Who’s playing — Jekyl or Hyde?

Third straight road loss dims playoff hopes

NORTHRIDGE — The Big Sky Conference.

It’s a Division I-AA league that has several teams battling each week for the title but it’s also football’s version of the Bermuda Triangle, in which some teams enter each game as the favorite and never come back out.

The mysteries continued Saturday. Following its 44-14 dismantling of No. 20 Portland State last week, Sac State headed into the game against Cal State Northridge on a high, but left North Campus Stadium with not only a 36-14 loss but several unanswered questions.

The Hornet’s (4-3, 2-3) are now 0-3 in road games, their only losses of the season.

“We know what this game meant, we wanted to be 5-2 and back in the league chase,” head coach John Volek said. “We just didn’t mentally come out and hit it right away. If you got the answer, call me up and give it to me because I’m looking for it.”

Junior linebacker Anthony Daisley was also perplexed.

“It’s all mental for us,” he said. “We just need to come out and stop worrying about who is better and who is worse and just ball.”

Sac State started slow offensively by committing two turnovers on its first two drives. The second turnover, an interception thrown by junior quarterback Ricky Ray deep in Northridge territory, was run back 90 yards by cornerback Mel Miller to give the Matadors an early 10-0 lead.

“We made some early mistakes, we got behind a little and we never got into a rhythm at all,” Ray said. “I don’t know how many third down conversions we didn’t complete, probably not many at all. They just beat us mentally and physically and did a good job of stopping us today.”

Ray finished the game 18-for-36 with 276 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Volek said that his team made too many mistakes and did not take advantage of opportunities given them.

“We lost momentum in all phases — offense, defense and special teams,” he said. “We didn’t respond on turnovers, we gave up too many turnovers and we can’t do that because we are a team that plays off each other.”

Junior running back Charles Roberts finished with 167 yards on 25 carries while playing with bruised ribs and a nagging right big toe injury.

“They came out with a 50 defense and made a good game plan to stop our running game,” Roberts said. “When you stop the run you pretty much slow things down for the whole offense, passing game included. I think them scoring first really got us because we are used to scoring first.”

Northridge quarterback Marcus Brady had the Hornet defense on it’s heels with a no-huddle offense and spread formations allowing him to pick his spots. Brady finished 28-for-39 with 333 yards and two touchdowns.

Sac State senior strong safety Carlos Williams said the defense did not do its job to help win a big game for the Hornet program.

“Our job is to stop the pass and the run and get the ball back to our offense,” he said. “When we don’t do that we put the pressure on the offense no matter what they do. I think they were the better team today but for some reason we came out flat.”

Junior linebacker Anthony Daisley agreed.

“Our slow start put a lot of pressure on us because their offense had the momentum,” he said. “They did everything that we saw on film. They just dominated us.”

Even with the disappointing loss, Volek and his team are still optimistic about the playoffs this year.

“We’re still a team that can get in the playoff hunt,” he said. “8-3 is still a good record but we have got to win the two games at home and the two on the road.”

Roberts said the team still knows it can have a winning season.

“We are still going to go out and win these final four games because we still believe we can make the playoffs, he said. “We’re just going to have to go back and build on this.”