Portland State is just a few seconds from being deep in the hunt of the Big Sky Conference title. Instead they are pretty much out of the race.

That's because just one week after allowing a game-tying touchdown on the last play of the game and losing in overtime, the Vikings blew a 10-point lead when Northern Arizona kicker Paul Ernster booted a 47-yard field goal with 12 seconds to play. The kick resulted in a 21-20 loss to the Lumberjacks.

Instead of a 3-1 league mark the Vikings sit at 1-3 with Montana and Montana State at 3-0, Eastern Washington at 4-1 and NAU at 3-1. There's little hope for PSU now.

It all started to unravel this week when PSU quarterback Joe Wiser was forced out of the end zone by a gang of NAU defenders including Vince Henmen of Laurel, Mont. The safety made the count 20-12 with seven minutes to play and the Lumberjacks promptly went 60 yards with the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to cut the lead to 20-18.

"This is exactly what we needed to get going, to get our team going," Henmen told the Arizona Daily Sun. "We've got three more conference games. We are going to take this win into next week and hopefully do the same thing."

The Lumberjacks take on Montana State next week in Flagstaff while PSU hosts Montana (6-1, 3-0). Eastern Washington will take on Sacramento State in Cheyny and Weber State is at Idaho State.

The Bobcats (5-2, 3-0) weren't far behind the Axers in the thrilling finish department. Except that MSU blew all of a 14-point lead before moving 68 yards in just 49 seconds to set up a game-winning 22-yard field goal by E. J. Cochrane — his second game-winner in three weeks.

MSU was tied at halftime with South Dakota State, but seemed to take control in the second half after a pair of Travis Lulay touchdown passes gave the Bobcats a 24-10 lead. The Jackrabbits (4-3) scored what appeared to be a meaningless TD with 1:12 to go to cut the lead to seven, but they recovered an on-side kick and scored on their second play to tie the game at 24-24.

Lulay would connect on four straight passes before centering the ball in front of the goal post for Cochrane.

Eastern Washington (5-3, 4-1) bounced back from a heartbreaking loss to Montana a week ago with a resounding 51-7 whitewashing of hapless Weber State (0-8, 0-5). The Eagles scored on an interception return, blocked punt return and punt return. They were without their top two running backs, but third stringer Dezmon Cole ran 18 times for a whopping 199 yards in their stead. Fourth stringer Toke Kefu ran for 89 yards on 12 carries. Both had two touchdowns.

Gunslinger Erik Meyer played minimally and threw just seven passes.

"(The mistakes) can snowball for a young team when the offense struggles. The defense gets worn out," a sympathetic EWU coach Paul Wulff told the Deseret News.

Usually when a team forces six turnovers it comes out on the winning end. Not Sacramento State.

The Hornets (2-5, 1-3) lost to Idaho State 29-24 by offsetting those takeaways with four turnovers of their own. They were also sacked five times, converted only 2 of 14 third down situations, committed eleven penalties and had only 37 net rushing yards in 29 attempts.

ISU (2-5, 1-3) wasn't much better as the Bengals committed 14 penalties, were sacked five times and had just 58 yards on 40 carries.

"I thought it was like Christmas out there with the way we were giving them gifts," Sacramento State coach Steve Mooshagian told the Sacramento Bee. "I thought we were the better team today, but the better team doesn't always win."