Sacramento State’s defense needed a savior Saturday against Northern Arizona. The Hornets defense had been gashed by two 98 yard drives and was barely hanging onto a three-point lead in the final moments of the game.
On first-and-goal junior defensive lineman Brandon Knott stepped up to stop NAU’s junior running back Devon Starling. The next play, it was senior cornerback Caleb Nelson who blew up a Lumberjack screen pass for a loss of seven.
“We thought they would run directly at us so we brought some pressure inside and Knott made a nice stop,” Sac State head coach Andy Thompson said. “Then we kinda thought they would throw the ball to the perimeter and Nelson had a really nice play.”
But still, the Lumberjacks had hope. All they needed was a field goal to tie the game. Third-and-goal from the 12-yard line, freshman quarterback Adam Damante had time and wanted his senior tight end Marcus Phillips Jr.
Damante lofted the ball for the end zone and a sprinting junior safety by the name of Kameron Rocha went up and under cut the pass.
“When I went up for it, all I could think of was ‘Come down with it, all I have to do is come down with it’ and everybody knows I did,” Rocha said.
A game sealing interception for the backup free safety from San Jacinto, California.
“This guy, I’m really proud of him,” Thompson said. “He’s had a lot of adversity, he’s been through a lot of things and he’s sitting here right now. Pretty awesome to see someone come off the bench, hasn’t had the chance to play a ton and he was there for his teammates to make the play.”
This wasn’t a pretty win for Sac State, an intentional safety cut the final score to 31-30. NAU had control of the game throughout the entire third quarter and ran for a staggering 195 yards on the Hornet defense.
It wasn’t anything play call wise, the defense kept allowing chunk run after chunk run seemingly unable to stop whoever was carrying the ball. Tackling was an issue Thompson highlighted as one of the reasons for the defense’s struggles.
“They put us in some tough spots,” Thompson said. “On those long drives we couldn’t get stops.”
Offensively, the Hornets were hot and cold all night, but always made plays when they needed to. Sac State stuck with the ground game through the first half running the ball 30 times, but shifted to a more pass heavy approach in the second half only toting the ball 17 times.
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Despite being without senior running back Marcus Fulcher, Sac State ran for 161 yards on the night. Freshman running back Zeke Burnett made his debut and scored his first collegiate touchdown.
“Just block, block my ass off,” junior wide receiver Jared Gipson said about his role in the running game. “We have really good running backs and we have a great quarterback who can run. We gotta open up the lanes in the running game.”
A key part of the second half passing explosion was Gipson who had a career high 108 receiving yards and caught all five of his targets.
“It felt good, but felt way better to get the win,” Gipson said. “If we don’t get the win it doesn’t mean anything.”
Meanwhile, junior quarterback Kaiden Bennett bounced back this week completing 18 of his 27 pass attempts for 257 yards and a touchdown.
Bennett did reach into his bag tonight, converting two crucial fourth downs on the game winning drive. On that drive, Bennett sustained a shoulder injury and while he did return to the game to kneel out the clock, it’s unclear the status of Bennett’s throwing ability.
“Gipson had a great game and Bennett just continues to give everything he has,” Thompson said.
A large part of Sac State’s offensive struggles can be credited to NAU’s defensive line. The group sacked Bennett four times with each averaging an 11-yard loss.
An ugly win is still a win, and after last week’s loss to Idaho, Sac State needed a bounce back before their bye week next week.
“We have a lot of stuff we need to work on,” Gipson said. “It feels really good to bounce back and win, we needed that for real.”
The Hornets’ next game is on Oct. 14 at Northern Colorado at 12 p.m.
