Big boy win as Idaho beats three-time conference champion Sac State

From local reports and news services

MOSCOW — For all the success and the feel-goodness the Idaho Vandals have had over the last season-plus, one thing was missing from the resumé.

A signature win.

That box was checked on Saturday afternoon when Idaho, ranked seventh in FCS, knocked off No. 4 Sacramento State 36-27 before 9,433 at the Kibbie Dome in the Big Sky Conference opener.

“Really good team win,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “I talked to our team all week, last week we had all the momentum early in the game, the momentum swung and they got the momentum and we didn’t do a very good job responding when the momentum went against us. To have a game like today, when the momentum swung back and forth, I was just really proud of our guys, that we kept responding. Because that’s a really good football team, and they’re not going to lay down just because you got a lead on them.”

Ricardo Chavez’s 30-yard field goal with 1 second left broke a 27-27 tie for Idaho (3-1). Then, when Sacramento State (3-1) tried the lateral thing on the ensuing kickoff, Ormanie Arnold scooped up the ball at the 6 and ran it in for the game’s final points.

Idaho led for most of the game, but could never put away Sac State, which had won or shared the last three Big Sky titles. The Hornets came in on a 19-game winning streak in conference games, and a 22-game win streak in regular season games.

“I was happy as we sat on the bus last week and saw they had beat Stanford,” Eck said. “Because it’s a challenge sometimes when you have a big win to get guys down to earth and get to work. They were the toast of FCS football last week.”

Idaho had the more-balanced offense in this one, outgaining Sac State 412-305.

Sophomore Anthony Woods, who didn’t practice until Friday because he was nicked up in the Cal game, ran for 117 yards on 24 carries.

“If you’d have asked me on Thursday if Woods is going to have 24 carries, I’d have said ‘no way, maybe 10,’” Eck said.

Gevani McCoy was 15 of 21 for 234 yards and two TDs, and Hayden Hatten had seven catches for 72 yards.

“I thought our O-line was frickin’ awesome this week,” Eck said. “We kicked their ass up front. We ran the ball, and ran it really well against them. That last series, they knew we were going to run it, and we ran it down their throat. Woodsie’s a warrior too, but I thought our O-line was awesome.”

Sac State, meanwhile, had just 69 yards rushing.

The Vandals pressured Sac State quarterback Kaiden Bennett, sacking him twice, and holding running back Marcus Fulcher to 44 yards on 10 carries.

“I thought our D-line was great,” Eck said. “Because it was really a reversal from last year. Last year they won the line of scrimmage in the game, and they ran for 200 yards in the first half. To hold them to 2 yards in the first half was quite the reversal.”

In the first matchup of top-10 FCS teams in the Kibbie Dome since 1994, the Vandals took nearly 8 minutes off the clock on the game’s opening drive, culminating with a 29-yard field goal by Chavez.

Sac State answered with a field goal.

McCoy lost a fumble at the Vandal 36, but the defense forced the Hornets to turn the ball over on downs.

McCoy shook off an uncalled helmet-to-helmet hit while scrambling on the next drive and directed the Vandals to a TD, Woods taking a direct snap and running it in from 2 yards out.

A roughing-the-punter penalty on Sac State kept the next Idaho drive alive, and Chavez booted a 50-yard field goal to make it 13-3 with 1:26 left in the half.

“I was unhappy, because I thought they were hitting him too late when he was sliding,” Eck said of McCoy.

But the Hornets responded with Kaiden Bennett’s 5-yard TD pass to tight end Austin Jarrard to cut Idaho’s lead to 13-10 at the half. Bennett’s 49-yard completion to Jared Gipson put the ball deep in Vandal territory. Then, after a play where Bennett was sacked on third down, Idaho’s Aamarii Notice was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Instead of trying a field goal, Sac State had first and goal, and scored on the next play.

“I was really disappointed by the touchdown they got at the end of the second quarter,” Eck said. “We didn’t have very good discipline on that drive.”

Following an exchange of touchdowns in the third quarter, Idaho went up 27-17 late in the third when Terez Traynor got behind the secondary and hauled in a 60-yard TD pass from McCoy. It was the first touchdown catch since the 2021 season for Traynor, who played just four games last season due to injuries, totaling five receptions. In ’21 he caught 50 passes, three for touchdowns.

“I think it was good for him last week, because ‘Vani found him on some slants, and that was good for him to get his confidence back,” Eck said. “I think it makes us tough to defend, because I think we’ve got three receivers that, if they were at other FCS teams, would be No. 1 guys. He’s a weapon, and I’m hoping we can get him to come back for one more year because he has another year of eligibility after this.”

Sac State answered with a field goal. Then, after Idaho star receiver Hayden Hatten lost a fumble at the Sac State 46, the Hornets tied it when Fulcher circled out of the backfield to the right and snagged an 11-yard TD pass from Bennett with 4:54 remaining.

The Hornets were flagged for a horse collar tackle on Jermaine Jackson’s kickoff return, and the Vandals started at the Sac State 49.

On first and 10 at the Sac State 37, Woods was seemingly bottled up in the backfield while heading right, but pivoted and raced left for 19 yards to the 18

With Sac State down to one timeout by then, Idaho was able to bleed the clock down to set up Chavez’s winning kick.

“I’m a big believer in analytics stuff, and giving yourself the best chance to win,” Eck said. “So we coached up our guys in that scenario. Really, if I was Sac State there, I would have let us score; I think that was the play there. Now we called timeout and went over that. We don’t want to score. If they let us score, we would have gone down at the 1, because we wanted to kick the field goal with no time left.”

Eck praised fans that were there at the Dome.

“I thought our student section was awesome today,” Eck said. “We need more other people here, though. I was disappointed we were under 10,000. But the students were awesome. We went to all the frat houses on campus; I guess we’ve got to go door-to-door and knock on people’s houses.”

Idaho plays at Eastern Washington on Saturday.

“I know historically Idaho hasn’t played well up there, and we have to go change that,” Eck said.

Sac State 3 7 7 10 — 27

Idaho 3 10 14 9 — 36

First quarter

Idaho — FG Chavez 29, 7:02

Sac St — FG Schreiner 36, 2:19

Second quarter

Idaho — Woods 2 run (Chavez kick), 7:19

Idaho — FG Chavez 50, 1:26

Sac St — Jarrard 5 pass from Bennett (Schreiner kick), :31

Third quarter

Idaho — Ivy 52 pass from McCoy (Chavez kick), 10:39

Sac St — Fulcher 2 run (Schreiner kick), 7:35

Idaho — Traynor 60 pass from McCoy (Chavez kick), :18

Fourth quarter

Sac St — FG Schreiner 44, 11:00

Sac St — Fulcher 11 pass from Bennett (Schreiner kick), 4:54

Idaho — FG Chavez 30, :01

Idaho — Arnold 6 fumble return, :00.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Sac St, Fulcher 10-44, Gandy 1-24, Moleni 3-9, Tau-Tolliver 2-3, Bennett 12-(minus 3). Idaho, Woods 24-117, McCoy 11-32, Romano 7-31.

PASSING — Sac St, Bennett 15-29-0-236. Idaho, McCoy 15-21-0-234.

RECEIVING — Sac St, Gandy 4-38, Gipson 3-91, Grover 2-41, Hill 2-36, Martin 2-14, Fulcher 1-11, Jarrard 1-5, Tau-Tolliver 1-0. Idaho, Hatten 7-72, Jackson 3-38, Ivy 2-52, Traynor 1-60, Dwyer 1-9, Woods 1-3.

A— 9,433