets lost, Sperbeck was happy with how both Edwards and Safron played in their first game.

“I thought both kids played very well,” Sperbeck said. “Any time you go into a game with two new quarterbacks and neither one has a turnover, that’s a positive.”

Despite the loss, the turnout was great for homecoming this year. Fans had a great time tailgating and supporting the football team.

Junior child development major Katie Guinan enjoyed her first experience of homecoming and tailgating and can’t wait for next year.

“I thought it was an amazing experience because I didn’t realize how much unity there is amongst the students or how big tailgating is at Sac State,” Guinan said. “I like football games where the score is close until the last minute so even though they lost, it was still exciting and I would definitely go again next year.”

 

Josh Stanley can be reached at [email protected].