In week one it was the leg of Michael Turk that stole the show in an Opening Day victory over Kent State.

Week two featured the leg of sophomore field goal kicker Cristian Zendejas as the star as he drilled four field goals in route to a 19-7 victory for ASU over the Sacramento State Hornets.

The Sun Devils offense struggled for the majority of the night picking up only 15 first downs on the night compared to the Hornets 16. This led to the pair of Turk and Zendejas being key players in the matchup as Turk had five punts on the night including three in the first quarter alone.

“We’re not sustaining any drives,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards admitted. “We have a lot of three-and-out’s and we’re punting the ball. Our kicking game really saved us again. The punter is creating long fields for those guys and then the field goal kicker came in and kicked them all through. That was basically the game.”

Arizona State struggled from the beginning as their first five drives featured four punts and a fumble at Sacramento State’s half-yard line. The fumble came on a rush from A.J. Carter who lost the ball before crossing the plane leading to a recovery by the Hornets.

Carter’s fumble negated a golden scoring opportunity for the Sun Devils that came following a 38-yard punt return by Brandon Aiyuk to set up his team inside the 10-yard line.

The lack of scoring from the offense shifted the attention to the defense who was able to keep Sacramento State off the scoreboard for most of the game, just one week after the Hornets put up 77 points against Southern Oregon.

“We really kept them out of the end zone and held them to seven points,” Edwards stated. “This is a team that scored 77 last week. You hold someone to seven points, and you feel like you should win a football game. That was the case here.”

Despite the somewhat positive outlook from Edwards on the defensive performance, defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales was much less impressed with the effort by his unit.

The defense allowed a total of 131 yards in the first half, compared to ASU’s 78, and doubled the number of first downs picked up by ASU with a mark of eight in the first half.

“We shouldn’t have given up 305 yards,” Danny Gonzales said. “You get a bad taste in your mouth. I’ll tell you what, they’re going to be pretty good in the Big Sky.”

The struggles by the defense were minuscule compared to those experienced by the offense throughout the contest.

ASU offensive struggles were magnified inside the red zone as they were unable to score a touchdown from inside the 20-yard line the entire game.

Even the first points on the night came following a missed opportunity for the Sun Devils as a snap went sailing over the head of Ethan Long in the Sparky Formation for a loss of 13 yards on a vital third-down.

The loss set up the first points on the game in way of a 36-yard field goal from Zendejas to put his team up 3-0, a score that remained going into halftime.

ASU continued the trend of missed opportunities on the following drive. After a scamper for 33-yards on a fourth and run by Eno Benjamin on a fourth down and one, the offense was unable to convert for a touchdown.

Following the conversion to the Hornet’s six-yard line, quarterback Jayden Daniels and the offense were unable to put a touchdown on the board.

The drive led to the second field goal on the night in as many drives but provided a glimpse at an offense that is still finding its identity only two games into the season.

“One of the things we have to do is find out what this team can do good,” offensive coordinator Rob Likens admitted. “Our offense isn’t last year’s offense. We can’t say going into a game we’ll be able to do this. We’re finding out there are some things we can’t do. We’re finding those out and now we have to adjust as coaches and players.”

The lack of identity was evident on ASU’s following drive as Daniels found receiver Frank Darby for what appeared to be a 68-yard touchdown.

Shortly after Darby ran into the endzone the play was called back on an illegal blindside block by Aiyuk ─ a play he admitted he made a mistake on that ended with ASU settling for a field goal.

“That’s just bad football,” Aiyuk stated. “I was going on the lane and I let the game get to me. It was a bad play when the touchdown got called back. It was a horrible feeling, but just a bad play. I need to play better football on my part.”

Daniels led the offense on its fourth straight scoring drive in route to another field goal behind a pass to Aiyuk which accounted for 52 of his 304 total passing yards in the game.

Following the catch, the Sun Devils ran Benjamin for three straight losses of negative one yard each play leading to Zendejas’ fourth and final field goal of the game to put ASU ahead 12-0.

Despite his key pass to Aiyuk that led to the fourth field goal, Daniels admitted there was more he could have done as he finished 17 for 27 on the night along with seven rushes for 25 yards.

“We got complacent,” Daniels admitted. “Not playing how we really could play, to the standard we set. Coach Herm talked all week about how we have to set the tone and we didn’t really do that as an offense. I didn’t do that myself. The receivers did their job for the most part. I didn’t do my part.”

Sacramento State made the game close midway through the fourth as they drove over 70 yards in just under three minutes to put the game well within reach.

The drive benefitted by a pass interference call on third down on cornerback Kobe Williams leading to a first down for the Hornets.

Following the flag, a 40-yard pass downfield and a touchdown pass from Kevin Thomson to Tao McClinton two plays later drew the game to 12-7 with 6:20 remaining.

“You can’t give up a seven-play, 72-yard drive in the fourth quarter and give them hope,” Gonzales said. “You’ve got to bury them at that point. We’re learning how to do that. We’re not there yet.”

Despite allowing the Hornets to draw the game within a score, ASU effectively put the game out of reach with a 72-yard touchdown to Benjamin on a short pass from Daniels with 4:42 left in the game. Cam Phillips would secure an interception on the ensuing Sacramento State drive to seal the game.

With the first two games of the season out of the way, Arizona State will now turn their focus to next weeks matchup against No. 19 Michigan State, just one year after upsetting them in Tempe.

One of the biggest keys in the upset was due to timely turnovers caused by ASU a year ago, a trend that Edwards knows will be key once again in the rematch.

“They’re a powerful group, especially defensively,” Edwards admitted of MSU. “Quarterback is coming back and he’s a good football player. It was a close game last year, and the turnovers really spoiled it for them. They were in our territory twice and we got two turnovers.”

ASU will travel for the matchup for their first road match of the season as they take on Michigan State on Saturday in East Lansing.