Sacramento State’s up-and-down season took a knockout-esque blow in a home loss to the Portland State Vikings on Saturday.
The Hornets were outscored 41-17 in the second half, allowing the Vikings to score a touchdown on six straight drives, resulting in a 58-38 defeat.
The plan to contain a one-win Portland State team was simple, limit senior quarterback Dante Charchere’s ability to hurt them with his legs. From the beginning of the game it was evident that wasn’t going to be the case.
Charchere, who is Portland State’s leading rusher, ended the night with a career-high 4 rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown, racking up five of the Vikings’ 8 touchdowns in their first win over Sac State since 2018.
Charchere’s longest play of the night was a 54-yard scamper right through the teeth of Sac State’s defense towards the end of the third quarter to give Portland State its first two-score lead of the game. He ended the game with 165 rushing yards and 245 passing yards.
“We knew he was slippery, and we knew what he wanted to do with the football,” senior defensive lineman Mason Brosseau said. “We take it personal, especially when you let a quarterback run all over you like that.”
The Hornets’ inability to stop the run has proved to be their achilles heel in a handful of games this season. Looking back at their loss to Eastern Washington, Sac State gave up 300 rushing yards with over half coming from the quarterback position, similar to what plagued them tonight.
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Sac State’s offense provided a solid foundation for a win, with another high-level performance from redshirt freshman quarterback Carson Conklin.
Conklin had a great game, completing 31 of 38 passes and racking up 314 yards through the air and tossed 4 touchdowns. His lone costly mistake came in the fourth quarter with his sixth interception of the year.
“A loss is a loss, no matter what, they all hurt the same,” Conklin said. “We have stuff to improve on our side of the ball.”
Senior wide receiver Anderson Grover caught a game-high 8 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown. Senior wideout Jared Gipson became the sixth Hornet receiver in program history to eclipse 2,000 receiving yards in his career. He ended the night with 6 catches for 49 yards and 2 touchdowns.
A lingering storyline for the Hornets this season was the amount of injuries they have endured. Their projected starting lineup had missed a total of 45 games leading up to this game.
“I hurt for those guys that are injured,” Sac State head coach Andy Thompson said. “You just gotta get up and keep going.”
Junior running back Elijah Tau-Tolliver, the Hornets’ leading rusher, didn’t play tonight due to an injury, according to Sac State Athletics. Redshirt freshman running back Curron Borders and senior running back Ezra Moleni stepped in and rushed for 68 yards combined.
Sac State was finally able to put together a respectable second-half output from an offensive standpoint, which was something they’ve struggled with in conference play, but the defense couldn’t hold. Portland State had 347 of its 544 total yards in the second half.
“It seems like one part of the team has struggled at different times in the year,” Thompson said. “We haven’t been able to get a team win in a long time, so that’s what we’re aiming for.”
This loss embodies a season of disappointment, and a bag full of questions going forward for Sac State. The Hornets had playoff hopes, were ranked high coming into the year and now find themselves with just one conference win going into the final stretch of the season.
This team has had success in recent years, bringing home Big Sky titles in 2019, 2021 and 2022. Now that success seems like a distant memory given how this season has played out.
Sac State drops to 1-4 in Big Sky play with this loss, and 3-6 overall. The Hornets will take on the No. 2 FCS, Montana State next week on the road on Nov. 9, 2024 at 12 p.m
“Have to get up and keep fighting and try to improve early tomorrow,” Thompson said. “Look at all the facets and we’ll attack it the same way we have all season.”
