A Causeway Classic: Record crowd sees Sac State beat rival UC Davis for Big Sky three-peat
Late Saturday afternoon inside Hornet Stadium, the cannon went off to punctuate a Sacramento State touchdown, puff of smoke and all.
The twisted irony is that the Hornets were once so bad in football that a blowout game at Nevada in the late 1970s included a cannon that flamed out. It ran out of gun powder. Too many touchdowns. Blown ear drums everywhere. True story.
As recently as 2018, Sacramento State limped home a badly beaten 2-8, winless in the Big Sky Conference. No cannon in sight. Four years later, it’s been a continuous boom-time good time for the Hornets with all the potential to keep it rolling.
In beating rival UC Davis 27-21 in a true Causeway Classic in front of a record home crowd of 23,073, the No. 2-ranked Hornets moved to a program-best 11-0, secured their third consecutive Big Sky championship and are primed to make a national championship run. That was a goal no one dared suggest before Troy Taylor and his staff assumed command after that lost 2018 campaign.
“To go 11-0, that’s not easy, but these guys continue to work, to stay focused,” Taylor said. “They don’t look in the rear-view mirror, don’t look too far ahead, and that’s easy to say, but not easy to do. What they’ve done since we’ve been here, especially this year, is really quite remarkable.”
Sacramento State on Sunday morning was awarded the No. 2 seed in the FCS playoffs. The Hornets could secure as many as three home playoff games, provided they win them. UCD, at 6-5, was not awarded its third FCS berth since 2018 despite its body of work that included a two-point loss to No. 1 South Dakota State and a 5-point setback to Weber State, which made the FCS tournament.
Asher O’Hara passed for a touchdown and ran for two, none more needed or more spectacular than his 8-yard up-and-over with a twist to push the Hornets ahead 24-13 with 8:57 left to play in the 69th meeting between the programs. UC Davis refused to fold, striking for a 75-yard touchdown from Miles Hastings to Josh Gale with 4:41 to go, a 13-second drive.
Kyle Sentowski’s 44-yard field goal for Sacramento State with 3:52 remaining accounted for the final score. The Hornets ate a lot of clock and UCD’s final hopes were dashed at the Hornets 28 as time ran out.
Fans flooded the field, something that’s never happened at Sacramento State until this season. The first time was a dramatic win over Montana on ESPNU. The Hornets, during this historically great campaign, have won in blowout fashion, including 41-10 at FBS member Colorado State, and with tight games down to the finish, a testament to the team’s experience, poise and resilience. The crowds have also jumped on board of late.
“Unbelievable crowd today,” Taylor said. “It’s what I imagine we could have here.”
For all the star power of the Hornets, including O’Hara, leading rusher Cameron Skattebo, poised quarterback Jake Dunniway and receivers Marshel Martin and Pierre Williams, a game ball goes to an unsung guy on special teams. That’s Cal McGough. Who? Cal McGough, the 6-foot-2 freshman punter from Geelong, Victoria, Australia, who learned to kick and punt in something called ProKick Australia.
On fourth-and-11, McGough was ready to punt with just under 10 minutes to play, saw a rush coming his way and then took off for a 20-yard gain that led to O’Hara’s last score.
“It was not a planned fake,” Taylor said with a laugh. “I wasn’t looking, and I turn and my Australian punter is running with the ball. When he first practiced fakes, he held the ball but didn’t have his hand over the point of the ball. He’s gotten better with that.”
Said Dunniway, “You see what he can do in practice and think, ‘That’d be cool’ if he did it in a game,’ and I look over and the dude is running for 30 yards. We really needed it.”
Sacramento State scored on its opening drive following a 2-yard flip pass from O’Hara to Marcus Fulcher. The Hornets led 17-3 on O’Hara’s 19-yard touchdown run. A touchdown run by UCD’s all-time career rushing leader, Ulonzo Gilliam Jr., and a 37-yard field goal by Isaiah Gomez pulled the Aggies to within 17-13 with 2:32 to go in the third.
Sacramento State’s defense under coordinator Andy Thompson was stretched at times by the Aggies, but the Hornets didn’t allow a team that came in with a five-game winning streak — with scoring outbursts of 56, 58, 59, 43 and 44 points — to get rolling. Armon Bailey, Cameron Broussard, Jeremy Harris, Marte Mapu and Ariel Ngata combined for 32 tackles, some of the jarring variety that sent mouth pieces flying.
“It’s a ruthless thing — fly to the ball,” is how Bailey described his game and that of his defense.
Said Dunniway of some of Bailey’s hits, “I was watching the video board and thought, “If someone hit me like that ... I don’t know what I’d do. We have Ash making highlights, guys on defense, it’s fun to watch.”
Dunniway has been on both sides of the Causeway. He was a freshman reserve quarterback at UC Davis and has soaked in his three Causeway victories with the Hornets. He raved about the crowd and a program that extended its Big Sky winning streak to 19 ganes. Sacramento State is 23-1 in the Big Sky since 2019.
“Awesome crowd,” Dunniway said. “It shows what we’re doing. We do play for our city. We pride ourselves in putting a good product on the field. It’s a great rivalry. A lot of respect for (UCD). You dream of being on the winning side.”
UCD coach Dan Hawkins said his team belongs in the 24-team FCS tournament and his bunch has played like a top-ranked club down the stretch. His team also played without all-time career rushing leader Ulonzo Gilliam, Jr. in the second half due to injury.
“I told our guys we’re a playoff team,” he said. “You never want to turn in gear. It’s a sad thing when you do.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2022 at 7:37 PM.