{"id":469837,"date":"2026-09-20T08:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469837\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T08:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:18:39","slug":"college-football-north-dakota-state-dominates-sac-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469837\/","title":{"rendered":"College football: North Dakota State dominates Sac State"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"North<\/p>\n

North Dakota State Bison wide receiver Jackson Williams (18) runs after making a catch against the Sacramento State Hornets in the first half Saturday in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS<\/p>\n

jvillegas@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

The Bison have been here before, thundering through California\u2019s capital with a runaway football team.<\/p>\n

This happened when North Dakota State was adding to its growing legacy, nearly 60 years ago, that included triumphant stops in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

The Bison won Camelia Bowl games at Sacramento City College\u2019s Hughes Stadium to cap the 1969 and 1970 seasons, stampeding past Montana both times. The 1969 Bison bunch went 10-0 and was named small-college national champion, and the \u201870 group went 9-0-1.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night at Hornet Stadium, the Bison defeated Sacramento State, 31-10, in a meeting of college football\u2019s two newest members to the NCAA Division I FBS ranks, the highest classification in the sport.<\/p>\n

A national ESPN audience and a crowd of 13,322 could see that the Bison were every bit as good as advertised in the first quarter alone, an FCS juggernaut that is 4-0 this season and poised to challenge for the Mountain West Conference. It was 21-0 after the first quarter and 28-0 in an instant after that, as North Dakota State continues to roll along on a wave of years of sustained momentum, including winning 10 FCS national championships in the previous 15 seasons.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento Sacramento State Hornets safety Boogsie Silvera (1) brings down North Dakota State Bison running back Chance Tucker (7) in the first half Saturday in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

North Dakota State went 9-5 against FBS teams during its dominating FCS run and went 198-22 overall from 2011 through 2025.<\/p>\n

Neither team scored in the third quarter, when much of the crowd hit the exits, and Sac State finally found the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Hornets scored their first touchdown since their 52-0 home-opening effort over Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 5, a 21-yard strike from Jackson Sharma to Onterrio Smith Jr., the former Folsom High School star who has had a strong junior season. Fresno State beat Sac State 49-3 last week.<\/p>\n

Sharman was gritty, taking hard hits but bouncing back each time. He passed for 238 yards. For the Bison, Nathan Hayes passed for 210 yards and a touchdown, and DJ Scott and Myles Mitchell each ran for scores.<\/p>\n

Sac State (1-3) remains a work in progress, but the growing pains include some welts and bruises to an already thin team that in the past two games has been without its preseason offensive leader in quarterback Carson Conklin and defensive leader in linebacker Derek Houston, both out with injuries.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento Sacramento State Hornets running back Isaiah Ene pushes past North Dakota State Bison safety Hudson Artz for extra yards in the first half on Saturday in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

The Hornets roster includes 73 new players from last season and a new head coach in Alonzo Carter, who knew this season would present a steep climb up in class. The Hornets anticipated competing one final season in the FCS this season, but a spring invite to the Mid-American Conference was welcomed news but with the underlined theme that this will take time. And in this sport, opponents don\u2019t allow for a grace period.<\/p>\n

The only other meeting between the Bison and Hornets was in 1988, in an NCAA Division II national semifinal, won by North Dakota State, 42-20. That was considered Sac State\u2019s finest team until the 2019, 2021 and 2022 Hornets teams won Big Sky Conference championships under coach Troy Taylor, a run of success that thrust the Hornets onto the FBS radar.<\/p>\n

Carter said he was impressed with his team\u2019s grit in the second half, saying \u201cit could have really gone sideways, really quick, but it didn\u2019t.\u201d He said his team has to play \u201cclean football\u201d and cannot afford turnovers, of which the Hornets had three on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a loss,\u201d Carter added. \u201cI never come in here and ask for a participation ribbon, a pat on the back, a high five. I\u2019m also a realist. We\u2019re in the process phase with our program. I was really impressed with how we played the second half, the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cAthletically, we can play with any team on our schedule. We don\u2019t have the depth to spot good teams like North Dakota State two or three touchdowns. We\u2019ll get this thing turned around. I\u2019m excited about what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"North North Dakota State Bison head coach Tim Polasek shakes hands with Sacramento State Hornets head coach Alonzo Carter following the game Saturday in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Added Sac State defensive back Amari Wallace: \u201cWe could have played better. We got stronger in the second half, and we didn\u2019t fall down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sac State on Sept. 25 plays Massachusetts (3-0) in the Hornets\u2019 first home MAC game.<\/p>\n

\"North North Dakota State Bison cornerback Chance Tucker breaks away from Sacramento State Hornets cornerback Dionte Thornton for a touchdown in the first half Saturday in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Davidson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Dakota State Bison wide receiver Jackson Williams (18) runs after making a catch against the Sacramento State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-469837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}