‘Proud’ Sacramento State upsets former coach Taylor Stanford

Stanford, California– Kayden Bennett He narrowly avoided a sack to throw a 49-yard touchdown pass with 1:32 to play and Sacramento State He beat former coach Troy Taylor Stanford a team 30-23 Saturday night for the Hornets’ third-ever win against a Pac-12 school.

“It’s great that we got this opportunity,” said first-year Hornets coach Andy Thompson, who was promoted from defensive coordinator after Taylor left to take the job at Stanford. “We got to come out here and I think we raised a little bit of money as well and got the win… They should be very proud of the way they played against a really good opponent.”

It took a big play late to get the win.

Bennett sent a short pass to Marcus Fulcher Just before his knee touched the ground, Fulcher did the rest from there to score for the Hornets (3-0) and spoil his former coach’s home debut at Stanford.

“He was doing what he was supposed to do on his end and was where he needed to be on that play,” Bennett said. “I looked up and saw him. He did a good job. … I knew as soon as he broke the first tackle, he was out. He’s got that juice.”

Taylor takes over for the Cardinals (1-2) after going 30-8 in four seasons and leading the Hornets to their first FCS quarterfinal berth in school history last season.

Many of his former players are still at Sacramento State, including Bennett, who threw for 279 yards, ran for 100 and caught a pass and ran for a TD.

“I have a lot of love and respect for Coach T,” Bennett said. “For what he’s been able to do for my career and so on. Just for me as a person, I give him a lot of love and respect for that.”

Sacramento State won its school-record 22nd straight regular season game over Taylor, sending Stanford to its second loss ever to a school at the FCS level. The Cardinal lost to UC Davis in 2005.

“They’re very familiar faces, good coaches and really good players,” Taylor said of his former team. “Once you start the game, you’re really competing.”

The Cardinals led 23-20 at the start of the fourth quarter when Joshua Carty He scored his third field goal of the game on an assist Colin Wrightobjection.

The Hornets answered with a 44-yard touchdown run Zack Schreiner To tie the game with 4:13 to play. They then forced a penalty kick to determine the winning outcome.

Stanford scored two TDs on its first two possessions to take a 14-3 lead and appeared in position to take control after recovering a surprise onside kick. The Cardinal drove into the red zone before Daniels threw a deflected pass Caleb Nelson It was intercepted in the end zone.

The Hornets then put together back-to-back long touchdown drives and took a 17-14 lead after Bennett’s one-yard keeper with 35 seconds left in the first half.

“Obviously we have a lot of improvements to make and we have a long year to do that,” Taylor said. “She got back to work and just kept building and keeping going.”