MOSCOW — Zero points.

Sixteen total yards.

Two lost fumbles.

Nearly 300 yards allowed.

That was the Idaho Vandals’ first-half output in a 31-7 loss to the Sacramento State Hornets on senior day Saturday in Big Sky Conference football before 6,108 at the Kibbie Dome.

Idaho (4-7, 2-5 Big Sky) trailed 24-0 at halftime against Sacramento State (8-3, 6-1), ranked sixth in FCS by both the media and the coaches.

“I felt like the last two days we were ready to go. I thought we were going to play a lot better,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “The bottom line is, their defensive line whipped our offensive line. when you get whipped up front that bad, you’re going to struggle.”

Without injured star receiver Jeff Cotton, the Vandals finished with just 194 total yards, including 61 on the ground.

“Any time you don’t have Jeff it changes it a little bit,” Petrino said. “I thought Cuttrell (Haywood) competed his butt off, and D.J. (Lee) did a couple nice things. It’ll be nice to have Jeff back next week (for the Vandals’ season finale at Northern Arizona). It makes it a little bit different in the running game, too, because they have to be concerned about him.”

Haywood caught a 24-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter from Mason Petrino, who finished with 133 yards passing. Haywood had five catches for 36 yards.

Elijah Dotson ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns for Sacramento State, which moved into a three-way tie with Montana and Weber State atop the Big Sky standings with one game left in the regular season. Sacramento State beat the Grizzlies 49-22 on Oct. 19 and lost 36-17 to the Wildcats on Nov. 2.

Idaho entered the game 4-1 at home, its lone loss by six points to Weber State.

Caelan Barnes recovered a fumble forced by Marcus Bruce on the game’s second play from scrimmage and six plays later Kevin Thompson’s 4-yard touchdown run gave Sacramento State a 7-0 lead. Josiah Erickson recovered another Vandals fumble early in the second quarter at the 19 and, after the Hornets went three-and-out, Devon Medeiros made a 33-yard field goal but Idaho was called for roughing the kicker, giving Sacramento State a first-and-goal at the 6. Two plays later, Dotson scored on a 4-yard run. Medeiros kicked a 33-yarder midway through the period and BJ Perkinson’s 22-yard TD run with 54 seconds left in the half made it 24-0.

Sacramento State limited the Vandals to just eight first downs and had three sacks. The Hornets tied the program’s single-season record for conference wins and set its Division I mark for overall wins.

“We thought we were going to do a lot better job in those two-tight-end, two-back looks, and they just whupped us,” Petrino said.

Cade Coffey, a junior from Lakeland High, averaged 54.4 yards on eight punts for the Vandals, including a long of 73.

Players from Idaho’s 2009 Humanitarian Bowl champions were honored during the game, and Petrino spoke passionately of this year’s 11 seniors.

“They’ve given this school everything that they’ve got,” he said. “Sometimes you get mad at them because they don’t play as well as you like, but deep down you love ’em. I’m lucky I got to coach them.”

Sacramento St. 31, Idaho 7

Sacramento St. 7 17 0 7 — 31

Idaho 0 0 7 0 — 7

First Quarter

SAC—Thomson 4 run (Medeiros kick), 11:37.

Second Quarter

SAC—Dotson 4 run (Medeiros kick), 12:02.

SAC—FG Medeiros 33, 6:56.

SAC—Perkinson 22 run (Medeiros kick), 0:54.

Third Quarter

IDHO—Haywood 24 pass from Petrino (Coffey kick), 6:05.

Fourth Quarter

SAC—Dotson 5 run (Medeiros kick), 11:13.

SAC IDHO

First downs 24 8

Rushes-yards 50-222 31-61

Passing 187 133

Comp-Att-Int 17-37-1 15-24-0

Return Yards 21 61

Punts-Avg. 4-35.5 8-54.4

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 4-2

Penalty-Yards 3-25 4-42

Time of Possession 36:10 23:50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Sacramento St., E. Dotson 16-109, B. Perkinson 13-67, M. Fulcher 8-31, I. Gable 3-15, K. Thomson 8-3. Idaho, D. Thigpen 7-44, J. Bamis 4-34, A. Carter 7-14, N. Romano 2-3, L. Kendall 1-3, L. Hightower 1-(minus 7), M. Petrino 9-(minus 30).

PASSING—Sacramento St., K. Thomson 17-36-1-187, L. Triplett 0-1-0-0. Idaho, M. Petrino 15-24-0-133.

RECEIVING—Sacramento St., B. Perkinson 4-73, P. Williams 3-38, M. Martin 3-29, I. Gable 3-18, E. Dotson 2-12, T. McClinton 1-9, P. Clayton 1-8. Idaho, H. Hatten 1-37, C. Haywood 5-36, C. Whitney 5-32, D. Lee 2-21, L. Kendall 1-6, J. Boston 1-1.