FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Sacramento State converted three first-half turnovers into touchdowns and scored on five consecutive possessions en route to a 40-10 victory over 25^th-ranked Northern Arizona Saturday at the Walkup Skydome.

"Everything that could go wrong, went wrong," said Head Coach Jerome Souers. "We credit our opponent. They capitalized on some early mistakes. The three turnovers early on gave them a strong lead and early momentum."

NAU (4-4, 2-3 Big Sky) fumbled on three early drives, including back-to-back offensive plays in the first quarter, giving the Hornets two short fields on the 23- and 27-yard lines, respectively.  Running back Bryan Hilliard punched it in on both drives from 1-yard out for a 14-0 lead.

The Hornets extended the lead to 21-0 after a, 8-play, 80-yard drive behind the play of quarterback Jeff Fleming, who went 6-for-7 for 83 yards on the drive. He finished 23-for-32 for 333 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception.

Overall, Sacramento State posted 488 yards yards of total offense, including 155 yards on the ground. NAU managed just 166 yards of offense in the game.

NAU started the game with junior quarterback Chasen Stangel, replacing senior Michael Herrick who had been sidelined with a lingering injury. After falling behind, the Lumberjacks went to Herrick midway into the second quarter, moving the ball on the first drive before being sidelined by three false starts and a fumble. The Hornets scored four plays later on a 39-yard pass from Fleming to Morris Norrise.

Herrick left the game in the third quarter, finishing 12-for-18 for 77 yards. Stangel completed the game for NAU, going 7-for-15 for 46 yards overall in his second career start.

Sacramento State scored four plays later to extend the lead to 28 points and a fifth score just before the half but had the extra-point blocked. The Hornets kicked a pair of field goals to push the lead to 40-0.

NAU got a late field goal by Matt Myers to prevent the shutout and Blayne Anderson recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter, running it back 65 yards for a touchdown for the Lumberjacks.

"It was a tough loss," said senior Matt Estrada. "We have a lot of seniors on this team and it depends on us how we want to finish out. I really have no doubt we are going to come out next week and strap it up and get ready to play Northern Colorado."

NAU travels to Northern Colorado next week to complete its road schedule before returning home for the final two home games of the regular season against Weber State and Portland State.

DID YOU KNOW…The Northern Arizona University athletics department ranked 78^th to place among the Top 100 in the final Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings. NAU ranked among the top 100 schools for the seventh time in the last eight seasons and 12^th overall in the last 14 years.