Junior Kenan Smith celebrates after his second-half touchdown.

The victory improved the Gaels to 1-1 overall. The Hornets dropped to 0-2. The loss also snapped Sacramento State’s four-game win streak over Saint Mary’s and extended the team’s losing streak to 10 games dating back to last season.

The Hornets struck first when Ryan Leadingham found Fred Amey in the end zone on a 5-yard pass. On the play, Leadingham rolled to his right, eluded two defenders before throwing against his body to Amey. The score, however, remained 6-0 after Bret LeVier missed the extra point.

The Gaels cut their deficit in half with 2:31 left in the first half on a 26-yard field goal from Ezequiel Arevalo. Sacramento State was forced to punt on its next possession and appeared to have recovered a fumble with under a minute to play in the half. However, a personal foul was called on the play, negating the fumble and giving Saint Mary’s an automatic first down. Two plays later, Johnston tossed a lateral to Nate Brown who then threw 21-yards to Jeff Brown for a touchdown.

The Gaels extended their lead with 6:44 left in the third quarter on a 19-yard dash by Johnston to make the score, 17-6.

The Hornets rallied at the start of the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to five (17-12) on a 20-yard pass from Leadingham to Kenan Smith. The touchdown, which was just the second of Smith’s career, was created after Smith cut the ball on the five and fought his way into the right corner of the end zone. The team attempted a two-point conversions but the pass was deflected.

With just under four minutes to play, Saint Mary’s was faced with third-and-13. Johnston was pressured by the Sacramento State defense and lofted the ball towards the middle of the field where it was caught by Nate Brown for a 23-yard gain and a first down. SMC proceeded to move the ball downfield and settled for an 18-yard field goal by Arevalo with 26 seconds remaining.

Sacramento State’s final drive ended on a desperation pass which was knocked down as time expired.

As a team, Saint Mary’s tallied 283 rushing yards on 60 attempts. The Gaels threw just 10 passes, completing five, for a total of 78 yards.

The Sacramento State offense was paced by Leadingham who was 21-for-32 with a pair of Tds. Sophomore Fred Amey grabbed six passes for 55 yards while senior Michael Johnson and Gary Austin each caught four.

Junior Ryan Kroeker, who was starting in place of Park McAllister, led the Hornets with 13 tackles (nine solo, four assists). Sophomore Ramon Payne added 12 (nine solo, three assists) including a sack.

Sacramento State will have a bye this week before hosting Cal Poly in the season opener on Sept. 21.

NOTES: Gary Austin has now caught a pass in 25-consecutive games…Fred Amey has caught a pass in every game of his career (13)…Sacramento State was penalized seven times for 69 yards…Garrett White ended the day with 90 yards of total offense (62 rushing, 28 receiving).

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