.JPG "A Sacramento State football helmet, featuring tribal designs to acknowledge Native American history and culture, is displayed at press conference at Sky River Casino in Elk Grove on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. The Wilton Rancheria tribe, which owns the casino, and the university announced multiyear partnership at the event.")
A Sacramento State football helmet, featuring tribal designs to acknowledge Native American history and culture, is displayed at press conference at Sky River Casino in Elk Grove on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. The Wilton Rancheria tribe, which owns the casino, and the university announced multiyear partnership at the event.
PAUL KITAGAKI JR.
Sacramento Bee file
The Sacramento State Hornets showed glimpses of promise on Saturday night in their Mid-American Conference debut, at times looking like they belong in the upper-division NCAA Division I FBS, though it was equally clear that there’s some work to do for first-year coach Alonzo Carter and company.
The effort was there even if the desired results were not. The Hornets trailed at Eastern Michigan 21-3, and made a game of it before falling 28-17 at Rynearson Stadium to a program in its 135th year of college football and 51st season in the MAC, a conference heavy on Ohio and Michigan teams with Sac State representing the conference’s first reach into California.
Sacramento State scored its first touchdown on defense as a full-fledged FBS member after 34 seasons as an FCS member, including the previous 29 in the Big Sky Conference.
Xavier Williams returned a fumble 10 yards off a Fata Puloka sack to pull Sac State to within 21-10 in the third quarter. A junior, Puloka was two-time Sacramento Bee All-Metro player for Monterey Trail High School in Elk Grove.
True freshman Isaiah Ene of Granite Bay High in Placer County scored Sac State’s other touchdown, a 1-yard run with 8:23 remaining, making history in that regard, but the Hornets would inch no closer. Ene set scores of Granite Bay records as a four-year varsity starter and a multi-time Sacramento Bee All-Metro performer. He impressed in fall camp and rushed for 44 yards Saturday in three carries with a long of 37 yards.
The Granite Grizzlies’ Isaiah Ene runs in for the first Grizzlies touchdown in the first half against the St. Mary’s Rams in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section football Division ll championship on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS Sacramento Bee file
Carson Conklin passed for 221 yards in his return as Sac State’s starting quarterback. He was an FCS Freshman All-American for the Hornets in 2024 before transferring to Fresno State after a change of head coaches at Sac State.
Boogsie Silvera led Sac State with 13 tackles. Noah Kim, the leading passer among returners in the MAC for 2026, passed for 279 yards and two touchdowns for Eastern Michigan.
Sac State on Sept. 5 will host Mississippi Valley State at Hornet Stadium.
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Joe Davidson has covered sports for The Sacramento Bee since 1989: preps, colleges, Kings and features. He was in early 2024 named the National Sports Media Association Sports Writer of the Year for California and he was in the fall of 2024 inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame. He is a 14-time award winner from the California Prep Sports Writer Association. In 2021, he was honored with the CIF Distinguished Service award. He is a member of the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Davidson participated in football and track in Oregon.