Sacramento State football fans had little to cheer about on homecoming night at Hornet Field as North Dakota ran all over the home team on Saturday for a 40-7 victory.
North Dakota (4-2, 3-0 Big Sky) rushed for a combined 422 yards and five touchdowns on the ground — the fifth of which sent hundreds of fans to the exits in the third quarter — while the Hornets (1-5, 1-2 Big Sky) allowed 380-plus rushing yards to an opposing offense for the second straight week.
“We didn’t play physical enough — too many missed tackles,” Sac State head coach Jody Sears said after his teams’ loss to the 24th-ranked team in the Football Championship Subdivision. “We’ve got to do a better job of making sure our kids are in position to make plays. You’ve got to tip your hat to North Dakota that they did a nice job upfront on both sides of the ball and that was the difference in the game.”
UND jumped out to a 34-0 lead after 35 minutes of physical play that saw sophomore running backs Brady Oliveira (111 yards,) John Santiago (76 yards) and freshman Austin Gordon (102 yards) combine for 289 rushing yards and three touchdowns on only 37 carries.
“It all starts up front,” North Dakota head coach Kyle Schweigert said. “Our guys have really come together and getting a man on man where (we’ve) got some players that can move some people.”
The Sac State defense, which allowed 37 points or more for the fourth time this season, failed to contain UND quarterback Keaton Studsrud as the junior threw for 203 yards, ran for 100 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
“Preparation is the biggest thing coming into a game — just kind of knowing what to expect, where the ball needs to go, but I thought I did a good job reading some coverages,” Studsrud said. “I missed a few throws that I wish I could have back, but preparation is huge. That’s what wins you ball games.”
Coming into Saturday’s homecoming game, Sac State had won its first game of the season thanks to sophomore quarterback Nate Ketteringham, who threw for over 300 yards in his second straight week and tied a career-high in touchdowns with four. But against the UND defense, Ketteringham only mustered 15 completions on 34 passes with 177 yards and one interception.
“He can throw and he hurt us with his legs tonight on a couple scrambles; but (we) were able to sack him and hit him and it gets a little bit tougher on a guy when you knock him around a little bit, but we have a lot of respect for him and he’s a really good football player,” Schweigert said after his defense sacked Ketteringham three times.
Sac State eventually answered with a 14-yard rushing touchdown from senior running back Jordan Robinson, but North Dakota continued to win the time of possession (36:20 to 23:40) and added two Reid Taubenheim 20-plus-yard field goals to end the game.
The Hornets now look to rebound on the road against Big Sky conference opponent Montana on Oct. 15 at Washington–Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Montana.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The Good:
Ketteringham passed Joe Garofalo for 13th place in school history with 2,742 career passing yards. Ketteringham only needs 399 more passing yards to surpass Mike Lippi (3,140) for 12th place in Sac State history.
Ketteringham also ranks 12th in Hornet history with 247 completed passes after beating Jeff Fleming’s 243 with 15 completions on Saturday. If Ketteringham passes for 33 completions next week, he’ll be ranked eighth past Greg Knapp (1982-85) who now works as the quarterbacks coach with the Denver Broncos.
Robinson ranks 11th in Sac State history with 102 career receptions after catching six balls in the loss against UND to pass Michael Johnson (99) on homecoming night. Two more catches for Robinson will place him at No. 10 (103) past Gary Austin, Jr.
The Bad:
Sac State’s 177 passing yards on Saturday is the worst team total since Sept. 17 when the Hornets only threw for 125 yards in a 14-7 loss against Weber State.
The Hornets’ ground game accumulated the lowest amount of yards of the season with only 95 rushing yards on 30 carries.
Third-down efficiency was nearly non-existent as Sac State converted on only three of 15 (20 percent) opportunities.
The Ugly:
Sac State senior and starting receiver Cody Demps missed his third straight game due to a ruptured spleen.
The Hornets turned the ball over two times — one interception and one lost fumble — while committing six penalties for a loss of 73 total yards.
Ketteringham was sacked three times for a total of 15 lost yards and forced to dance around in the pocket multiple times due to the constant North Dakota pass rush.
Sac State’s homecoming is over and the team will hit the road for three of the last five games of the season, starting with Montana (4-1, 1-1 Big Sky) and Northern Colorado (3-2, 1-1 Big Sky) before returning home on Oct. 29 to host run heavy Cal Poly (3-2, 1-1 Big Sky) at Hornet Stadium.
LAST WORDS
“You don’t worry about the record, you don’t worry about who’s on the schedule, you worry about your own home, you worry about making corrections and getting right,” Sears said. “You can’t worry about the uncontrollables, you control your fundamentals and you control gap integrity, pass pro, catching the ball, trusting your training and get better. That’s it.”
