It has been a long road for Sacramento State’s junior quarterback Kaiden Bennett, but it seems he has found a home after leading Sac State to a 38-24 win against the Nicholls Colonels Thursday night.

The Hornets found themselves with their backs against the wall late in the third quarter. After junior transfer quarterback Carson Camp threw an interception and a long missed field goal, Nicholls looked to be in control of the game.

The Colonels struggled early with self-inflicted wounds killing them in the first half. Then, they firmly grabbed the momentum in the second half and the tides looked like they were about to turn against the Hornets.

On Sac State’s third drive of the third quarter they found themselves in a perilous third-and-9 situation. That’s when Bennett stood tall and threw a bomb to senior wideout Carlos Hill for 44 yards.

Just two plays later Bennett got a block from junior running back Marcus Fulcher and went deep again, this time to junior wideout Jared Gipson who made a miraculous toe-tapping touchdown grab.

“We practiced that for sure,” Bennett said. “Those are things we’ve seen before, situations we’ve practiced. Third-and-9 we needed a first down… then go score.”

From there, Bennett grabbed control of the game. To open the next drive he launched the ball and found sophomore wide receiver Devin Gandy for 47 yards. That set up a walk-in running touchdown by Bennett to put the game back in the hands of the Hornets.

“We got some guys back there who can sling the ball,” junior offensive lineman Jackson Slater said. “I’m just thinking I have to do my job and let the guys back there take care of the rest.”

The highlight plays from Bennett ignited a 21-point run that deflated the Colonels and allowed Sac State to sneak out of the bayou with a season-opening win.

“You can see how explosive we can be at times,” Sac State head coach Andy Thompson said. “I thought on both sides of the ball we had some explosive plays that were good.”

On the defensive side of the ball, there were two standouts, sophomore defensive end DeShawn Lynch and senior cornerback Dillon Juniel.

RELATED: PREVIEW: Sac State looks to answer questions down south

Lynch finished the game with four tackles, two of those being sacks that contained the Colonels in the first half. Juniel had six tackles and one pass breakup but was very close to having two interceptions.

“The guys did their thing,” Bennett said. “From there, we did what we needed to do and got the dub.”

Sac State’s secondary did get caught with their hand in the cookie jar a few times, and got called for defensive pass interference three times. The Hornets were also called for four false starts on offense.

“There’s things we can take from this game that we can build on,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to get cleaned up and we have to get cleaned up quickly.”

A bright spot to build on was the Hornets’ rushing game. Fulcher scored himself a pair of touchdowns early while junior running back Ezra Moleni and sophomore running back Elijah Tau-Tolliver made strong contributions when it counted.

While the Hornets won, they lost a key piece in senior tight end Marshel Martin IV, who went down on the first drive of the game and did not return. It remains unclear how long Martin will be out, but it was clear the offense missed his presence.

From here, Sac State has their home opener against another Southland conference team the Texas A&M Commerce Lions on Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.